Proc.

National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana

Application of Lean Tool to reduce Wok in Progress

*Rajender Kumar, **Vinod Dhull and ***Dr. V.K.Singla
Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, N.C.C.E., Israna, Panipat, India ** Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, J.I.E.T., Jind, India ***Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala, India
(e-mails: rajender629@yahoo.com, vinod_ikkas@yahoo.com and vsingla@thapar.edu)
*

Abstract: Lean manufacturing is an end-to-end collection of processes that create value for the customer. This concept is popularized by Toyota and is known as a Toyota Production System. Lean is a systematical approach to identify and eliminate waste through continuous improvement following the product at the pull of customer in pursuit of perfection. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is an important tool for implementing lean philosophy. VSM is a method to describe the flow of material and information through the production system. It also helps to find where value is added and where value is lost by graphically portraying the processes. The ratio of value added to total leadtime is determined by documenting the current lead-time, inventory levels and cycle times. The visual representation provides a view of where costs can be reduced and improvements can be made. Then the future states can be designed where waste steps are left out and continuous flow and pull production are introduced. In the present study an attempt has been made to identify and eliminate different type of wastage with the application of lean tools in an automobile industry. In STL, crankcase has been selected due to high economic value and complicated processing cycle resulting into excessive work in process inventory and long lead-time problem. The detailed analysis of current state has been presented and the opportunities for improvement have been presented for eliminating various waste elements and future state VSM has been developed. Solutions suggested lead to a significant decrease in production lead time, work in process inventory and hence overall cost ultimately and solve many problems at customer end.

Keywords: Kaizen, TPM, Just In Time, Six Sigma and 5S. 1. INTRODUCTION After World War I Japanese manufactures were faced the dilemma of vast shortages of material, financial, and human resources. The problems that Japanese manufacturers were faced with differed from those of their Western counterparts. These conditions resulted in the birth of the "lean" manufacturing concept. In order to make a move toward improvement early Japanese leaders such as Toyota Kichiro, Shigeo Shingo, and Taichi Ohno devised a new, disciplined, process-oriented system, which is known today as the "Toyota Production System," or "Lean Manufacturing." Taichi Ohno, who was given the task of developing a system that would enhance productivity at Toyota is generally considered to be the primary force behind this system. Ohno drew upon some ideas from the West, and particularly from Henry Ford's book "Today and Tomorrow." Ford's moving assembly line of continuously flowing material formed the basis for the Toyota Production System. After some experimentation, the Toyota Production System was developed and refined between 1945 and 1970, and is still growing today all over the world. The basic underlying idea of this system is to minimize the consumption of resources that add no value to a product. In order to compete in today's fiercely competitive market, US manufacturers have come to realize that the traditional mass production concept has to be adapted to the new ideas of lean manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing focuses on eliminating waste while delivering quality products at the lowest cost to the manufacturer and consumer. Lean methods typically lead to significant environmental benefits. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the 7 wastes (Overproduction, Waiting time, Transportation, Over-processing, Inventory, Motion and Scrap) in manufactured products. By eliminating waste, quality is improved, production time is reduced, and cost is reduced. Lean "tools" include constant process analysis (kaizen), "pull" production (by means of KANBAN), and

