Productivity improvement using lean concept in automotive welding fixture manufacturing industry

Abstract

In today's global marketplace, especially the Own Equipment’s Manufacturer (OEM), manufacturing automotive components must be more competitive to compete with competitors, where production cost is an important concern. To increase the productivity and to decrease the production cost, lean thinking can be applied which in turn enables the company to survive in today’s competitive world and to have competitive edge. In one of the Automotive Welding Fixture Manufacturing industry, which manufactures Body in White (BIW), some of the problems were identified which reduces the productivity and increases the production cost. Even though trial and error methods based on the experience were used to address the above-mentioned problems, a systematic lean thinking if applied will produce more effective results. In this aspect, some of the lean tools viz. 4M, bin system and KANBAN system were applied in this work to eliminate / reduce the implications of these problems. By implementing these lean concepts, the welding fixture manufacturing company saves around 33 hours approximately per week which inturn produces a profit of around Rs. 20,960/-per week.