Implementation of Lean Concepts Using

Value Stream Mapping in Automotive

Firm

Abhishek Deokar, S. Aravind Raj, K. Jayakrishna and H. Abdul Zubar

Abstract Lean manufacturing is the concept used to identify potential waste in

industries to survive in competitive market. Lean concept was introduced by auto-
motive firm known as Toyota Production System (TPS). The need of lean facilitates
increase in productivity. Value stream mapping (VSM) is a lean tool to identify
value-added and non-value-added activities in production line. This chapter focuses
on studying the current state map of an automotive firm and to implement value
stream mapping (VSM) to design future state map using appropriate lean tools to
increase the productivity and eliminate non-value-added activities. The study was
conducted on crankshaft line of an engine shop in an automotive firm. After con-
ducting study, successful implementation of the VSM tools resulted in the reduction
of cycle time by 56, 227, and 155 s of oil-hole drilling, induction hardening, and
grinding, respectively. The productivity was improved by 24 units on an average
after complete implementation of future state VSM.

Keywords Lean manufacturing · Value stream mapping (VSM) · Lead time ·

Quality improvement · Kaizen

1 Introduction

The concept of lean manufacturing was developed and implemented by Toyota

Motors [1]. The main objective was to reduce manufacturing cost and deliver increase
in value to the customer. Reduction in manufacturing cost can be done by considering
non-value-added activities. VSM tools like Kaizen (continuous improvement), Muda

A. Deokar · S. Aravind Raj (B) · K. Jayakrishna

Department of Manufacturing Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute
of Technology, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: [email protected]
H. Abdul Zubar
Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University,
Jeddha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 141

S. S. Hiremath et al. (eds.), Advances in Manufacturing Technology,
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6374-0_17
142 A. Deokar et al.

(waste reduction), Just-In-Time (JIT), VSM, Kanban, cellular manufacturing, and

single minute of exchange die (SMED) were developed for optimal use of resources
[2, 3]. Across the world, automobile sector has highly emerged demanding manufac-
turing unit. Due to huge customer population, there is constant increase in demand
for automotive products. Globally automotive industry is facing huge competition in
each and every aspect [1]. Lean manufacturing is the perfect solution to the various
problems such as quality, work in progress (WIPs), bottlenecks, inventory, and pro-
cessing time being faced by automotive sector. VSM tool of lean manufacturing is a
process which monitors the existing manufacturing process with the help of current
state map and recreates it with certain change known as future state map which helps
to add value with respect to the customer. Numerous tools such as Kaizen, Muda,
Gemba, 5S, TPM, and TQM enable the organization to reduce the wastes and change
the current working structure of the organization and thereby increase the production
[4]. Practically, it is impossible to achieve 100% output in process. However, with
the help of lean concept and VSM tools, it can be minimized up to certain extent so
that it can be beneficial to the organization in terms of productivity, cost reduction,
quality, manpower, and less production lead time [5–7].

2 Case Study

This research was carried out in a leading automobile industry located in Pune, Maha-
rashtra, India. There are various shops formed in the company such as transaxle shop,
engine shop, paint shop, assembly shop, and research and development center. After
analyzing and discussing with respective shop head, engine shop was selected for the
research work. The company performs operations on four different engine parts of
an engine in an engine shop, viz. (1) engine head, (2) block head, (3) crankshaft, and
(4) camshaft. After collection of relevant data and discussing with the manager of an
engine shop, the most critical product, i.e., crankshaft, has been selected for the value
stream mapping. In this study, crankshaft of diesel engine has been studied, as the
particular car was having huge demand in the market. As the target for crankshafts
was 120 per shift, however on an average 80 per shift was achievable. Following is
the information about working structure of the company.
(1) Number of shifts—2
(2) Target—120 jobs/shift
(3) Available time—8 h/shift
Total available time per shift
(4) Take time 
Total demand time per shift
8 × 60 × 60

120
 240 s
Implementation of Lean Concepts Using Value Stream Mapping … 143

Actual operating time

(5) Uptime 
Available time
480 min
  100%
480 min

3 Literature Review

Belokar et al. [4] implemented VSM in the manufacturing unit of Malaysia. D54T
from front disk assembly was selected, because it did not meet daily target. Future
state map revealed the wastes and increased the productivity, thereby meeting daily
production target. In Hines and Rich [5] VSM was developed to collect and use group
of tools to help researchers and various organizations to find various wastes and find
better ways to eliminate it. Aziziand Manoharan [8] studied PCB assembly line to
implement lean techniques. The main objective of the paper was to reveal the factors
which affect the smart tag production. The SMED technique was implemented at
the insertion process that was bottleneck. SMED technique was successfully imple-
mented as the machine setup time in the insertion process was reduced from 145
to 54 s. Tyagi et al. [9] explored about concept of VSM to the product develop-
ment process (PDP) stresses on the importance of faster product development for the
right edge on the market. Paper was narrowed down to the concept of development
of product. Further research is to be done in the field of value stream mapping on
other process of an organization. Rosa et al. [10] explored to change current working
methods of the assembly line to avoid delays in future if the customer demand is
increased. Various VSM tools such as 5S, TPM, and Kaizen were used to eliminate
waste and other issues, which increased the productivity of the line by 41% [11–13].

