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 Journal of Advances in Management Research
Application of lean manufacturing using value stream mapping in an auto-parts
manufacturing unit
Harwinder Singh Amandeep Singh
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Harwinder Singh Amandeep Singh, (2013),"Application of lean manufacturing using value stream mapping
in an auto-parts manufacturing unit", Journal of Advances in Management Research, Vol. 10 Iss 1 pp. 72 -
84
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Anand Gurumurthy, Rambabu Kodali, (2011),"Design of lean manufacturing systems using value stream
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S. Vinodh, K.R. Arvind, M. Somanaathan, (2010),"Application of value stream mapping in an Indian
camshaft manufacturing organisation", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 21 Iss 7 pp.
888-900 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17410381011077973
Bhim Singh, S.K. Sharma, (2009),"Value stream mapping as a versatile tool for lean implementation: an
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JAMR
10,1
Application of lean manufacturing
using value stream mapping in an
auto-parts manufacturing unit
72 Harwinder Singh and Amandeep Singh
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College,
Punjab, India

Abstract
Downloaded by Punjab Technical University At 01:33 07 December 2015 (PT)

Purpose – This paper aims to address the application of lean manufacturing using value stream
mapping (VSM) concepts in an auto-parts manufacturing organization. Using value stream concepts,
both current and future states maps of the organization’s shop floor scenarios have been discussed to
identify sources of waste between the existing state and the proposed state of the selected organization
for improving its competitiveness.
Design/methodology/approach – VSM process symbols were used to discuss lean implementation
stages in the auto-parts manufacturing unit. Current states of the selected manufacturing unit were
prepared with the help of VSM symbols and improvement areas were identified. A few modifications
in current state were made and, with these modifications, a future state map is suggested.
Findings – After comparison of the current and future states of the selected manufacturing unit, it
has been found that there was 69.41 percent reduction in cycle time, 18.26 percent reduction in work
in-process inventory and 24.56 percent reduction in production lead times for the replacement ball
product. While for Weldon ball end product 51.87 percent reduction in cycle time, 21.51 percent
reduction in work in-process inventory, 25.88 percent reduction in lead time was noted.
Research limitations/implications – The findings of this case study are valid due to limited
selection of products only.
Originality/value – This paper depicts a true picture of the implementation of lean manufacturing
tools in an organization.
Keywords Lean manufacturing, Value stream mapping, Production lead time, In-process inventory,
Cycle time, Lean production, Lead times, Distribution and inventory management,
Automotive components industry
Paper type Case study

