Company: Royal Grolsch N.V.
Student: Haico Stegink (Master Mechanical Engineering)
University mentor: Dr. Ir. R.J.I.Basten
Background
Royal Grolsch N.V. is a medium sized beer brewery located in Enschede, The Netherlands. Since 2008, Grolsch is part of the SAB Miller group, the second biggest beer brewer in the world.
This graduation assignment is carried out at the department of asset care (or maintenance engineering). This department is responsible for maintaining Grolsch’ equipment (about 1,200 machines). The main subject for this assignment, is to improve the control/management of the spare parts warehouse. For inventories containing more than 10,000 different types of parts it is not practical to manage them item wise. A common solution is the division of parts over several classes, and to manage inventories by class rather than by item.
Assignment description
To be able to assign items to a certain class, some kind of methodology needs to be applied. This research aims for the development of a classification method which suits the maintenance organization of Grolsch. For each class, a specific stocking policy will be developed. The method will used as a foundation for further optimization of the spare parts inventory of Grolsch.
Research activities
- Researching existing classification methods for inventory control
- Developing a theoretical classification method for spare part inventory control
- Investigating the gaps between what is theoretically desirable and practically possible
- Develop solutions to bridge the gaps in order to be able to apply the suggested classification method at Grolsch