Work Standardization in Lean Manufacturing for Improvement of Production Line Performance in SME

Abstract

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy and production system that provides all humanly conceived soft technology to remove waste in any production line. One of the requirements of lean is work standardization. Work standards impose a 'rule of law' in a production line by restricting operators to how long they should work on a single unit. The standards consist of the standard workflow, standard work time, and standard quantity that must be adhered to to meet the customers' demands. The main objectives of this study were to improve the performance of a production line, say SW660 x 600, in terms of weekly output, lead time, and work-in-process (WIP). By applying certain lean elements to the production line, this work indeed improved the performance of the production line. In this work, 5S, PDCA cycle, SPC, and VSM tools were used together to solve the production line problems systematically. It was noticed that the low weekly output and long cycle time at each workstation resulted in delays in the delivery of products to customers. The study managed to increase the weekly output from 61.75 per week to 128.75, an improvement of more than 108.50 percent. Next, in terms of lead time, with the help of a simulation exercise, this work also managed to reduce the lead time from 5 to 1 hour, a reduction of 80 percent. Lastly, the WIP also recorded a reduction from an average of 17 to 9 units weekly, which was an improvement of 47 percent on the weekly WIP. Therefore, this work showed that with the introduction of work standards on the production line, the organization could meet the customers' demands and deliver on time as promised. The study can also be used in other production lines of this and other organizations to help improve their production line performance in the long run.