Journal of Advances in Management
Research
Vol. 10 No. 1, 2013
pp. 72-84
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0972-7981
DOI 10.1108/09727981311327776
1. Introduction
In recent times, many organizations have attempted to implement or have already
implemented lean manufacturing (LM). Some companies have implemented a few
tools/techniques/practices/procedures (i.e. “elements” in short) of LM, while others
have implemented a whole spectrum of LM elements (Gurumurthy and Kodali, 2009).
The concept LM was originated in Japan after the Second World War when it was
realized that they could not afford to invest much now. The objective of LM is to reduce
waste in every part (such as human effort, inventory, time to market and manufacturing
space) to become more responsive to customer demand while producing quality
products in the most efficient and economical manner (Womack et al., 1990).
LM encompasses many different strategies and activities that are familiar to almost
all industrial engineers (Braglia et al., 2006; Chitturi et al., 2007; Mahapatra and
Mohanty, 2007). In many such cases, firms have reported some benefits by applying
The authors would like to thank the Executive Editor of the journal and reviewers for improving
the contents of the paper.
 lean principles; however, it is apparent that there is a need to understand the entire Lean
system in order to gain maximum benefits (Singh et al., 2010). Value stream mapping manufacturing
(VSM) acts as one of enterprise improvement tool in LM to assist in visualizing the
entire production process, representing both material and information flow. The goal is using VSM
to identify all types of waste in the value stream and to take necessary steps to
eliminate them (Rother and Shook, 1999; Sahoo et al., 2008; Seth et al., 2008). VSM
aids in the development of a “current state map” which shows a visual representation 73
of how the company is currently operating; it records process information and
information flow which can be used to identify key wastes, problems and opportunities.
Once the current state map has been analyzed the future state map can then be
produced to show how the company could operate more effectively (Pavnaskar et al.,
2003). According to the lean system, Lasa et al. (2008) showed that VSM is a valuable
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tool for redesigning of the productive systems and found that there are some key points
for the establishing teams that have to take into account for designing of suitable
information systems.
One of the major challenges for manufacturing industry is to manufacture variety
products with a minimum lead time, reduced inventory and world class quality. There
is a need to help the manufacturing companies to improve their competitiveness.
Vinodh et al. (2012) applied the analytic hierarchy process typical multi-criterion
decision-making method in a manufacturing organization for improving the leanness
of the company. Many managers and researchers such as Hines et al. (1998), Hines
(1999), Abdulmalek and Rajgopal (2007), Serrano et al. (2008) and Singh et al. (2009)
applied VSM for identification and elimination of waste in production industry. In this
paper, an attempt has been made to discuss lean implementation principles using VSM
in ABC auto-parts manufacturing unit, located near Ludhiana, Punjab, India. There are
ten different categories of products. Out of which, only two products named Weldon
ball end and replacement ball is selected on the basis of lead-time problem. Current and
future state maps of both the products have been made using VSM techniques. Rest
of the paper is as follows.
Section 2 reports the concept of VSM. Section 3 explains the case study of an
organization. Finally, Section 4 concludes by narrating the contributions of the
present research.