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana mistake-proofing (poke yoke). The Five lean manufacturing principles given by Burton and Boeder (2003) are as under: 1. Accurately specific values from the customer's perspective for both products and services. 2. Identify the value stream for products and services and remove non-value-adding waste along the value stream. 3. Make the product and services flow without interruption across the value stream. 4. Authorize production of products and services based on pull by customer. 5. Strive the perfection by constantly removing later of waste. 2. LITERATURE SURVEY Haycs and Clark (1986) established that transportation time is another source of waste. Moving parts from one end of the facility to another end does not add value to the product. Thus, it is important to decrease transportation times within the manufacturing process. One way to do this is to utilize a cellular manufacturing layout to ensure a continuous flow of the product. This also helps eliminate one other source of waste, which is energy. When machines and people are grouped into-cells unproductive operations 'can be minimized because a group of people can be fully dedicated to that cell and this avoids excess human utilization. Another source of waste is defects and scrap materials. Manufacturing parts that are fault-free from the beginning have profound consequences for productivity. Ohno (1988) identified that the Toyota production system has been created on the practice and evolution of one very useful technique that reduces cost and time while challenges every activity in the value stream. It is applying a methodology known as the "Five whys, "By asking why an activity is performed and then asking why after each response, it is frequently possible to get to the origin of the problem. Understanding the root cause assists in successful redesign. Dankbaar (1997) established that lean production makes optimal use of the skills of the workforce, by giving workers more than one task, by integrating direct and indirect work, and by encouraging continuous improvement activities. As a result, lean production is able to manufacture a larger variety of products, at lower costs and higher quality, with less of every input, compared to traditional mass production: less human effort, less space, less investment, and less development time. Hines et al (1997) found an application of value stream mapping in the distribution industry. Partsco, a distributor of electronic, electrical, and mechanical component decided to map the activities between the firm and its suppliers. Partsco introduce EDI which allowed the firm to work with its suppliers effectively and more quickly. In a short time period the company was able to reduce the lead-time from 8 to 7 days. Abbett and Payne (1999) developed Current and future state maps with the objective of reducing lead-time according to customer's requirements. 3. LEAN TERMINOLOGY Available Production Time: Determined by taking the shift time and subtracting regular planned downtime events such as breaks. Available Operating Time: Determined by taking the available production time and subtracting changeover time. Batch Size: A technique used to run a determined quantity of parts at one operation prior to moving them to the next operations: Changeover Time: The time that an operator spends at a work center switching the production tools in order to change from one product type to another. Downtimes: Those are considered break times. Downtimes are regular planned times and usually involve unpaid lunch and paid breaks. During a downtime the production does not run. Electronic Data Interchangeable: It is a tool that allows companies to process the purchasing order electronically. Finished Goods: Refers to parts that already have been manufactured and are in the completed stage waiting to be shipped to the customer. Kaizen: Continual improvement involving everyone within an organization (Ohno, 1998) Kanban: A tool to achieve just-in-time which consists of a card. containing all the information required to be done on a product at each stage along its path to completion and which parts are needed at subsequent processes (Monden, 1993) Lead Time: The time that parts take to be transformed from raw material to finished goods.

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana

4. INTRODUCTION TO STANDARD TRACTORS LTD.

In 1975, when the country had high agricultural productivity and also high crop losses due to nonavailability of appropriate harvesting and threshing machines, Sardar Nachhattar Singh, the present MD of Standard Tractors, was silently working on a machine, which could harvest the crop and thresh it as well. With own know-how, he successfully developed some low-cost combine harvester units and started manufacturing first tractor-driven and later self-propelled combine harvester from a small manufacturing unit, now the well known and burgeoning Company Standard Combines Pvt. Ltd. Established by him in around 1980. Mass production of combine harvesters in commercial scale starred in 1980. Today Standard Combines, the Combine Division of Standard Combines Pvt. Ltd., is the largest manufacturer of tractor-driven combine harvesters India. Standard Combines is also producing selfpropelled combines (with 16 feet cutter bar), straw reaper, and tractor-mounted spray boom with a capacity to spray up to 46 feet width. The Company exports tractor-driven combines to South African countries. Tie up process with selected European countries is also underway. The parent company has later (in 2000) opened a separate Tractor Division, named Standard Tractors. Each and every Standard machine evolves and passes out through adequate R&D; and after sale service is ensured for each customer. STANDARD is now a household name among the farmers for producing and supplying high-quality costeffective agricultural machines and equipment from both' Standard Combines and Standard Tractors. STANDARD- produced quality tractors have features useful to farmers for better efficiency and less maintenance cost.

5. DEFINITION OF PROBLEM Standard tractor Ltd. Barnala is one of the largest manufacturing unit of tractor industry in north region of India. Machine Shop of standard tractor is facing problems of delay in delivery process, improper utilization of workforce and higher WIP inventory which lead to poor quality and more input cost and hence reduce profitability. The problem consists of an existing traditional manufacturing system of Machine shop. Machine shop has Radial Drills; Notching m/c, Boring m/c's, Milling m/c, CNC's. Parts have to be transferred from machine to machine to complete the required operations. This arrangement increase material handling cost and decreases labor productivity. These results in delay of orders which further disturb the overall schedule at floor shop and affect the production of machine parts. Although the plant have the ability to produce more than they are producing, it is having following limitations. 1. WIP inventories between various operations are considerably high. 2. Station cycle time variation is more, which lead to production imbalance and WIP inventories on the shop floor. 3. Production lead-time is quite high. 4. Production in the plant is below the installed capacity as per the data of PPC department. 5. Improper utilization of workers. 6. Long distance is covered by products in the plant as revealed by the study of Plant Layout. 5.1 Objectives of Present Work The main objective of this work is to study the operations of the Crank Case Machine Shop of Standard Tractor Barnala from Lean Manufacturing point of view and to identify the gap areas in manufacturing operations by utilizing Value stream mapping technique and to recommend the requisite lean tools. The above objectives will include .the following: 1. To identify various wastes in the manufacturing process. 2. To analyze these wastes from lean considerations.

