Application of lean manufacturing using value stream mapping in an auto‐parts manufacturing unit

Towards smart sustainable development through value stream mapping - a systematic literature review

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a standard Lean tool for identifying and reducing waste. It is used to create value and improve the performance of any industry. The value of the VSM has greatly expanded from conventional to smart over time; hence, researchers and practitioners in this sector are paying more emphasis. Comprehensive review research is needed to understand VSM-based smart, sustainable development from a triple-bottom-line perspective. The primary goal of this research is to look at various insights from the historical literature that can help with the adoption of smart, sustainable development through VSM. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) with a fifteen-year time range (2008-2022) is being considered to study various insights and gaps in value stream mapping. Analysis of the significant outcomes presents an eight-point study agenda: year, national context, research method, sector, wastes, VSM type, applied tools, and analysis indicators. The critical finding implies that empirical qualitative research dominates the research sector. Effective VSM implementation requires balancing the three sustainable dimensions of economic, environmental, and social through digitalization. The circular economy should also bolster research on the intersection of sustainability applications and new digital paradigms such as industry revolution 4.0.

Recent Progression Developments on Process Optimization Approach for Inherent Issues in Production Shop Floor Management for Industry 4.0

In the present industry revolution, operations management teams emphasize implementing an efficient process optimization approach with a suitable strategy for achieving operational excellence on the shop floor. Process optimization is used to enhance productivity by eliminating idle activities and non-value-added activities within limited constraints. Various process optimization approaches are used in operations management on the shop floor, including lean manufacturing, smart manufacturing, kaizen, six sigma, total quality management, and computational intelligence. The present study investigates strategies used to implement the process optimization approach provided in the previous research to eliminate problems encountered in shop floor management. Furthermore, the authors suggest an idea to industry individuals, which is to understand the operational conditions faced in shop floor management. The novelty of the present study lies in the fact that a methodology for implementing a process optimization approach with an efficient strategy has been reported for the first time that eliminates problems faced in shop floor management, including industry 4.0. The authors of the present research strongly believe that this research will help researchers and operations management teams select an appropriate strategy and process optimization approach to improve operational performance on the shop floor within limited constraints.

A Sustainable Productive Method for Enhancing Operational Excellence in Shop Floor Management for Industry 4.0 Using Hybrid Integration of Lean and Smart Manufacturing: An Ingenious Case Study

In industry 4.0, industry individuals implement lean and smart manufacturing to improve shop floor management systems. Shop floor management is used to control operational performance and enhance production within limited constraints. Various shop floor management approaches are used in the present scenario of industry 4.0, and mainly include value stream mapping, total productive maintenance, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and fuzzy logic. The present research aims to develop an open innovation method to achieve sustainability in shop floor management systems in industry 4.0 by using lean and smart manufacturing concepts. The proposed method has been validated by an enhancement obtained in a real case of the shop floor management system in industry 4.0. The authors are confident that the proposed method would provide sustainability in the shop floor management system within limited constraints in industry 4.0.

Leanness assessment of a complex assembly line using integrated value stream mapping: a case study

Purpose

This paper proposes an integrated value stream mapping (VSM) for a complex assembly line to improve the leanness of a complex automotive component manufacturing organization.

Design/methodology/approach

This study depicts the application of VSM at the case organization, where top management is concerned about the challenges of higher cycle time and lower productivity. Gemba walks were conducted to establish the concept of “walk the flow, create the flow” along the assembly line. The multi-hierarchical cross-functional team developed the current value stream map to know the “as-is” state. Then, the team analysed the current VSM and proposed the future VSM for the “to-be” state.

Findings

The integrated VSM shows different processes and work cells, various wastes, non-value-added activities, cycle time, uptime and the material and information flows for both products of the assembly line on the same map. The integrated VSM reduced cycle time, non-value-added activities, work in process inventory and improved line efficiency and production per labour hour for both the products, simultaneously.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of the study is that the study focussed only on the application of VSM for one complex assembly only. Future research may be conducted using the developed integrated VSM approach in other complex production environments.

Practical implications

Managers can identify and reduce system waste by incorporating the concept of integrated VSM in a complex production or assembly environment where two or more products are being manufactured/assembled with low similarity.

