Analysis and diagnosis of a hand tools production system

Engineers must have a set of professional competences, which includes sound technical knowledge and the ability to solve engineering problems, integrated with a set of transversal competences, which must mobilized for managing projects, working in teams and communicate with the others effectively. The development of these sets of competences can be supported by projects in interaction with companies. This article reports the work developed by a group of students on the Integrated Project of the 4 year of Industrial Engineering and Management of the University of Minho. The main objective of this work is to describe the type of project that a group of students can develop in interaction with an industrial company, and reflect about the main results that this project have for the development of their competences and for the company. This is a descriptive paper based upon on reports and the experience of the students. The target of the project was the diagnosis and analysis of a production system in an industrial environment. The company chosen to develop this project is a multinational and pioneer company on the manufacturing of hand tools. The content of this article will mainly cover the internal supplier of materials (Mizusumashi), namely the standardization of the Mizusumashi route and the improvement of the components` warehouse (materials organization and visual management). The suggested modifications can result in a 30% decrease of the time wasted in the warehouse, a 20% decrease of the time it takes the Mizusumashi to complete a full route, reaching the 45 minutes the company requested. The students were able to fulfil the project milestones and integrate the company culture in their weekly visits, during the 15 weeks of the project. Furthermore, the company showed to be very satisfied with their behaviour and performance.