Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology
H.E. Bothe Improving the Customer Supply of Inks for the Packaging Industry. Masters thesis, Report 2005.TL.6921, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
This thesis involves the Liquid Packaging Division of the company Flint-Schmidt and produces inks for the packaging industry. The main production site for solvent-based inks is situated in Frankfurt, Germany. The assignment for this thesis is to improve the delivery reliability to customers. A model has to be developed for the transport from the production sites to the customers. Applying this model on the Liquid Packaging Division should improve the delivery reliability and give insight in delivery times and production requirements/ planning.
First an analysis is done to investigate the current IST situation. The processes in the Liquid Packaging Division are analysed on three aggregation levels. Then the network arrangement is given and an analysis is done on the customer demands and transport costs. Finally the processes are analysed by using three Value Stream Mapping tools.
From the analysis is concluded that there is insufficient communication between the departments and insufficient insight in available capacities due to a lack of production planning. Secondly is concluded that a lot of small quantities are delivered and high transport costs are made. Only 6.5% of the customers are responsible for 80% of the total delivered weight. The service defect rate of the site in Frankfurt is 25% that is caused for 20% by too late delivery and in 6% of the cases by not or partly produced positions.
The problem statement is redefined and an approach is given for the developed 'Liquid Packaging Delivery' model with the objectives based on the conclusions. Boundary conditions are given for the model as well as definitions of the processes in the model. Finally Key Performance Indicators are defined to measure the performance of the model.
A simulation is made of the LPDD model based on the simulation concept written in a so-called Process Description Language. The application is verified but validation is not possible because the model differs too much from the current situation.
Three types of experiments are done: 1. Start-up behaviour
2. Variance of results
3. Measuring different situations
Experiments on the start-up behaviour show that a steady state situation is reached at the date 01/02/04. The experiments are therefore measured from this date on.
The variance of the results 0.3% and the chosen seed does therefore not influence the results.
The experiments show that an increase of 15% of the delivery reliability can be expected when applying the developed model on the LPD. The delivery reliability can be improved in two way:
1. Increasing the blend capacity with one machine to a total of five machines and by using two shifts. 2. Remain a blend capacity of four machines and increase the number of shifts to three.
The results can only be reached with an Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of at least 75%. Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
