Title: Productivity and quality improvement through value stream mapping: a case study of Indian automotive industry

Authors: Jaiprakash Bhamu; J.V. Shailendra Kumar; Kuldip Singh Sangwan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (Rajasthan) – 333031, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (Rajasthan) – 333031, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (Rajasthan) – 333031, India

Abstract: Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the most important lean manufacturing tools to identify and reduce all type of wastes in a systematic way. This paper demonstrates the effect of VSM implementation on cost of poor quality, in-process rejections, percentage value addition, lead time, work in process inventory, distance travelled by components and percentage scrap through a case study of VSM implementation in an Indian automotive industry. The results of the study show that the productivity and quality of a company can be improved by implementation of VSM.

Keywords: value stream mapping; lean manufacturing; lean enterprise; lean production; preserving value; waste reduction; productivity improvement; India; automobile industry; automotive components; poor quality; in-process rejections; added value; lead times; work in process; inventories; component travel distances; scrap; productivity management; quality management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2012.048751

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2012 Vol.10 No.3, pp.288 - 306

Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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