Design of a Lean MRO Business Process for EPCOR

Lean Manufacturing originally derived from the Toyo ta Production system (TPS) has been developed and researched starting in the fifties of the last century within the automotive industry. In the meanwhil e other sectors of industry like the aerospace industry have shown int erest in this methodology to improve production pro cesses. This research is projected on the Aviation MRO processes of the company EPOCR B.V. in the Netherlands which stands for European Pneumatic Component Overhaul and Repai r. Core of the management problem within EPCOR is the variability of the input of valves to the repair processes which causes unpredictability of the output leading to unsatisfactory low customer service level of 35 %. Within the process there is hidden a lot of waste which should be identified to redesign the repair processes. Wa ste can be identified as producing value before there is deman d to value, holding more inventory than absolutely necessary and delays that interrupt the flow. The current business processes of valves repair is very inefficient and has to be redesigned according to the lean theory to improve customer satisfaction. After redesigning the processes by applying lea the ory and lean Six Sigma the performance could be imp roved significantly.