Material Flow Optimization

For their Senior Design project, Industrial and Systems Engineering students Valerie Cung, Ash Picione, Kade McTighe, Kara Olander, and Corsten Rylicki partnered with Ergotron to help optimize material flow processes in the company’s Eagan facility. Ergotron is a Minnesota-based company that focuses on ergonomic solutions for customer-forward office innovations.

The ISyE team saw an opportunity to reduce the time that assembly workers spend on tasks away from the assembly line and to decrease the end-to-end time it takes to produce a product. To achieve these goals, the team focused on optimizing two areas of the material flow process: the manufacturing supermarket and outflow from packaging.

Ergotron’s manufacturing supermarket is a storage system typically used on an assembly line to store parts that are easily and quickly replenishable. To visualize how the flow of the supermarket worked, the team created a flowmap with software platform Miro. The team subsequently suggested that Ergotron employ a Kanban system, which would utilize specialized carts with designated bins to streamline inventory management and the replenishment process. In support of this proposal, the team developed an Excel model to determine how many employees are required to maintain the supermarket. They also suggested applying the 5S principles (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain) to create two potential layouts that reduce clutter and optimize material flow.

In assessing the state of the outflow from the packaging process, the team created a spaghetti diagram to map and document the existing movement and flows of people and products in the warehouse. The team discovered that there were no set steps for the packaging process, and proposed standard work processes that would result in smoother operations and, consequently, increase productivity and performance.

The team also suggested manufacturing automation solutions. This suggestion included researching over 50 Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), narrowing their research to 15 AMRs based on technical capabilities and suitability, and facilitating a decision-making session with Ergotron. Ultimately, two AMRs were selected.

In their Final Report, the team reflected on three lessons they learned from the project. The first was self-guidance, and they state, “Having the freedom to use our knowledge and skills in whatever way we believed would achieve Ergotron’s deliverables let us become much more knowledgeable and confident applying our abilities in a project setting.”

The second was the importance of effective communication. On this, they learned that holding regular meetings helped to ensure that the team and Ergotron maintained a common understanding of the project’s scope and goals. The third was that projects may bring unexpected challenges. “We went into this project anticipating some challenges, but we were still surprised by a few problems that came our way. . . . this project further showed that resilience is an important ability of any project team to effectively complete their work.”