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana 3. To recommend the appropriate lean tools and their implementation process. 4. To report the improvements in the manufacturing process and the benefits obtained. 5.2 Steps to implement our objectives The methodology for the present work will include the following main steps: 1. To work within the production facility, to have knowledge of the production flow and to be familiar with the activities being performed in the shop floor. 2. Select which value stream to target for the practical mapping. 3. Observe and collect information related to product/process flow from raw material to finished goods for the value stream selected. 4. Determine the current state of the process activities by mapping the material and the information flow. 5. Calculate lean metrics from the value stream map. 6. Look at the current state map for opportunities to eliminate wastes and improve the process flow. 7. Draw future state map by incorporating the necessary changes according to the different lean tools and techniques. 8. Evaluate the benefits obtainable from the lean production techniques. 5.3 I mp l emen tati on of VS M Meth od ol ogy To start improving productivity by identifying waste and then removing it by implementing lean principle in the industry there is no other tool better then VSM. The Value Stream Mapping method (VSM) is a visualization tool oriented to the Lean Manufacturing. It helps to understand and streamline work processes using the tools and techniques of Lean Manufacturing. The goal of VSM is to identify, demonstrate and decrease waste in the process. VSM can thus serve as a blue print for Lean Manufacturing. Generally VSM has four major steps as given by Rother and Shook (1996) is given in Figure 1.
Product

Current State Drawing Future State Drawing

Work Plan

Figure 1 VSM Steps 5.3.1 Interpretation and Solution VSM tool is used in machine shop to examine the source of waste in value stream by the lean concepts and techniques to improve the productivity, quality of existing traditional manufacturing system and hence profit also. The procedure for this work has been chosen to meet each of the objectives. To have a first hand knowledge of the production flow and to be familiar with the activities being performed at the floor shop, It is required to go through all the facilities involved and identified each operation process from raw materials to finished goods and also identified all the places where inventory is stored between the process. It is observed how the semi finished material is flowing from one operation to another. 5.3.2 Application of VSM Now, the VSM approach is implemented in the Standard Tractors Limited for reducing the WIP. For this purpose, the following process is done as: Step-1 Product Selection In the STL industry, it was observed that the industry facing problem from the WIP of Crankcase. So-that, in this work the company's manufacturing unit of crank case is identified for improvements by the Lean Tool.

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana Step-2 Drawing Current State All the processing steps go through once to the value stream or the product is selected, then the data is collected related to the flow of information and materials from raw material to finished goods. Beginning with the information flow, the support of the production planning & control department is also required to collect information related to the communication with customers and supplier, the production controls orders and forecast from the costumers and the frequency of orders released to the production in charge and the frequency of orders released to each operation with in the value stream. In order to map the current state, it is decided to go to the shop floor to perform a one month survey in order to collect data, which began with the receiving area and worked toward the assembly shop.. Collected data of customers end and of supplier of raw material is shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Table 1 Customers data Table 2 Suppliers Data Data Crank Case Data Crank Case Assembly shop of Standard Supplier(Raw Customer Gagta Patil Kulapur (Pune ) Tractor Ltd,Month Material)Supply Monthly Demand 150 Pcs / Barnala Monthly 170 Pcs / Month Delivery Daily -6 pcs Supply Rate 1 / month Requirement Now the average data for each value added process is collected for the month of January and February 2010 such as batch size, C/T, no. of operators. Data collected for crank case is shown in Table 3. Table 3 Data Collection for Crank Case (Current State Map) Available Time of C/T No. of Inventory Operation M/C Per day (Sees) Operators In front of each process (Hrs) Marking Milling Operation Rough Boring Drilling and Chamfering Notching operation Angle hole drilling Sump Tapping Cap fitting and forming Rough Boring Line Boring Counter Boring Starter Milling Bed Setting Deep hole drilling Threading Operation Pump side drilling Tappet Boring Inspection 4200 6060 4800 4380 3180 3000 2100 2640 4380 6300 3600 3540 3240 3420 6540 2700 3000 3300 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 ?.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 15 pcs 16 PCs 8Pcs 11 PCs 7 PCs 9 PCs 8 PCs 11 PCs 13 PCs 17 PCs 8 PCs 10 PCs 7 PCs 9 PCs 19 PCs 9 PCs 11 PCs 8 PCs