2. VSM
VSM is a significant tool of LM. VSM can serve as a good starting point for any
enterprise that wants to be lean. VSM was initially developed in 1995 with an
underlying rationale for the collection and use of the suite of tools as being “to help
researchers or practitioners to identify waste in individual value streams and, hence,
find an appropriate route to its removal” (Hines and Rich, 1997).
Jones and Womack (2000) defined VSM as the process of visually mapping the flow
of information and material for preparing a future state map with better methods and
performance. The VSM includes two flows. One is the flow of resources from supplier
to customer. The other is communications flow from customer back to supplier.
Taylor (2005) stated “Value Stream Maps are a very effective method for
summarizing, presenting and communicating the key features of a process within an
organization.” LM is most frequently associated with the elimination of seven
important wastes to ameliorate the effects of variability in supply, processing time
or demand (Shah and Ward, 2007). Liker and Wu (2000) defined it as a philosophy of
manufacturing that focusses on delivering the highest quality product on time and at
 JAMR the lowest cost. Jones and Womack (2000) defined it as the systematic removal of waste
10,1 by all members of the organization from all areas of the value stream. Briefly, it is
called lean as it uses less, or the minimum, of everything required to produce a product
or perform a service (Lian and Van Landeghem, 2007).
Grewal (2008) used VSM techniques as lean implementation initiatives in small
bicycle manufacturing company and claimed 33.18 percent reduction in cycle time,
74 81.5 percent reduction in change over time, 81.4 percent reduction in lead time and 1.41
percent reduction in value-added time.
Singh and Sharma (2009) implemented VSM approach in an Indian manufacturing
organization and witnessed 92.58 percent reduction in lead time, 2.17 percent
reduction in processing time, 97.1 percent reduction in WIP and 26.08 percent reduction
in manpower requirement. Chowdary and George (2011) conducted a case study in a
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pharmaceutical company using VSM approach. The methodology assisted the case
company in reducing lead times, cycle times and WIP inventory in the manufacturing
process. The organization was able to reduce the storage area and production staff
by 38 percent 50 percent, respectively.
Gurumurthy and Kodali (2011) presented an application of VSM with simulation
during the design of lean manufacturing systems using a case study of an
organization. Simulation studies were carried out for different scenarios such as
“before LM” (current state VSM) and “after LM” (future state VSM). It was found that
the case organization can achieve significant improvement in performance and can
meet the increasing demand without any additional resources.
Majority of researchers have done the research on implementation of LM tools in
large organizations. But in most of the nations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
are the lifeblood of modern economies. Almost 90 percent SMEs in most countries are
the driving forces behind a large number of innovations to the growth of national
economy. The need for organizations to remain competitive and produce high-quality
products is important not only at organizational level but also at global level. Hence,
there is a need to implement such latest tools in SMEs to improve its competitiveness.
In a nutshell, LM can be best defined as an approach to deliver the up-most value to
the customer by eliminating waste through process and human design elements (Wong
et al., 2009).
3. Case study
A case study has been carried in a leading auto-parts manufacturing unit, located near
Ludhiana, Punjab, India using VSM, having annual turnover approximately Rs. 15
million ($0.33 million). This organization was started in 1999 and is an ISO certified
company. The company employs 300 personnel including workers, supervisors,
engineers and also top management. The company was using traditional manufacturing
concepts before applying lean concepts. The following procedure is adopted for this
case study:
(1) selection of critical product family;
(2) preparation of current state map;
. documentation of customer information;
. establish process flow;
. data collection (cycle time, available time, in-process inventory, etc.);
. documentation of supplier information;
 . establish information flow; and Lean
. quantify production lead time and processing time. manufacturing
(3) analysis of current state map; using VSM
(4) preparation of future state map;
. implementation of few new processes; 75
. calculate TAKT time; and
. develop continuous flow wherever possible; and
(5) analysis of the results.
The company is manufacturing ten different categories of products in the shop. Data
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have been collected for all the product families and the most critical product families,
i.e. Weldon ball end and replacement ball were selected on the basis of the lead time
of both the products was very much as compared to other products quantity to be
produced were high and in-process inventory was also high to meet customer’s
demands and delivery schedule as shown in Figure 1.
Because of traditional manufacturing set up, in-process inventory was very high.
The other reason for selection of both these products is the reduction of manufacturing
days by the customer. Previously the manufacturing days were ten and shipping
days were 35 (by sea), i.e. products reached at the customer’s end within 45 days
after receiving the order. In case of failure in meeting the delivery date, either the
manufacturing organization will deliver the products by air instead of delivering by
sea or otherwise the order will be treated as canceled.

3.1 Preparation of VSM

Current state map is prepared by taking the data from shop floor of the selected shop
and also by consulting the foremen, operators, etc. The marketing department receives
the information from customer and forecasts the exact demand. Marketing department
sends this information to the production planning and control (PPC) department which
further sends it to material requirement planning (MRP) department and supervisors,
so that they can plan their GANTT charts accordingly. VSM is different than
conventional recording approaches as it helps in visualization station cycle times,
inventory buffers at intermediate stations, uptime or utilization of resources and the
information flow in the given area. It captures the entire transformation from raw

350
Lead time in hours

300
250
200
150
100
50
0
in in in in in bly olt nd all ar
g e p tch p ing p ink p vis p sem ye b all e en b rawb
ka i l d L l e s E b D Figure 1.
Lin
H
We Top C ka n em
in ldo lac Comparison of lead time
o pL We Rep
T of various products
Products
 JAMR material to the reach of finished goods. This takes care of both value-added and non-
10,1 value added activities. This is purely a pencil and paper work using icons for various
agencies to visualize the flow of material and information as a product advances.
Before mapping, one should be very clear about the lean management principles which
form the backbone of VSM. These principles are: define value from your customer’s
perspective; identify the value stream; eliminate the seven deadly wastes; make the
76 work flow; pull the work rather than push it and pursue to perfection level (Rother
and Shook, 1999; Seth and Gupta, 2005). The major steps involved in mapping
are as follows:
. An A3 size (or 11  17 inch) ledger size paper is taken and icons are drawn
representing customer, supplier and production control with sufficient space in
between them.
Downloaded by Punjab Technical University At 01:33 07 December 2015 (PT)

