IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)

e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320–334X

PP 25-29
www.iosrjournals.org
AN APPLICATION OF LEAN MANUFACTURING
PRINCIPLE IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

A.Ramachandran1, Dr. R. Kesavan2

1
(PG student,Department of Production Technology,Madras Institute of Technology Campus,
Anna University, Chrompet,Chennai, india),
2
(Associate Professor,Department of Production Technology ,Madras Institute of Technology Campus,
Anna University, Chrompet, Chennai, india)
ABSTRACT: Nowadays the automotive industry is facing various problems because of changing global
scenario in terms of high quality expectation, reduced cost of production and increased productivity. All the
companies are in the motive to solve these problems through the application of modern techniques. This project
attempts to provide an effective solution for these problems through lean manufacturing techniques. The key
objective of this project is to eliminate the wastes and cost of production and to increase the quality and
productivity through shorter lead time and increased value added activities. This project deals with collection of
the time taken for each processes and the bottleneck operations have been identified and a current state of value
stream map was developed. The suggestions were made by identifying and implementing various improvements
in processes, also to develop the future state value stream map for further improvements to achieve the
objectives of this project.

Keywords-lean, taken time, value stream map, future state map

1. INTRODUCTION
In modern era, the companies are facing stiff competition and pressure to perform competitively. This
new age will be the challenge for the companies to provide, exciting, innovative and cost effective products in
the market. To survive, a company has to offer best prices to its customers with high quality, service and operate
with lowest cost. It is only possible for a company if all of its departments are well managed.

2. BACKGROUND
The major of this project is to analyze the current situation of the company, whether the company using
its manufacturing equipment’s in a proper way to get the competitive advantages? If not, figuring out the main
cause for that and look into the problem exists within the company i.e. lack of availability of resources or poor
quality or lack of performance efficiency,and how these problems influence the company in achieving its goals.
The company cannot compete in the competitive market unless it uses its resources and capabilities to
the maximum extent. The company must work to get rid of the problems to get the competitive advantages with
respect to cost, service, and quality and on time delivery. These issues do not allow the company to achieve its set
goals.

Problem Formulation
 To investigate the current situation of the production of the company.
 To pick up the weakening in the production system those do not allow the company to achieve its full
capacity and meet the set goals.
 To suggest the ways to improve the situation.

3. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
In today’s scenario the automotive suppliers have a great concern over improving quality and delivery
and decreasing cost, which leads to improved system productivity. In order to remain competitive, waste from
the value stream must be identified and eliminated so to run system with maximum efficiencies.
A Production is to order and large numbers of different products are produced, each in relatively small
volume. A Production shop consists of number of machine centers, each with a fundamentally different activity.

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Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology
IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320–334X
PP 25-29
www.iosrjournals.org
The problems of machine shop are delayed deliveries, long queues, and high work in process inventories,
improper utilization. These problems increase overall cost of production. The need for customized
products/parts with reduced lead times together with the requirement of global competitiveness requires that
products/parts be produced in small batch sizes as per customer's requirement. The processing in small batch
sizes necessitates the adjustment in the flow of production through different processes as per their processing
speeds. In addition it requires close monitoring of processes to reduce process variability (defect free
production), efficient planned maintenance of all machines (for increased availability) and reduction in non-
value added activities such as setup times, movement of material in between the work processes and additional
processing of material. The efficient utilization of machines while producing in small batches reduced WIP
inventories, reduced times and reduction in lead times leads to competitive manufacturing. It is need for
machine shop manufacturing system to adopt lean environment.
To improve productivity by identifying waste and then removing that by implementing lean principle
in this industry. Value Stream Mapping enables a company to identify and eliminate waste, thereby streamlining
work processes, cutting lead times, reducing costs and increasing quality and hence productivity. The goal of
VSM is to identify, demonstrate and decrease waste in the process, highlighting the opportunities for
improvement that will most significantly impact the overall production system. In this project lean concepts are
introduced using VSM in working environment.

4. VALUE STREAM MAPPING

A value stream map is an end-to-end collection of processes/activities that creates value for the
customer. A value stream usually includes people, tools and technologies, physical facilities, communication
channels and policies and procedures. A value stream is all the actions (both value added and non-value added)
currently required to bring a product through the main flows essential to every product: (a) the production flow
from raw material into the hands of the customer, and (b) the design flow from concept to launch. Standard
terminology, symbols, and improvement methods allows VSM to be used as a communication tool for both
internal communication and sharing techniques and results with the larger lean community’s is the process of
visually mapping the flow of information and material as they are preparing a future state map with better
methods and performance. It helps to visualize the station cycle times, inventory at each stage, manpower and
information flowacross the supply chain.

5. VSM METHODOLOGY
To start improving productivity by identifying waste and then removing it by implementing lean
principle in the industry there is no other tool better than VSM. It helps to understand and streamline work
processes using the tools and techniques of Lean Manufacturing.
The goal of VSM is to identify, demonstrate and decrease waste in the process. Waste being any
activity that does not add value to the final product, often used to demonstrate and decrease the amount of
`waste' in a manufacturing system. VSM can thus serve as a blue print for Lean Manufacturing.
Generally VSM has four major steps as given by Rother and Shook (1996):
1. Product
2. Drawing current state
3. Drawing future state
4. Develop work plan for implementation of future state.

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Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology
IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320–334X
PP 25-29
www.iosrjournals.org

Product

Current State Drawing

Future State Drawing

Work Plan

Identification of Bottleneck operations

There are many methods to find out the bottleneck operations. Some of the commonly used methods are shown
below
 Most Rejection(or) High Breakdown
 Time Over (More Setup Time)/Tool Changeover
 Cycle Time is greater than Taken time.
 More Cycle Time
 Lowest Output.
 Oldest Machine
 Cycle time Calculation
Figure 1 & Figure 2 shows the current and future maps

Taken time = Available time/ customer demand

= 27 *880 *60/50000
= 28.5 sec.
Number of shifts per day = 2,
Number of working days = 27
Networking time per day = 880 min.
Demand for month = 50000
Cycle time = 29 sec
Lead time = 6 sec
Production per day = 880*60 / (29+6) =1508 parts per day
6. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Nowadays many companies are interested in improving their production system. It has become
important in globalized and competitive market for the company's survival. The companies are looking into their
production systems in the different directions to get the competitive advantages. But the most important is to find
out the problem of the production system to make improvements
When cycle time for each process is compared with taken time it is found that cycle time of welding
process exceeds the taken time so there is need to improve the process capability of welding process to meet the
demand of customer within the time.

National Conference on Contemporary Approaches in Mechanical, 27 | Page

Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology
IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320–334X
PP 25-29
www.iosrjournals.org
So it can be improved by using various lean tools but here we are improving the cycle time of welding
process by introducing a new welding machine and by improving layout of weld shop.
Cycle time before improvement = 29sec.
Cycle time after improvement = 15sec.
Percentage of improvement in production = (2514 – 1508)/1508
There is near about 66% improvement by improvement in value adding activities.
7. CONCLUSION
This project was given the chance to know what the best techniques that they can apply which will
improve their performance. Calculating the cycle time also give the company where they are and where is the
weakness point and how to improve. From the calculated cycle time, the following were identified non value
added actives like high cycle time, more waiting time and Low productivity.

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National Conference on Contemporary Approaches in Mechanical, 28 | Page

Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology
IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320–334X
PP 25-29
www.iosrjournals.org

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Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology