Quality and Productivity Improvement in Automotive

Component Manufacturing Company Using Kaizen

D. Rajenthirakumar, P. R. Thyla

Abstract
The implementation of lean manufacturing strategy allows strengthening the phase sequence that leads to operational
excellence, a continuous improvement and the elimination of non value added activities [1]. Thus, the influence of lean
practices contributes substantially with the operating performance of plants [2, 3] and use of lean tools allows the
improvement of results [4]. The tool kaizen is applied as a way to progress toward lean manufacturing and as a formula to
lead the activities of improvement [5]. It has been increasingly adopted as a potential solution for many organizations,
particularly within the automotive [1, 6] and aerospace [79] manufacturing industries. This work addresses the implement-
tation of the lean tool kaizen in an automotive component manufacturing company with a focus on tube sub-assembly line.
The main objective is to develop several strategies to eliminate waste on the shop floor. This paper describes how the value
stream mapping (VSM) and other suite of lean tools such as kaizen can be used to map the current state of a production line
and design a desired future state. A significant increase in quality and productivity is confirmed and the production flow was
smoothened by elimination of several non-value added activities.
Keywords: Kaizen, Productivity, Quality, Value stream mapping (VSM)

1 Introduction
Lean manufacturing is one of the initiatives that many
major businesses have been trying to adopt in order to
remain competitive in an increasingly global market. The
focus of the approach is on cost reduction by eliminating
non value added activities. Originating from the Toyota
Production System, many of the tools and techniques of
lean manufacturing (e.g. just-in-time, cellular manufactu-
ring, total productive maintenance, single-minute exchange
of dies, production smoothing, kaizen) have been widely
used in discrete manufacturing [10, 11]. Applications have
spanned many sectors including automotive, electronics,
white goods, and consumer products manufacturing [9].
The Indian automotive component manufacturing indu-
stries have gained significant stride due to growing domes-
tic demands and the outsourcing of components. According
to the Automotive Component Manufacturers' Association
of India (ACMA), the domestic Indian auto component
manufacturing industry is heading for a whopping 18%
growth in the coming years compared to the export market
which is $2.7 billion in the year 2010. According to a joint
study conducted by ACMA and Ernest and Young, the
automobile industry is projected to be a five million units
industry by 2015 and over 9 million by 2020. The industry
can potentially be contributing 3.6 percent of gross domes-
tic product (GDP) by 2020, up from the current 2.1 percent
[12]. In order to achieve the improved market share and
compete with their global counterparts, these industries ne-
cessarily need to improve productivity while ensuring lower
cost and world class quality. However, it is strongly belie-
ved that unnecessary capital investment is not going to
solve the problem; rather, this will turn out to be a waste in
the long run. In this direction, the implementation of lean
principles is highly recommended, in order to identify the
areas generating waste; thus, it further facilitates the optimi-
zation of the operating conditions in a minimal investment.
This paper presents a case study of a large-scale automotive
component manufacturing industry which needs to improve
the productivity in one their tube sub-assembly lines. The
work focuses on the implementation kaizen philosophy
whis addresses continuous improvement not only in mana-
gement, but also in the general workforce [1].
2 Brief literature review
In recent years, much literature has extensively docu-
mented the implementation of lean tools into various ma-
nufacturing sectors. Improving quality and productivity to
gain a competitive advantage has always been a major issue
for most manufacturing industry. A manufacturer, therefore,
should always try to use advanced manufacturing technolo-
gy to adopt better management. Kaizen is one of the appro-
aches that have been applied to numerous industries, and
many successful experiences have been reported. Kaizen,
meaning (continuous) improvement, is as a key factor in the
economic success of Japanese industries. With "traditional"
techniques such as quality circles and management circles,
kaizen may turn a profitless company into a profitable one
without an enormous investment in equipment [13].
The successful application of kaizen and various lean
tools had a profound impact in a variety of industries, such
as aerospace, computer and electronics manufacturing, for-
ging company [14], process industry (steel), and automotive
manufacturing [15]. Their methodology is similar, using
lean tools, and they are adapted to the study variables, but
the improvement point and the results achieved are diffe-
rent. Considering the available literature, the present work is
the first attempt that explores the degree of use of lean prin-
ciples in automotive component manufacturing industry and
provides direction for future continuous improvement.
3 Problem definition
The objective of this paper is to use a case-based method
to demonstrate how lean tools like kaizen when used ap-
propriately, can help the industry eliminate waste, improve
productivity and product quality. A large scale automotive
component manufacturing companys tube sub-assembly
line is used to illustrate the method followed. The company
produces drag links, centre links and tie rods for Indias
major car manufacturing companies. The typical operations
involved for making the CDS and CEW: 50*6, 40*5,

