Spicer Off-Highway Products Division - Brugge - improves its lead time and scheduling performance

Spicer Off-Highway Products Division (a division of Dana Corporation) asked us to develop OR tools to improve the due date performance and to shorten the manufacturing lead time of its powershift transmission plant in Brugge, Belgium. We modelled the manufacturing system as a queueing model, and used the model to analyze and evaluate improvement schemes (layout changes, product-mix decisions, lot-sizing decisions, and lead time estimations). Next, we developed a finite scheduler to improve the detailed scheduling of the shop. Our modelling effort contributed to the successful combination of analysis, planning and detailed scheduling. The plant increased productivity by 27.3 percentage points, decreased manufacturing lead times by a factor two to three, increased its workforce by 41 percent, and decreased its operating costs. The division is now profitable.