. Entries are made to prepare a data box below the icons to capture the monthly/
daily requirements of each product along with number of containers and
KANBAN required in unit time.
. Shipping and receiving data are entered along with the icons for the truck using
direction arrows for the movement.
. Then manufacturing/assembly operations are drawn along the bottom of the
map, with the most upstream process on the left and most downstream process
on the right.
. This follows the entry of process attributes like uptime, changeover, etc. in
proper units. It is essential to capture information flow both electronic and manual.
For this communication, arrows are drawn between the parties concerned.
. Next inventory icons are drawn along with the quantities, in places where the
inventory is stored between processes.
If a process is producing to a schedule independent of the downstream process this
indicates that push is being practiced. In this way, the mechanism serves as a starting
point to help management, engineers, suppliers and customers to recognize waste and
its sources. Taking a value stream perspective means working on the big picture and
improving the whole not just individual processes. Concepts of value stream provide
both a picture of the current state of affairs as well as a guide about the gap areas. Thus
it helps in visualizing how things would work when some improvements or changes
are incorporated.

3.2 Current state map of replacement ball

Replacement ball is a tractor linkage part which is used mostly in linkage assembly; it
is mounted on the rare side of the tractor and used to link the various parts. Its length
can be adjustable from 230 to 930 mm. The demand per month of replacement ball is
15,000 pieces; effective numbers of working days are 25 per month. Number of shifts
per day is two and working hours per shift are 12. Available working time per day in
minutes is 1,440. TAKT time comes out to be is 144 seconds:

TAKT time ¼Available work time per shift=

Customer demand per shift
¼12  60  60=300 ¼ 144 seconds
 The demand comes from the customers (overseas mostly from European countries) Lean
to marketing department through some electronic media, then marketing department manufacturing
send this requirement to PPC department. Then PPC department analyses the
products and make the material requirement planning and send the material using VSM
requirement to suppliers by manually or by some electronic media. In present case, the
suppliers take ten days to deliver the material, then material moves from raw material
cutting department to finish product through number of processes like cutting, forging, 77
drilling, computer numerical control (CNC) machining, etc. Details regarding inventory,
cycle time, lead time, up time and number of shifts are shown in VSM. Current state
map is shown in Figure 2.
After studying the current state map, it has been obtained that the maximum
demand per month of replacement ball is 15,000 pieces. Actual cycle time of the
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replacement ball is 922 seconds; total in-process inventory is 1,150 pieces and
maximum in-process inventory 750 pieces is at heat treatment process alone. And the
lead time of the product is 289 hours. Second mostly the contractual labor is working in
the organization. Third numbers of simultaneous families of products are in
process. Since, the contractual labor is working; their labor rates are set by the
management according to the type of the operation and quantity of the product to be
manufactured. If the quantity of the product is more then the price of its operation will
be less and if the quantity is less then the price will be more, i.e. number of units
of product they operate in a day. So the operator is not worried about the type of the
product. That is why the cycle time, work in-process inventory and production lead
time are very high.

Annual
forecast
Marketing
department
Supplies Customers
Monthly
requirement Monthly
schedule

PPC
department
Weekly
MRP
requirement
Daily
requirement

240
hours
CNC CNC
Cutting Forging Drilling Face boring turning H/T Shot blast Buffing Plating Packing

Zero 100 35 Zero 75 75 750 65 Zero 50 Zero

CT=20 CT=117 CT=89 CT=30 CT=160 CT=60 CT=127 CT=60 CT=45 CT=103 CT=96
seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds
Production 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-Shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts
2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 20 shifts
lead uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime=
uptime= Uptime= uptime= uptime=
time 100% 100% 100% 100% 90% 100% 100%
100% 100% 100% 100%
289 hours

