27-12-2012, 03:01 PM
CASE STUDY: VOLVO
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INTRODUCTION
Volvo is a Swedish multinational which manufactures cars and trucks. Sunwind is one of its suppliers, which supplies floor panels for the for the station wagon models of volvo’s 240 and 740 series of cars to volvo’s Torslanda plant in Sweden. Sunwind is a company of some 200 employees, and its product range consists of different interior fittings for the automobile and aeroplane industries. Volvo has been one of Sunwind’s main customers since the start.
In the early 1950s, Volvo had severe problems with the quality of the floor panels in their station wagon model Volvo Deuett. One of Volvo’s employees knew two guitar craftsmen who had their workshop located in the vicinity of Volvo’s Torslanda plant. These craftsmen were able to solve Volvo’s problems with the help of a different milling technique and a couple of other process improvements. Volvo invited them to continue the relationship, and provided capital to the two entrepreneurs, who left the music business to join the automobile industry. Thus Sunwind was born.
At Sunwind’s Save plant, some 100 Km from Torslanda, the production rate is 2,000 floor panels per week for the 740 series and 1,000 for the 240 series. The assembly of panels is done in two assembly lines, one for each model. The panels are produced in eight different variants per line (two different covering materials in four colours). The role of Sunwind was like a subcontractor, as Volvo developed the prototypes and supplied the tools and raw materials to Sunwind. The completed floors were delivered to Volvo in different containers, each part in its own container. The product being bulky and colour-dependent, a large storage space, both adjacent to the assembly line at Volvo as well as in Sunwind’s own operations, was required. Volvo bought and collected the goods from the Save factory twice a week.
In order to gain cost benefit for both the parties, Volvo and Sunwind initiated a JIT-like delivery schedule. The role of Sunwind has changed into being more of a partner than a subcontractor with an increased responsibility for the development and manufacture of their products to meet Volvo’s specifications. The floors are now being delivered from Sunwind in sequence with the demand of the final assembly line of Volvo and transported in custom-built containers in Sunwind’s own trucks, which are unloaded less than 100 yards from the assembly point. Each container holds the complete set of floors for eight vehicles, stacked on one another in the same sequence as the vehicles that arrive at the assembly in Torslanda, where the floors are assembled into the cars.