Development of a continuous improvement framework for a small scale steelmaking company

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African steelmaking industry is currently sailing through a turbulent economicperiod characterised with commodity price instability and competition from European andAsian markets. This research study focuses on creating a production cost advantage for alocal steelmaking organisation through the implementation of a continuous improvement(CI) framework. Implementing CI activities focuses on product value creation by systematicidentification and elimination of process waste in the production process on a continuousbasis.Through a systematic literature review on the applications of lean manufacturing in SouthAfrica, the research identified that there was limited application of continuous improvementtechniques in steelmaking sector. The study further investigated the development of theSouth African steel industry and applications of Industrial Engineering (IE) principles to the industry. Findings of this review buttressed the absence of IE systematic research for steelmaking in South Africa.To understand continuous improvement, the student used conceptual framework analysis(CFA), a non-deterministic research tool that provides a method to conceptualise a specificsubject. The identified concepts of continuous improvement are: CI process management,organisational infrastructure and supportive framework, and CI techniques. These threeconcepts were used to construct a CI implementation framework for Unica Iron and SteelCompany in Hammanskraal, Pretoria. The implementation framework consists of a cyclewith six CI process management steps which include process audit, identification of areas ofimprovement, improve, optimise, sustain and review. The framework is based on thefollowing CI techniques: Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System, Six Sigma andTheory of Constraints. To successfully implement CI activities the organisation should haveproper channels of communication between line employees, supervisors and operationalmanagers as organisational infrastructure and supportive framework aspects.To assist in the validation of the CI implementation framework, Technomatix simulationsoftware was used. From the results obtained through simulation, the first improvementcycle revealed 78% improvement in throughput per shift.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University