4 Field Data Collection

4.1 Analysis of Current State Map

4.1.1 Bottleneck

In crankshaft production line bottleneck was found at the oil-hole drilling operation.
The frequent breakdown of machine caused delay in the operation and subsequently
more WIPs. Tool life of the drills was 60 jobs. Hence, operator had to change the
drills twice in 1 shift, which approximately costs one hour in 1 shift.
144 A. Deokar et al.

4.1.2 Improper Sequence of Operation

It has been observed that improper sequence of operations has been affecting the
productivity of crankshaft line. Many times due to unavailability of operator, debur-
ring operation is done after oil-hole drilling which is to be done immediately after
milling operations. Instead, it is done as milling—oil-hole drilling—deburring. Due
to this issue, jobs had to travel to and fro causing more WIPs and inventory leading
to more lead time and affecting the overall production of crankshaft line. Similar
case was found at induction hardening.

4.1.3 WIP

Large amount of work in process (WIP) between the processes hinders the further
operation resulting in delays. Operations such as induction hardening, grinding, and
oil-hole drilling contribute large amount of WIPs as compared to other operations.
This is mainly because unavailability of worker at workplace, breakdowns, issues
with the manager, improper sequence of operations, and lack of planning.

4.1.4 Work Standards

Work ethics and culture of the production line have been affecting the production in
terms productivity and lead time. It has been observed that operators of the various
machines at crankshaft line do not follow certain work ethics such as tools which are
not kept on assigned place. Many times cleaning of machinery before starting the
operation is neglected by the operators.

4.2 Implementation of VSM Tools

Figure 1 shows the current state VSM of case company with seven operations and
processing lead time as 2237 seconds.

4.2.1 Implementation of TPM

TPM was implemented on oil-hole drilling machine to avoid frequent breakdown

due to various maintenance issues occurred.
5S: This VSM tool was implemented to improve work ethics among the operators
and to follow certain rules imposed by management. 5S was essential to reduce the
wastage of time occurred due to unavailability of certain tools, gloves, and helmets
from their respective places.
Implementation of Lean Concepts Using Value Stream Mapping … 145

Fig. 1 Current state map

4.2.2 Implementation of the Modified Process by Elimination

and Combination Operations

Induction hardening was done on two machines. Due to unavailability of the shank
hardening coil at first machine, all jobs had to travel around 50 meters distance to get
shank hardened at second machine. After discussing with the management, with the
help of manager and line supervisor, they agree to shut down one induction hardening
machine and to harden all parts of crankshaft on second machine. Hence, to reduce
the processing lead time, immediately after oil-hole drilling deburring operation, all
jobs were shifted to second machine (Alfing). As a result, the cycle time reduced
from 395 to 168 s. However, certain changes had to made in the Alfing machine
to harden all parts of crankshaft, which costs around 0.8 million to the company.
Grinding and key way milling operations were leaned with the jigs and fixture tools
(Fig. 1).

4.3 Results

Implementation of VSM tools on current state map had shown significant reduc-
tion in cycle time of operations such as drilling, induction hardening, and grinding.
Eliminating bottleneck from the crankshaft line was major reason in the reduction of
processing lead time. The prominent waste identified was bottleneck, due to bottle-
neck large amount of WIPs used to create in the process. In continuation to that idle
time for following machines were reduced thereby lead time improvised by imple-
menting VSM tools such as 5S, TPM which increases the productivity of crankshaft
line. Results showed reduction in processing lead time of 438 s. Successful imple-
146 A. Deokar et al.

Fig. 2 Future state VSM

mentation of the VSM tools resulted in the reduction of cycle time by 56, 227, and
155 s of oil-hole drilling, induction hardening, and grinding, respectively. Finally,
there was an increase in the productivity, on an average by 24 units. Figure 2 shows the
future state VSM of case company with reduced processing lead time 1899 seconds.

5 Conclusion

Lean manufacturing is a technique which has become necessity in the manufacturing

sector. Many researchers had proved that to overcome various constraints during
production, lean manufacturing is been used. As a result, industries are keen to adopt
lean concept in their industries. Current state map has been drawn after the selection
of product family. And after analyzing and implementation of VSM tools, future
state is drawn.
It can be concluded that implementation of VSM reduces cycle time and lead time
and increases the productivity by eliminating various types of wastes and bottlenecks.
As we cannot obtain 100% output in any process, similarly there are certain wastes
which cannot be eliminated by using lean manufacturing too. After implementation
of VSM on current state map, the results showed 15% reduction in cycle time of
drilling operation, 57.46% reduction in induction hardening operation, and 26.4%
in grinding operation. Hence, industrial organization which is facing problems in
productivity, cycle time, and lead time should adopt lean manufacturing using VSM
tools to overcome the issue up to certain extent.
Implementation of Lean Concepts Using Value Stream Mapping … 147

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