Originality/value

The application of VSM for assembly lines is highly challenging because of merging flows, a large number of child parts in the lines and assembly of more than one product on the same line.

A Sustainable Methodology Using Lean and Smart Manufacturing for the Cleaner Production of Shop Floor Management in Industry 4.0

The production management system in Industry 4.0 is emphasizes the improvement of productivity within limited constraints by sustainable production planning models. To accomplish this, several approaches are used which include lean manufacturing, kaizen, smart manufacturing, flexible manufacturing systems, cyber–physical systems, artificial intelligence, and the industrial Internet of Things in the present scenario. These approaches are used for operations management in industries, and specifically productivity maximization with cleaner shop floor environmental management, and issues such as worker safety and product quality. The present research aimed to develop a methodology for cleaner production management using lean and smart manufacturing in industry 4.0. The developed methodology would able to enhance productivity within restricted resources in the production system. The developed methodology was validated by production enhancement achieved in two case study investigations within the automobile manufacturing industry and a mining machinery assembly unit. The results reveal that the developed methodology could provide a sustainable production system and problem-solving that are key to controlling production shop floor management in the context of industry 4.0. It is also capable of enhancing the productivity level within limited constraints. The novelty of the present research lies in the fact that this type of methodology, which has been developed for the first time, helps the industry individual to enhance production in Industry 4.0 within confined assets by the elimination of several problems encountered in shop floor management. Therefore, the authors of the present study strongly believe that the developed methodology would be beneficial for industry individuals to enhance shop floor management within constraints in industry 4.0.

An Agile System to Enhance Productivity through a Modified Value Stream Mapping Approach in Industry 4.0: A Novel Approach

Worldwide, industries are emphasizing the development of an agile system to sustain higher productivity, which can be applied to ensure improvements in all production conditions in industry 4.0. In the present scenario, several methods are used for improvements in production, such as value stream mapping, kaizen, just in time, Kanban, and total productive maintenance, etc., The objective of the present research article is to produce an agile system to sustain improvements in productivity through a methodology coupled with value stream mapping in industry 4.0. Value stream mapping is a lean-based method and is used for the maximization of productivity by the elimination of non-value-added activities. The proposed methodology has been validated by productivity enhancements achieved in a case study of the earthmoving machinery manufacturing sector. The study establishes that the proposed methodology would encourage industry personnel during decision-making processes, which would lead to improvements in production in industry 4.0.

Manufacturing excellence using lean systems – a case of an automotive aggregate manufacturing plant in India

Purpose

The paper aims at fulfilling two purposes: (1) to enrich young production shop floor managers to understand and appreciate the different dimensions of manufacturing excellence and (2) to provide a comprehensive industry-based case study to a faculty involved in the teaching-learning process of Lean systems to the Business school management students.

Design/methodology/approach

Imparting learnings through a real-life case study from a manufacturing industry, which successfully doubled its delivery capacity using the project management and Lean systems approach. Value flow techniques have been utilised in the production shop floor.

Findings

Effective implementation of lean thinking can significantly facilitate enhancing plant capacity within the original shop floor area and without hindering the delivery to the customers with growing demand. Outcomes of the plant transformation re-emphasised that effective leadership, a well-constituted project team, project management tools, applied knowledge of lean enablers and its metrics and management's engagement are the critical success factors.

Research limitations/implications

The case has been automotive industry driven.

Practical implications

This real life industry case study is expected to enrich not only the management graduates who would be industry leaders tomorrow but also the practising young shop floor managers who aspire to achieve manufacturing excellence through lean enablers and metrics.

Originality/value

Useful real-life industry-based Lean manufacturing case study to be utilised by the business school faculty members in their class to enrich students/young practising managers.

