Lean manufacturing implementation through value stream mapping: a case study

Abstract

Lean Manufacturing (LM) is a business strategy that was developed in Japan. The main contribution of lean manufacturing is the identification and elimination of waste. Companies apply LM to sustain their competitiveness over their competitors by improving the manufacturing system’s productivity and quality enhancement of the product. The goal of this paper is to apply one of the most significant lean manufacturing techniques called Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to improve the production line of a company that produces several components for vehicle assembly line by decreasing the waste and non-value added activities. First, the current value stream map of production line was developed using personal interviews, observations and secondary data of the company. Subsequently, the future value stream map was proposed based on the lean manufacturing principles to improve total production lead time and value added time. Based on the final result it can be concluded that VSM is a useful and applicable approach that can help managers conceptualize the different kind of wastes and defects. Final result showed that the production lead time and value added time improved up to nearly 80 % and 12 % respectively by eliminating the wastes based on lean principles and VMS method