Application of Value Stream Mapping for Productivity Improvement-Case Study of a Foundry Industry

The term value stream mapping is defined as a lean manufacturing tool which includes all the actions both value added and non-value added required bringing a product into its finished state. In today’s global competitive world, the era of mass production and pull system is over and companies are experiencing a heavy pressure because of globalization. Main objective of any organisation become satisfying customer requirements. Value is now defined by customer point of view as customer willing to pay and what worthiness that product has for them. They will not pay for any waste and companies have to be focused on this. Thus, companies need to implement Value Stream Mapping (VSM) because it has been established as one of the best and most convenient tools of lean manufacturing implementation and to identify and eliminate all kind of wastes. This paper presents a case study of application of value stream mapping in an Indian foundry industry. This industry was manufacturing Crusher Jaw plates. The application of these plates is in stone cutting plants. The case study has been used to show the applicability and importance of VSM in foundry industry. Current state of the jaw plate manufacturing has been developed by using VSM symbols. This current state map was then used to identify areas for improvements. From the findings of CVSM it was observed that lead time was quite high for given demand, Cycle Time was more than Takt time and number of operators could be reduced by combining operations. As a result, including individual improvements in WIP, Labour Utilisation, Cycle Time, Lead Time, Changeover Time, the overall improvement was found near to 22%.