Analysis of the productivity of a shoe production line--application of queueing theory and lean manufacturing

Abstract

Footwear production is a complex process. Producers often do not know-how to quantify the performance of their production lines in addition to their total lack of knowledge about tools that would enable them to make the right decisions about future events. We analyze a shoe production line of a factory located in the city of León, state of Guanajuato. This analysis is done by combining two approaches: on the one hand, we apply the Factory Physics approach, to understand how the materials flow within the production line; on the other hand, the proposals for improvements are made under the guidance of a lean manufacturing approach, in order to focus attention on very specific factors in the system. We determined the number of additional workers needed to obtain the required production. The results indicate that a saving of 16.73% would be obtained in the operation costs of the line.