Operations Improvement at Organic Photovoltaic Panel Manufacturer

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology MEng Team 2011 collaborated with the world leader manufacturer of organic photovoltaic panels (OPV). The projects focused on operations improvement as well as production information tracking and analysis. The topic of this report is primarily the implementation of continuous improvement tools such us 5S methodology, Kanban board and Kaizen events. Tools were provided and operators trained for their utilization. As a result of the Kaizen event, 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 was reviewed and discussed with the operators to actively encourage an autonomous development of a continuous improvement culture.