Observation from Current State Mapping Workers Job Satisfaction Operators Require Continuous Training on Advanced Lead Times are long High NP Inventories between Various Work Stations Production area is often disorganized Implementation of VSM

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana

Step-3 Drawing Future State of VSM While mapping the current state VSM of crank case and problems of large amount of inventory, the unconnected processes (each producing to its own schedule) pushing their output forward, and the long lead time in comparison to the short processing time, long travel distance are seen. To build future state first of a11 takt time is calculated for crank case. As Standard Tractor Ltd has machine shop production and product is crankcase. Takt Time Calculations : Takt Time refers to the rate at which customers are buying products from the production line; i.e., the unit production rate that must be met to match customer requirements. Takt time = Working Time available per day Demand per day

Takt time includes no time for equipment downtime. In figures total available time is also shown. Total available time is divided into two parts one is total cycle time and other is total loss time. Total loss time includes setup times, maintenance times, power failure, worker absenteeism, tool not available and no load. Immediate steps must be taken to reduce cycle time of corresponding processes. To reduce setup time for M/c's, if possible, increase M/c availability for corresponding processes having takt time less then cycle time and use machine grouping. To bring the work content under the takt time kaizen must be applied, if this fails then overtime is to be used. Step-4 Implementation of Proposed solution (work plan) The implementation phase of this lean initiative requires to: A. Build awareness of the future state B. Empower individuals C. Squeeze more from existing resources D. Fix problems quickly E. Implement Continual Improvement Plans (Kanban System) F. Sustain the gains A. Build awareness of the future state Building awareness of lean tools and clarifying misconceptions is a critical step that we can accomplish through conversations, simple visual tools, and practice. While the initial pilot program failed to generate sustainable improvements, it helped operators realize that lean tools reduce lead times. The operators even enjoyed working on one job instead of several jobs simultaneously. B. Empower individuals Leadership must empower all concerned to make decisions that affect programs that are production-ready and programs that are in engineering development. Since engineering stakeholders like operators and shop supervisors are accustomed to decide which lot deserves priority, the transition of authority to decide upon day to day problems associated with quality and maintenance aspects. It is one o the basic principle of Lean manufacturing to empower people. C. Implement visual tools Visual tools greatly facilitate the reduction of these "measurement, reporting, and perception delays". More broadly, we can use visual tools to: Explain the production system's design State the expected duration of specific tasks Communicate the status of on-going jobs instantly. Display of production data, rework and rejection as well D. Implement Kanban System

