Case study of NPI process improvement for SME EMS company
Okkonen, Janne (2013)
2013
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023110628676
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023110628676
Tiivistelmä
This thesis work is a case study of challenges in the New Product Introduction (NPI) work phase in the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) company, which provides Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) to Research and Development (R&D) companies in Finland.
This thesis provides an answer for the question received from the case study company (CS Company) management: “what challenges these current unspecified methods cause and how they can be avoided”. The CS Company management also asked this work to provide the clear process specification for the NPI round.
An empirical study of the current NPI process and its effects on the stakeholders was performed through one-to-one discussions with the CS Company owner-managers and some of the key employees. The CS Company process descriptions and documentation were evaluated, and the results formed the qualitative base, from where the in-depth understanding of the process state could be determined. The data was analysed through the Toyota Way methodology, from where the reasons and the causes for the problems were found. The analysis was supported by the psychological behaviour articles found through the literature study.
This study showed that the deviations in the processes caused time loss, irritation and demotivation for all the stakeholders in the CS Company. As a consequence, these negative emotions reduced the work results, and caused more lost time in the CS Company. The focus should be placed on the process improvement as a corrective action, and the possibility to diverse the employees’ work content should be investigated. The improved NPI process which was developed for the CS Company will remove the identified process related deviations and help the stakeholders save time in their tasks.
This study showed that the process improvements are crucial for the SME. If the processes are not regularly checked and updated, the process description may become useless. Processes tend to take more time from the stakeholders and at the end they cause a loss of time for the SME. Even if the process improving takes time and costs money to the CS Company, it is cheaper at the end than the choice to not develop the processes and continue with the status-quo thinking.
This thesis provides an answer for the question received from the case study company (CS Company) management: “what challenges these current unspecified methods cause and how they can be avoided”. The CS Company management also asked this work to provide the clear process specification for the NPI round.
An empirical study of the current NPI process and its effects on the stakeholders was performed through one-to-one discussions with the CS Company owner-managers and some of the key employees. The CS Company process descriptions and documentation were evaluated, and the results formed the qualitative base, from where the in-depth understanding of the process state could be determined. The data was analysed through the Toyota Way methodology, from where the reasons and the causes for the problems were found. The analysis was supported by the psychological behaviour articles found through the literature study.
This study showed that the deviations in the processes caused time loss, irritation and demotivation for all the stakeholders in the CS Company. As a consequence, these negative emotions reduced the work results, and caused more lost time in the CS Company. The focus should be placed on the process improvement as a corrective action, and the possibility to diverse the employees’ work content should be investigated. The improved NPI process which was developed for the CS Company will remove the identified process related deviations and help the stakeholders save time in their tasks.
This study showed that the process improvements are crucial for the SME. If the processes are not regularly checked and updated, the process description may become useless. Processes tend to take more time from the stakeholders and at the end they cause a loss of time for the SME. Even if the process improving takes time and costs money to the CS Company, it is cheaper at the end than the choice to not develop the processes and continue with the status-quo thinking.