Title: Lean manufacturing in the production of sprockets through value stream mapping – a case study

Authors: D. Ramesh Kumar; S.R. Devadasan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adithya Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, 641 107, India ' Department Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, 641 004, India

Abstract: During the last two decades, researchers and practitioners have carried out investigations on implementing lean manufacturing by applying value stream mapping (VSM) technique along the production lines of different automobile parts. Although being a part produced in large volume in automobile industry, sprocket has not been subjected to such investigation. In order to fill this gap, the case study reported in this paper was carried out. Initially, the production of a sprocket in the case study company was observed. Subsequently, the current and future state maps were drawn. In order to decrease the total lead time, two lean manufacturing approaches were specified in this future state map. On implementing these two lean manufacturing approaches, the total lead time decreased from 82.848 seconds to 70.568 seconds. The experience of conducting this case study indicated that VSM is a powerful technique for practically implementing lean manufacturing in organisations.

Keywords: lean manufacturing; value stream mapping; VSM; non-value adding activities; NVAAs; poka-yoke; automobile industry; sprocket.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2025.147829

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2025 Vol.45 No.3, pp.309 - 333

Received: 16 May 2023
Accepted: 19 Jul 2023
Published online: 04 Aug 2025 *

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