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana An important determinant of the success of production scheduling based on "pushing" the demand is the quality of the demand forecast that can receive such "push." Kanban, by contrast, is part of an approach of receiving the "pull" from the demand. Therefore, the supply or production is determined according to the actual demand of the customers. In contexts where supply time is lengthy and demand is difficult to forecast, the best one can do is to respond quickly to observed demand. This is exactly what a kanban system can help with: It is used as a demand signal that immediately propagates through the supply chain. This can be used to ensure that intermediate stocks held in the supply chain are better managed, usually smaller. Where the supply response cannot be quick enough to meet actual demand fluctuations, causing significant lost sales, then stock building may be deemed as appropriate which can be achieved by issuing more kanban. For implementing lean methodology tool, firstly made the grouping of machines in value stream maps and the Bar graph of all machines is generated . In STL company machine shop m /c-2, m/c-3, m/c4,m/c-9, m/c-17 are all CNC m/cs. In this study m/c 2 and m/c 17 are considered for experimental work. The takt -time are calculated for both machines and observed value is seventy five minutes. Now, it has been observed from machine shop that operator of m/c-2 takes 101 minutes to produce one piece. So the machine produces 5 pieces daily in a shift of 8 hours but company required 6 pieces in same time. And it is also observed that m/c 17 take 50 minutes per piece. So this m/c produces six pieces in five hours. Both the m/cs are interrelated with each other. Then through analysis, the timetable of m/c-2 and m/c-17 are adjusted and observed that the production of the Crank case piece will improve. Similarly, through making adjustment of time between other machines results in reducing WIP and improves Labor efficiency. E. Sustain the Gains Ultimately, a lean production system is only successful if it enables higher throughput or lowers production costs. Often, a properly implemented lean production system will achieve both simultaneously. Higher throughput often results from quicker problem resolution and quicker redeployment of resources to increase bottleneck capacity. Cost savings result from several avenues including reduced rework, reduced inventorycarrying costs, and increased productivity. While it is relatively easy to understand how lean principles can lead to a reduction in rework and a reduction in inventory, it is somewhat more difficult to establish a causal relationship between WIP reduction and increased productivity. Qualitative statements are easy: a reduction in WIP simplifies production and helps operators focus on tasks critical to maintaining high throughput levels. Quantifying these benefits is, however, difficult. Nevertheless, quantifying these benefits is critical to gain the support of individuals who question in benefits of lead-time reduction. If the machine shop uses lean initiative, Result may be greater than 50.5% reduction in production lead-time. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE In this study the methodology is implemented to manufacture the crank case system at Standard Tractor Ltd, Barnala. A pull system is introduced to control the production and raw material delivery using Kanban system and some processes, where it is possible are linked within a single cell to assure continuous production between them. Comparison showed the superiority of the proposed lean manufacturing system over the existing traditional manufacturing system. The lean system showed reduction in total lead-time by 50.5 %. Also no. of operators involved in processing of crank case is reduced from 23 to 17. Table 5 Comparison between previous and proposed conditions Production lead No. of operators time Involved Before After 49.5 Days 24.5 Days 23 17

From the Table 5, It is observed that Large amount of waste can be removed after using Pull System in Standard Tractor Ltd. Work in process inventories between various operations has reduced to a low value. Cycle time has reduced Production lead-time has been reduced from 49.5 days to 24.5 days. For Crank Case total production lead-time is reduced by 50.5 %.

Proc. National Conference on Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 29th-30th Oct, 2010, GNDEC Ludhiana

No. Of operators involved in processing of crankcase is reduced from 23 to 17.there is 26.08% reduction in manpower. It resulted in better and optimum utilization of labor and human resources.

VSM (value stream mapping) proves to be a powerful technique, which provides a company with a "blueprint" for strategic planning to deploy the principles of Lean Thinking for their transformation into a Lean Enterprise. The Concept and technique of VSM can be extended beyond the suppliers and customers for a given facility where opportunities for cost savings may be more. Lean manufacturing concept can be extended at the enterprise level. Value stream mapping tool can be further used along with simulation to predict the result of lean tools well in advance of its implementation. REFERENCES Chandandeep S. Grewal and Kuldeep K. Sareen (2006). "Development of model for lean improvement: A case study of automobile industry". Industrial Engineering Journal, Vol. xxxv, No, 5, pp 24-27. Hines, P., Rich, N. & Esain, A. (1997), "Creating a Lean Supplier Network: A Distribution Industry Case," Proceedings of the Logistics Research Network Conference, Huddersfield, U.K.: University of Huddersfield, pp. 60-77. Hines, P., Rich, N., Bicheno, J., Brunt, D. & Taylor D. (1998), "Value Stream Manangement," The International Journals of Logistics Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 25-42. Keyte, B. & Locher, D. (2004), "The Complete Lean Ohno, T. (1988), "Toyota Production system: Beyond Large Scale Production", (Productivity Press: Cambridge, MA). Ohno, T. (1997), "Toyota Produciton system : Beyond Large Scale Produciton", (Productivity Press: Cambridge, MA).

Pavnaskar, S.J., Gershenso, J.K and Jambekar, A.B. (2003), "Classificaton scheme for lean manufacturing tools. Internaltional Journal of Production Research", Vol. 41, pp. 3075-3090. Rother, M. & Shook, J. (1999), "Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate Muda", Brookline, MA: Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org). Seth, D. and Gupta V. (2005). "Application of value stream mapping for lean operations and cycle time reduction: An Indian case study", International Journals of Production Planning and Control Vol. 16 No. 1.1 pp 44-59.