Spicer Off-Highway Products Division-Brugge Improves its Lead-Time and Scheduling Performance

Spicer Off-Highway Products Division (a division of Dana Corporation) asked us to develop OR tools to improve the due date performance and to shorten the manufacturing lead time of its powershift transmission plant in Brugge, Belgium. We modeled the manufacturing system as a queueing model and used the model to analyze and evaluate improvement schemes (layout changes, product-mix decisions, lot-sizing decisions, and lead-time estimations). Next, we developed a finite scheduler to improve the detailed scheduling of the shop. Our modeling effort contributed to the successful combination of analysis, planning, and detailed scheduling. The plant increased productivity by 27.3 percentage points, decreased manufacturing lead times by a factor of two to three, increased its workforce by 41 percent, and decreased its operating costs. The division is now profitable.