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45*4.5, 26*5 types of tube are tube heating, squeezing
single and double bending. The various component groups
handled by the product assembly line are double side
squeezed tube, single side squeezed tube, single bending
with and without squeezing and double bending with and
without squeezing. Tab. 1 summarises the overall nature of
the assembly line. The company was experiencing severe
pressures, both internally and externally, to improve the
quality and productivity of the assembly line. In the pursuit
of consistency, the management decided to implement lean
tools.
After several brain storming and a thorough study of the
shop floor, it was observed that the tube subassembly line
consists various forms of non-value-adding activities, such
as high lead time, accumulation of high inventory, unne- Fig. 1 The present state value stream map
cessary material flow, high material travel distance, poor 4. 1 Reducing change-over time
Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF), under utilized man After a detailed study and analysis of the standard work
power. procedure and thorough investigation on the assembly line,
Tab. 1 Assembly line characteristics it was found that the change-over time contributes signify-
Sl. No. Description Data cantly to the total processing time. Reducing the change-
Batch over time in any manufacturing system is a continuous im-
1. Nature of production system provement process. Fig. 2 shows the methodology adopted
production
Set-up time: Bending for reducing the change-over time reduction. The various
2. 50 min, Heating - 30 min, 125 min elements associated with change-over time are identified
Squeezing 45 min and different strategies are implemented to reduce the
change-over time. The standard work elements and work
3. Transfer of material Manual
element time is measured, documented and classified as
4. Mean time between failure 6 days
internal and external. In order to reduce the total change-
5. Total man power 18 per day over time, various strategies such as data documentation,
6. Work-In-Progress 2200 units method and time study, review of standard work procedure
7. Material travel distance 62 ft and continuous monitoring are adopted.
8. No of machines involved 7
9. Space occupied 899 sq. ft.
In order to implement lean tools, a task team was formed
with people from different department of the company, all
having wealthy knowledge and information pertaining to
production, machinery, scheduling and planning. The prime
objective is to develop different strategies to reduce the le-
vel of non value activities present in any form by implemen-
Fig. 2 Methodology adopted for change-over time reduction
ting the various lean tools. The research targets for the task
team are: reducing change-over time to 10 minutes, incre- 4.1.1 Kaizen
asing the line productivity by 25% and reducing the WIP to Keeping the change-over time reduction during bending
200 units process as an objective, the kaizen procedure followed is
shown in the flow chart (Fig. 3).
4 Implementation and results
In order to visualize the non-value-added activities it
was decided to first construct the current state value map.
Relevant information from various departments is collected
to construct the current state value stream. Information
related to the assembly line, such as cycle time at each work
stations, machine down time for each process, inventory,
change-over time, set-up time, number of workers and ope-
rational hours per day are also collected and documented
properly. Cup pressing, tube heating, squeezing and tube
bending are the major activities associated with tube subas-
sembly line. To complete the value map, a timeline is added
at the bottom of the map recording the total processing time
and the value-added time. Finally, the value stream map for
the current state is constructed as shown in Fig. 1. From the
current state value map, it is found that only 101 seconds
were value added activities, compared to 80640 seconds of
non-value-added activities. The following sub-sections des-
cribe a planned and integrated approach adopted to reduce
the non-value-added activities. Fig. 3 Flow chart of kaizen procedure

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Step 1: Form the team and gather information
In this step, the facts of the process and the direction for
improvement are examined. This information will be used
in the next step, the current process, to gather information
about the process.
Step 2: Description of the process
Utilizing the kaizen methodology, the team will select the
aspect of the process most in need of improvement.
Step 3: Decide goal of the team
After gathering detailed information about the current
process, the kaizen team identified the goal, which took into
consideration the directions of the management. In this case,
the team decided to focus on improving the method of tube
bending process. This improvement was expected to reduce
50% of the set up time of that process. This reduction of
time was, in turn, expected to reduce the change-over time
and manual effort. (a) Before kaizen
Step 4: Alternate methods 1. Standardisation of height
blocks 2. Adjustable socket locator
Following the Kaizen methodology, the Kaizen team deve-
loped twenty ideas to improve the bending process. Fig. 4
and Fig. 5 demonstrate two such alternatives at a glance.

Fig. 4 Kaizen 1: Standardisation of height blocks (b) After kaizen

Fig. 6 Kaizen Accomplishment:
New improved tube off-set checking method
Tab. 2 Improvements after new off-set checking method
Processing time
Sl. in seconds
Activity
No. Before After
Kaizen Kaizen
1 Tube off-set checking 300 30
2 Lifting the previous fixture 240 80
3 Moving the unloaded fixture 150 60
Fig. 5 Kaizen 2: Adjustable socket locator
4.1.2 Squeezing process: Set-up time reduction
Step 5: Evaluate and select the best solution Similar to the kaizen procedure followed for the tube
The thirteen best kaizen among the twenty solutions are heating process, two improvement initiatives are generated
selected to improve the tube bending process took into and successfully implemented during tube squeezing. As a
consideration the directions of the management. result, the set-up time during the squeezing reduced 78%
Step 6: Simulation and evaluation (from 2600 s to 580 s).
To confirm the possibility of implementing the methods by
the Kaizen team, a simulation was undertaken. The team 5 Conclusions
decided to see if it was possible to reduce the change over
time with reduced human effort. To do this, the team used Due to increased customer expectations and global com-
Arena, one of the most powerful simulators with the anima- petition, the automotive component manufacturing compa-
tion function and an easy-to-use interface. The results show nies are desperately trying to improve productivity at lower
that the change-over time during the bending process is cost and still retain excellent product and service quality.
reduced from 2815 sec to 755 sec which is 73% change- Under these circumstances, the implementation of lean tool
over time reduction. kaizen, improves the production environment with moderate
Step 7: Accomplishments investment. This case study carries evidence of genuine
The kaizen team also developed a new improved off-set advantages when applying lean tools to the manufacturing
checking method (Fig. 6) for the tubes. Tab. 2 summarizes shop floor.
the results achieved by this improved method.
To be continued on page 44

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