Design and implementation of a continuous improvement framework for an organic photovoltaic panels manufacturer

The MIT MEng Team worked at Konarka Technologies, the world leader organic photovoltaic panels (OPV) manufacturer, on several improvement projects. The concentration was on operations improvement as well as production information tracking and analysis. This thesis report, however, focuses primarily on the implementation of a continuous improvement culture. Tools to implement the SS methodology, such as 5S Audit, Kaizen board and Kanban board, were provided, and operators were trained. A layout improvement solution was developed, and a plan for implementation recommended. The new layout was designed to increase visual control of the processes and to reduce movement of material by 85%. Each phase of the project went through review and discussion to encourage operator involvement in order to develop a continuous improvement culture.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Colaci, Gregorio

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David E. Hardt.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69484

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/69484