Processing
time
922 seconds
2 hours
1 hours 3 hours 10 hours 5 hours 2 hours 0 hours 10 hours 10 hours 4 hours 2 hours
Figure 2.
20 117 89 30 160 60 127 60 45 103 96
Current state map of
seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds replacement ball
 JAMR 3.3 Future state map of replacement ball
10,1 After analyzing the current state map of replacement ball it has been found out that
material arrangement is wasting much time than other processes. Almost ten days are
required for the procurement of raw material only and after that time is being wasted
at the processes for cutting and forging. It has been observed that the forging of this
product is readily available in the market because there are many vendors who are
78 producing same goods for other tractor linkage part industries. So, first step is to
remove the cutting and forging operations by procuring directly the forging of these
products. Second step is to remove the CNC boring operation by broaching operation.
Also double heating furnace should be used to reduce the inventory of 750 units at heat
treatment operations because that the demand is continuous. Withdrawal KANBAN
should also flow from planning department to dispatch department. The KANBAN
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system brought the necessary schedule and delivery discipline. It has been observed
that these products are readily available in the market as soon as the demand raises the
forging procurement takes less than two days to provide that material to the machines.
Thus it will help in reducing raw material inventory and also remove time-consuming
processes to decrease the cycle time. It also helped in making whole supply chain very
lean and flexible as shown in figure as shown in Figure 3.
Comparison of cycle times with the TAKT time of both current and future states of
replacement ball has been shown in Figure 4.
Great changes were found after implementing the proposed changes. Like in-
process inventory was reduced from 1,150 to 210. The lead time was reduced from 289
to 71 hours and cycle time was reduced from 922 to 640 seconds. Table I show that CNC
boring is 160 seconds and it has been replaced with broaching operation, i.e. cycle time
reduced to 30 seconds.

3.4 Current state map of Weldon ball end

Weldon ball end is also a tractor linkage part which is used in linkage assembly as
explained earlier. Linkage assemblies are of two types, i.e. top link assembly and
lower link assembly. Lower link assembly is mounted on the rare side of the tractor
with Weldon ball ends welded on both sides of the strip. Mostly both the Weldon ends
welded on the strip are of same size but sometimes these may be different according
to the requirement of the next linkage part which is yet to link with the lower link
assembly. Two lower link assemblies are mounted on the rare side of the tractor;
it means four Weldon ball ends are required on one tractor. These are used to link
the drawbar with the tractor on one side and on the other side these are linked with
linkage pins.
The demand of Weldon ball end per month is 15,000 pieces; effective numbers of
working days are 25 per month; number of shifts per day is two and working hours per
shift are 12. Available working time per day in minutes is 1,440. TAKT time comes out
to be is 144 seconds. Current state map is shown in Figure 5. Similar procedure has
been used for this product also as explained above in the current state map of
replacement ball. After receiving the order from the PPC department, MRP department
orders the raw material to various suppliers. The time taken to supply the material
to company after which production department starts the scheduled operations, i.e.
converting raw material to finished goods is ten days. Details regarding inventory,
cycle time, lead time, up time and number of shifts are shown in VSM.
After studying the current state map, it has been observed that the maximum
demand per month demand of Weldon ball end is 15,000 pieces per month.
 Annual
forecast
Lean
Marketing
manufacturing
department
Customers
using VSM
Monthly
requirement Monthly
schedule
Supplies
PPC 79
department
Weekly
MRP
requirement
Daily
requirement

Despatch
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Kanban
Kanban

48 hours

Drilling Face Broaching CNCTurning H/T Shot Blast Buffing Plating Packing

35 Zero Zero 60 Zero 65 Zero 50 Zero

CT=89 CT=30 CT=60 CT=60 CT=127 CT=1 CT=30 CT=103 CT=96

seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds minute seconds seconds seconds
2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts
Production
lead time
uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime=
63 hours 100% 100% 95% 95% 95% 100% 95% 100% 100%

