Saint-Gobain Abrasives, situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, is renowned for delivering advanced abrasive solutions across many markets. Saint-Gobain’s bond plant specializes in producing intricate abrasives and bonds for standard and customer-modified grinding wheels worldwide. Our partnership allowed us to provide engineering-driven insights and solutions to the bond plant through meticulous observation and analysis with Saint-Gobain's personnel. The primary objective of this project was to enhance the operational efficiency of the bond plant and ultimately ensure the timely delivery of finished bonds to clients. The rationale for this project is to optimize the production process by streamlining workflows and improving Saint-Gobain’s strong market position. To meet this overarching objective, we narrowed the scope of the project into multiple achievable parts. First, we comprehensively assessed the production process, using value stream mapping techniques to identify and quantify the characteristics of various process steps as well as the bottlenecks within them. Secondly, we focused on optimizing physical workspace organization by utilizing the principles of the 5S methods. On top of this, our efforts were directed towards physically documenting the primary steps in the bond creation process to act as a guide for those unfamiliar with the process. Lastly, we completed a Time Value of Money (TVM) analysis to better understand how our efforts would yield returns. The conclusions were a projected decrease in non-value-added time, increased workspace organization and capacity, and a documented and streamlined process for Saint-Gobain to use in the future. Our TVM analysis projected an approximate 10% return rate within the initial year. A 5s process improvement can often yield an elevated rate of return relative to a small investment in equipment and labor.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Biberon, Ryan
• Lufkin, Andrew
• MacDonald, Stephen
• Orlandi, Giancarlo

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-040324-101454
• 120660

Keyword

• Time Value of Money
• 5S Principles
• Process Improvement
• Value Stream Mapping
• Suh's Axiomatic Design

Advisor

• Towner, Walter Thomas

Year

• 2024

Sponsor

• Saint-Gobain Abrasives (Norton Abrasives)

Date created

• 2024-04-03

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Management Engineering

Source

• E-project-040324-101454

Rights statement

• In Copyright