Improving materials management in electronics manufacturing

The aim of this thesis is to determine how in-plant materials management in electronics manufacturing can be improved and to show how a strategy for improvement can be developed for Celestica Limited's Kidsgrove plant. The literature was reviewed to bring out the current issues and topics of interest in materials management. An industrial analysis, through company visits and case studies, was carried out. A number of "best practices" were identified from the literature and the case studies. The "best practices" identified were prioritisation methods, outsourcing of value added services, shop floor control systems, focused stores, tailored logistics, use of computers, trace ability, use of technology or automation, automatic identification, maintaining data integrity, internet-enabled supply-chain, JIT or hybridised JIT-MRP, Kanban, linking and communication of MPS's, application of technology, kitting and recording actual usage of material. [Continues.]