IMPROVING THE RAW MATERIAL MANAGEMENT PROCESS USING SELECTED LEAN TOOLS

Through process management and selected lean tools, it is created the methodology for raw material management improvement in the production process of the factory which produces high-tech products for the international market. It is explicated the way of process project implementation by process methodology with all phases of the living cycle and with selected lean tools (cause-effect diagram, A3). In this way, it is solved otherwise “difficult to solve” problem of suboptimal raw material management and radical productivity improvement by means of bottleneck removal. It is offered a process-project methodology for production improvement which can be used in all high-tech factories and deals with the raw material management and production optimization problem. In an empirical way there are solved three research problems and are confirmed consistent hypotheses: a) in the existing process of raw material management in the factory are found significant suboptimality and their causal factors were discovered; b) the process is redesigned by the state analysis and by lean tools in order to improve the productivity of the production line; c) by strictly adhering the work process according to new (redesigned) process model in the implementation and monitoring phase by means of indicators it is achieved the process stability (during tree month implementation phase). By raw material management optimization, it is enabled the almost perfect operation of the line without bottlenecks and downtime. Empirically researched and in practice confirmed method of process improvement in the field of suboptimal raw material management which serve the production line, is a signpost for all high-tech production companies that face the same or similar optimization problems.