Processing
time
640 seconds
0 hour 2 hour 0 hour 1 hour 2 hour 10 hour 4 hour 2 hour 2 hour
Figure 3.
89 30 30 60 127 60 30 103 96 Future state map of
Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds Seconds
replacement ball

After studying, it was found out that cycle time of Weldon ball end is 1,066
seconds, total in-process inventory is 1,720 pieces, maximum in-process inventory,
i.e. 1,000 pieces at stress relieving process and the production lead time comes
out to be is 282 hours. Comparison of TAKT time with station cycle time is shown
in Figure 6.

3.5 Future state map of Weldon ball end

Lean production system has been implemented, i.e. nothing is to be produced until it is
needed. After procuring the goods, single minute exchange die method has been
initiated in coining and ball clamping process. After analyzing the cycle times of
various operations (like rough and final boring) were quite high as compared with that
of TAKT time. The rough boring and final boring operations has been done on the
simple lathes which were having copy turning attachments. So these operations were
replaced by drilling and CNC boring, respectively. Moreover, on lathe machines the tool
 JAMR 180

10,1 160

Cycle time in seconds

140
120
100

80 80
60
40
20
0
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g
g

g
Br ace

ot t

ng

Pa g
t

g
g

as
Figure 4.
lin
tin

in

in

in

in

in
in

ffi
rg

ch

at
bl

ck
r

m
ea turn
ril

F
ut

bo

Bu

Pl
Fo

at
Comparison of cycle time
D

oa
C

re
C

Sh
C
N

tt
of current and future

N
C

C
H
states for replacement ball
Processes

Cycle time In-process inventory Production lead time

(in seconds) (number) (in hours)
Processes Current Future Current Future Current Future

Material arrangement 0 240

Forging arrangement 0 0 0 48
Cutting 20 0 0 1
Forging 117 0 100 3
Drilling 89 89 35 35 10 2
Face 30 30 0 0 5 0
Broaching 30 0
CNC boring 160 75 0 2
CNC turning 75 75 75 60 0 1
Heat treatment 127 127 750 0 10 2
Shot blast 60 60 65 65 10 10
Buffing 45 30 0 0 4 4
Plating 103 103 50 50 2 2
Table I. Packing 96 96 0 0 2 2
Current and future states Total 922 640 1,150 210 289 71
of replacement ball Percentage reduction 69.41 18.26 24.57

wear was very high and surface finish was also not very fine. Work instruction sheets
have been introduced; daily production and rejection reports have been checked by the
concerned engineer to ensure its daily production run. Thus it will help in reducing
raw material inventory and also eliminating time consuming processes to assist in
decreasing the cycle time as shown in Figure 7.
After implementing VSM, the cycle time has been reduced to 553 seconds instead of
1,066 seconds, in-process inventory was reduced to 370 units from 1,720 units and
production lead time now is 73 hours. Earlier, it was 282 hours. Replacement of rough
boring operation with CNC boring has reduced cycle times from 300 to 117 seconds as
depicted in Table II.
 Annual
forecast
Lean
Marketing
department
manufacturing
Customers
Supplies
Monthly
requirement
using VSM
Monthly
schedule
PPC
department
Weekly
requirement
MRP
Daily 81
department

240
hours

Cutting Forging Stressrelieving Coining Roughboring Finalboring Face Chamfer Shotblast Ball clamping Packing
Downloaded by Punjab Technical University At 01:33 07 December 2015 (PT)

200 1000 20 100 130 Zero Zero 100 70 100

CT=20 CT=3 CT=40 CT=20 CT=300 CT=230 CT=30 CT=30 CT=1 CT=1 CT=96
seconds minute seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds minute minute seconds
Production 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts
lead time uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime=
282 hours
95% 100% 100% 95% 95% 100% 100% 95% 100% 95% 100%