An application of value stream mapping in auto-ancillary industry: a case study

Purpose

Lean manufacturing (LM) plays a major role in eliminating wastes (activities/resources) in a manufacturing organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the critical tools in LM which will help in identifying wastes in materials and information flow in a specific product family. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the significance of VSM in the auto-ancillary industry in enhancing the productivity and the quality.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study approach is followed to demonstrate the significance of VSM in identifying various wastes in the auto-ancillary industry. The study has been performed by implementing seven critical steps. A product family is identified based on the customer demand and a cross functional team with specialized experts was formed. The overall processes with sequence are mapped using process flowchart. A cross functional team has been formed to develop the current state of VSM and perform a critical analysis to identify shortcomings. An investigation was performed to overcome the existing shortcomings by identifying opportunities. The relevant kaizens to improve the current state have been proposed. The cross functional team of experts have performed a feasibility study on implementation of proposed kaizens. Finally, a future state of VSM after implementation of feasible kaizens has been reported.

Findings

The results show that future state of VSM brings out the positive impact with respect to process ratio, TAKT time, process inventory level, total lead time and bottleneck time. The proposed improvement also helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery.

Research limitations/implications

Present study is focussed on a single product family cell in one of the auto-component organization.

Originality/value

Helps practitioners in the auto-component industry to implement the VSM effectively in their organization.

Implementation of Lean Manufacturing to Reduce the Delivery Time of a Replacement Part to Dealers: A Case Study

In today’s automotive industry, Lean production systems are used successfully to reduce delivery times. The current case study addresses a problem that affects an automotive company, which is the excessive delivery time of a spare part to its both national and international authorized dealers. In order to reduce the delivery time of this replacement part, the Lean Manufacturing methodology was used. For this purpose, the value stream mapping and the proposed A3 report are the tools used. With the use of these tools, activities that did not add any value are eliminated or modified; in addition, the logistical flow of the modules of the door-side trim panel delivery process is improved. As a result, added value is increased, the delivery time is reduced (for Mexico) and the number of product variants is reduced. Now, the painting process is done by the authorized dealers, and the number of pieces used for every spare part was estimated. The study demonstrates that the integration of value stream mapping administrative/productive in conjunction with the A3 report proposal allows to identify and eliminate waste in the delivery process.

A framework for VSM integrated with Fuzzy QFD

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to apply a framework for value stream mapping (VSM) integrated with fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) for enabling scientific prioritization of improvement proposals to improve leanness.

Design/methodology/approach

– The literature was reviewed from the perspectives of VSM, QFD and fuzzy logic applications. The current state map was developed for the case component; fuzzy QFD was used for prioritizing improvement proposals and prioritized proposals were incorporated in the future state map.

Findings

– The approach enabled the scientific mapping of wastes with improvement proposals and thereby enabling systematic implementation of improvement proposals. The conducted pilot study resulted in 4 percent reduction in cycle time. As the lean implementation is a continuous process, furthermore improvements are expected in near future.

Research limitations/implications

– The study was conducted in an Indian camshaft manufacturing organization. The improvements in terms of leanness parameters were quantified.

Practical implications

– The findings determined from the study has practical relevance. Besides, managerial implications were also discussed.

Originality/value

– The study presented in this paper was conducted in a real time manufacturing environment. Hence the contributions of study are found to be valuable among academic and practicing communities.

Partial and iterative Lean implementation: two case studies

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of lean within two contrasting UK-based organizations; a food manufacturer and a healthcare organization. The different contexts provide insight to the strategic desire for efficiency gains and tactical issues and challenges of lean execution and implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

– The research questions developed from the review of the literature were tested using evidence from field-based, action research within a food manufacturer and a National Health Service organization. The reported contrasting case studies contribute to the longer term debate on the adoption and adaptation of lean-based “best practice” within organizations.

Findings

– There are three primary findings: first, that the adoption of lean provides a strategic benefit, as well as providing a basis for a strategy of operational change; second, that partial, as opposed to full, adoption of lean occurs due to external organizational constraints, such as demand patterns, supplier unreliability, little expertise in deploying change programmes, etc.; and third, that a company will balance the adoption of the lean ideology against the financial costs and operational risks incurred in full adoption.

Practical implications

– The conclusions drawn add substantially to the ongoing commentaries on aspects of lean, and develop interesting questions for future research regards the developed “Cycles of Lean Implementation” concept.

Originality/value

– The conclusion proposes that partial implementation of the lean philosophy does not necessarily represent a conscious organizational choice, or any lack of conviction, but is representative of external constraints on the organization. This complements previous commentaries on appropriate strategies and develops interesting questions for future research into operational efficiency.