Cycle time reduction for coating process in manual assembly manufacturing towards economic sustainability

Abstract

Lean manufacturing has been one of the techniques to eliminate waste in production to increase productivity. Improper usage of cycle time can extend lead-time of delivery for the production and incur more cost than needed. Determining sufficient cycle time is important to ensure the productivity of the each assembly line is within the delivery time span. Improvement of productivity contributes in maintaining sustainable environment that attracts customer and government supports. In this paper, a case study in a manufacturing assembly line was conducted to identify the operator's motion waste as non-value added activity. As a result, the cycle time was reduced from 60 seconds to 50 seconds in a multiple engaging production activities besides improving the ergonomic posture of the operators. A double four stages rack was designed to reduce the cycle time by 16.7%, which leads to increment of 1000 units of products per month. The rack was built-in together within the assembly process and reduced movement of operators.