Proceesing
time
1066 seconds
1 hour 5 hours 12 hours 3 hours 4 hours 0 hour 2 hours 0 hour 5 hours 5 hours 5 hours Figure 5.
Current state map of
20 180 40 20 300 230 30 30 1 1 96
seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds minute minute seconds Weldon ball end

350
300
Cycle time in seconds

250
200
150
100
50
0
ng

ng
D g

cl ast
Ba ot b r
g

g
lb g

Pa ing
C id

C ce

g
Sh mfe
n
tin

in
na rin

in
ac
gi

illi
ni

Fa

p
or

ck
ut

or

Fi bo
oi

am
ha
in

Figure 6.
C

gh
ng

Comparison of cycle time

ou

ll
vi
lie

of current and future

re
ss

states for Weldon ball end

re

Processes
St

4. Conclusions
Most of the organizations are very keen to adopt latest techniques, namely VSM. It is a
very powerful tool to highlight the process inefficiencies and improvement areas.
In this case study, it has been illustrated with the help of VSM technique. Current state
map and future state map have been prepared and analyzed to highlight the benefits of
a lean system in a small company. In replacement ball, there is 69.41 percent reduction
in cycle time, 18.26 percent reduction in work in process inventory and 24.56 percent
 JAMR Annual
forecast
10,1 Marketing
Supplies department Customers
Monthly
requirement
Monthly
schedule

82 PPC
department
Daily
requirement MRP
Daily
requirement

48 Kanban Kanban Despatch

hours
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Coining Drilling Final boring Face Chamfer Shot blast Ball clamping Packing

20 10 70 Zero Zero 100 70 50

CT=20 sec CT=117 CT=140 CT=30 CT=30 CT=1 CT=1 min CT=96
2-shifts seconds seconds seconds seconds minute 2-shifts seconds
Processing uptime= 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shifts 2-shits 2-shifts uptime= 2-shifts
lead time 95% uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= uptime= 100% uptime=
73 hours 100% 95% 100% 100% 95% 100%

Processing
time
553 seconds
10 hours 1 hour 2 hours 2 hours 0 hour 5 hours 5 hours 0 hour
Figure 7.
Future state map of
20 117 140 30 30 96
Weldon ball end seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds
1 minute 1 minute
seconds

Cycle time In-process inventory Production lead time

(in seconds) (number) (in hours)
Processes Current Future Current Future Current Future

Material arrangement 0 240

Forging arrangement 0 48
Cutting 20 0 1
Forging 180 200 5
Stress relieving in acid 40 1,000 12
Coining 20 20 20 20 3 10
Drilling 117 10 1
Rough Boring 300 100 4
Final boring 230 140 130 70 0 2
Face 30 30 0 0 2 2
Chamfer 30 30 0 0 0 0
Shot blast 60 60 100 100 5 5
Ball clamping 60 60 70 70 5 5
Table II. Packing 96 96 100 100 5 0
Current and future state Total 1,066 553 1,720 370 282 73
of Weldon ball end Percentage reduction 51.88 21.51 25.89
 reduction in production lead times. In Weldon ball end, there is 51.87 percent reduction Lean
in cycle time, 21.51 percent reduction in work in process inventory, 25.88 percent manufacturing
reduction in lead time after future state map application.
using VSM
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About the authors

Harwinder Singh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Master’s degree in
Business Administration, Master’s degree in Production Engineering and PhD in Mechanical
Engineering. Currently, he is working as Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. He has
contributed a number of research papers at the international level. His present area of interest
includes optimization techniques and management of production systems. Harwinder Singh is
the corresponding author and can be contacted at: harwin75@rediffmail.com
Amandeep Singh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Production Engineering and MTech degree in
Production Engineering from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.
He has contributed around five research papers in different conferences.

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