An application of value stream mapping in auto-ancillary industry: a case study

Purpose: Lean manufacturing (LM) plays a major role in eliminating wastes (activities/resources) in a manufacturing organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the critical tools in LM which will help in identifying wastes in materials and information flow in a specific product family. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the significance of VSM in the auto-ancillary industry in enhancing the productivity and the quality. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach is followed to demonstrate the significance of VSM in identifying various wastes in the auto-ancillary industry. The study has been performed by implementing seven critical steps. A product family is identified based on the customer demand and a cross functional team with specialized experts was formed. The overall processes with sequence are mapped using process flowchart. A cross functional team has been formed to develop the current state of VSM and perform a critical analysis to identify shortcomings. An investigation was performed to overcome the existing shortcomings by identifying opportunities. The relevant kaizens to improve the current state have been proposed. The cross functional team of experts have performed a feasibility study on implementation of proposed kaizens. Finally, a future state of VSM after implementation of feasible kaizens has been reported. Findings: The results show that future state of VSM brings out the positive impact with respect to process ratio, TAKT time, process inventory level, total lead time and bottleneck time. The proposed improvement also helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery. Research limitations/implications: Present study is focussed on a single product family cell in one of the auto-component organization. Originality/value: Helps practitioners in the auto-component industry to implement the VSM effectively in their organization.