Sistemi ibridi di programmazione e controllo della produzione: verso un’applicazione della lean manufacturing al settore Make-To-Order

In the last decades, an ever-growing attention has been paid to the concept of lean production, both in the US and in Europe: lean has become the standard manufacturing paradigm, despite the competition of other production philosophies, such as World Class Manufacturing or 6σ. Goal of this thesis is to investigate the origins and the current definition of lean, by identifying advantages and disadvantages of the concept and proposing some solutions that aim to overcome these limits. Firstly, VSM is recognized as the main tool for implementing lean manufacturing. Unfortunately, this technique always leads to the implementation of two Production Planning and Control (PPC) systems (i.e. kanban and CONWIP). This thesis presents some enhancements of the standard VSM tool that support the implementation of hybrid PPC systems. Furthermore, some practical implementations of lean are proposed and carried out in particular production environments, by reporting steps and complexities of 3 research projects developed with different firms.