Lean methodologies to improve assembly line efficiency: an industrial application
by Kaneesa Kanaganayagam; Shanthi Muthuswamy; Purushothaman Damodaran
International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IJISE), Vol. 20, No. 1, 2015

Abstract: Similar to automobile industries, the large earth moving equipment (LEME) industries have a dominant assembly line layout. Improving the assembly line efficiency would improve the productivity of the line. This paper focuses on using lean tools such as time and motion study, kaizen events and spaghetti map to reduce waste in a LEME assembly line. For this research, five zones (or work areas) of assembly were studied and using the lean tools the cycle time was reduced to achieve a 15% reduction in takt time. There were four phases to this research effort: data collection, construction of the process flow map, creation of the spaghetti map, and the implementation of kaizen events. The results from this research demonstrate that waste in an assembly can be identified and removed by studying the process and utilising simple yet powerful lean tools.

Online publication date: Fri, 24-Apr-2015

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IJISE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com