The goal of the project at hand is to standardize the settlement process of
Separators and their accompanying components inside the company of GEA Westfalia
Separator GmbH. The process of standardization focuses on the companies GSE line
of Separators. This kind of Separator is used worldwide in the beverage industry
to clear up liquids.
In the beginning of the project there is an analysis of the current process of
handling GSE orders inside the company. This analysis shows that currently six
different departments, with different fields of expertise, are involved in the
process of handling an order and that the process time for each order is
approximately 82 hours on average.
The next step is to work up different ideas to optimize the process as a whole.
This firstly includes the choosing of a more efficient program for handling the
orders, because the current multitude of programs is not fit for a standardized
working environment. This is in part due to a lack of compatibility and the
time-consuming nature of these programs. Another way of optimizing is to cut
down on the number of involved departments to further reduce cost and process
time. A reducing of the number of variants of the GSE Separators also is one of
the original ideas, especially to reduce the time needed in the specification of
each order.
In arrangement with the company follows the execution of the different worked up
ideas. Firstly, the introduction of a new program for handling and execution of
orders. The program Custom X proofs itself to be compatible with all other
necessary programs during the handling process and has the great advantage of
being able to configurate a whole order after customer specifications on its
own, after the necessary background information is put into the base of the
system. The choice of this program leads to the discarding of the idea of
reducing the number of variants, as with Custom X there is no extra effort
through a large number of variants and the program needs every single possible
alternative to serve its purpose of ensuring great customer service.
By introducing this new handling program, it is now possible to shorten the
process time of an order through cutting down on involved departments. This is
possible because single steps, e.g. drawing of layouts etc., is no longer needed
because Custom X automatically generated them in parallel with the
configuration. The process time is also shortened by shaving of 19 days out of
the entire process by removing unnecessary buffer times.
By execution of these measures the process of handling an order is being
standardized. The result is a reduction of 13,25 hours of work per order.
With an average number of 50 GSE Separators ordered per year and operating
expenses of around 500 hours for implementing all the technical data of the GSE
line into Custom X, an amortization time of 38 orders is calculated for the
standardization process.