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LM
Lean manufacturing implementation
implementation using value using VSM
stream mapping as a tool
89
A case study from auto components industry
Received 30 April 2012
Naga Vamsi Krishna Jasti and Aditya Sharma Revised 25 March 2013
Department of Mechanical Engineering, 1 September 2013
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India Accepted 4 September 2013

Abstract
Purpose – Value stream mapping (VSM) is a lean manufacturing (LM) tool used for analyzing
material and information flow on a specific product family. The purpose of this article is to address the
importance of VSM in LM environment in an Indian auto components industry.
Design/methodology/approach – The case study approach has been used to show the
applicability and importance of VSM in an Indian auto components company, in which the current
state of manufacturing is mapped with the help of VSM symbols. According to the current state
mapping, the study conducted analysis and identifies the area of improvement needed in terms of
work in process, lead time and cycle time. The study further implemented kaizen on the current state
map and developed future state map while including these kaizens.
Findings – The study clearly shows that the VSM brings out the positive impact on process ratio,
TAKT time, process inventory level, line speed, total lead and process time and reduced man power. It
is helping the company in satisfying their customers with respect to quality, cost and delivery.
Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the study is the confined focus on a
single industry. The case should be extended to other industries in order to support the findings and
for the purpose of the wider generalization.
Practical implications – The results obtained from the study will help other industries and sectors
to implement VSM in LM environment.
Originality/value – The article deals with a real case study, which shows application of VSM for
implementing lean principles.
Keywords Lean manufacturing, Case study, Kaizen, Auto components, Value stream mapping
Paper type Case study

1. Introduction
India is becoming one of the major automotive vehicle manufacturing hubs in the world.
The growth of automotive industry is around 14-17 percentage noticed in every year
(Sharma and Kodali, 2008). Before the year 1990, Indian automotive organizations were
comfortable with a protectionist economy. In last decade of twentieth century, many
of the world class manufacturing organizations started to transform their location
preference to India and China. Indian manufacturing originations are struggling to International Journal of Lean Six
achieve better productivity in comparison with other developing country organizations. Sigma
Vol. 5 No. 1, 2014
Indian manufacturing organizations’ productivity growth rate is around 5 percent pp. 89-116
that was very low compared to 7.31 percent for China, 9.45 percent for Singapore q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2040-4166
and 8.65 percent for Pakistan (Upadhye et al., 2010). In the current era of global DOI 10.1108/IJLSS-04-2012-0002
IJLSS competitiveness, Indian manufacturing organizations are facing enormous pressure
5,1 from their customers to reduce cost and improve quality so as to win the market share
(Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001). The aforementioned factors are pushing the
companies either to reduce or eliminate waste so as to increase their efficiency, which
brings out the products with less cost, better quality and less lead time (George, 2002).
Hence, lean principles are not just an option for Indian manufacturing companies, but a
90 necessity for their survival. “Lean” is a philosophy that aims at elimination of non-value
added activities from the process and it treats the activities that do not add value to the
customer requirement as waste (Bhasin and Burcher, 2006). The concept of lean
manufacturing (LM) is widely known to the companies globally. However, there is a lack
of conceptual and practical knowledge about lean principles, lean tools and techniques
and the ways for its implementation among the Indian manufacturing industries. LM is
gaining importance with the trend of cutting down cost and reducing waste to gain
competitive advantage in Indian manufacturing sector. Due to implementation of LM
principles many manufacturing industries across the world have cut down their cost of
the product in manufacturing phase as well as rising their profits, which is a motivating
factor for majority of the Indian manufacturing organizations and hence they started
to implement LM concepts in their organization (Anand and Kodali, 2008). It is just a
beginning phase of lean principles in Indian manufacturing scenario. The present
study tries to identify the adoptability of LM tool and its implementation approach in
Indian auto-component industry.
The study considered case study approach to show the significance of value stream
mapping (VSM) tool in auto-component industry. The case study approach is generally
used to check any tool applicability and generate the complex relationships between
various variables to propose new theories (Wacker, 1998). The present case study (auto
component) organization is one of the suppliers to the automobile original equipment
manufacturers (OEM). The growth of automobile sector has broadened that helps to
improve the scope of the auto component industries. The study has applied VSM in the
Indian auto components company, so as to demonstrate how it can be perform better in
operational activities after implementing VSM. From this exercise, it emerges that LM
can help Indian auto component industry to eliminate wastes, improve process
stability, maintain better inventory control, reduce associated costs and increase
production efficiency.
The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 2 deals with literature review on
VSM. Section 3 introduces the background of the company under the study. Section 4 is
devoted to research methodology adopted in the study. The subsequent Section 5
contains information about the case study implementation, kaizen events and the
related calculations. Finally, in Section 6, the results and the conclusion of the present
research are presented.

2. Literature review
In the present scenario, automobile industry is considered one of the prime manufacturing
industries across globe. This industry plays vital role in terms of change our most basic
ideas and thoughts of manufacturing activities (Womack and Jones, 1996). In 1950s,
Japanese manufacturing industries have struggled with shortage of financial resources,
man power resources, and less availability of space. In the same period, the customer
demand in terms of variety, quality and service were in its peak. To satisfy the customer
requirements with minimum resources was a huge task in front of Japanese LM
manufacturing industries. To achieve the same object, Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno implementation
have developed a new production system called “Toyota Production System” with
combination of the knowledge of master craftsmen and the concept of standardization using VSM
with the help of teamwork thought. With that Japanese manufacturing industries have
fulfilled and satisfied the customer requirements with minimum resources and attracted
the attention of the western manufacturing competitors. Krafcik (1988) has reviewed 91
Toyota production system and introduced the famous term “lean production (LP) system”.
The term LP initially got the popularity in western world with the book “The machine that
changed the World” written by Womack et al. (1990). Initially LM have projected as set of
principles, slowly converted as a manufacturing strategy and finally emerged as
manufacturing philosophy. The primary focus of LM philosophy is to reduce waste
activities from industry to enhance customer value and thus become more competitive
(Liker, 1998). Waste is an activity, which will not provide any value addition to the final
product or customer aspects (Russell and Taylor, 1999). According to Ohno’s, wastes could
be classified into seven categories. The seven categories of wastes are: over production,
waiting, transportation, inappropriate processing, unnecessary inventory, unnecessary
motions, and defects (Monden, 1993). The positive impact of LM principles in
manufacturing activities resulted that the principles have also applied across the product
development, supply chain management, administration activities (Womack and Jones,
1994). The benefits received by manufacturing industries with the implementation of LM
forced other sector industries like service, construction, health care and process industries
to implement LM principles in the respective organizations. In last two decades, many
studies like Jasti et al. (2012); Piercy and Rich (2009) have tried to use various tools,
techniques and principles to achieve excellence in the implementation of LM in various
organizations. Few researchers have proposed new elements of LM to implement in the
organization to get desired results (Anand and Kodali, 2010). Many researchers like
Pettersen (2009), Papadopoulou and Ozbayrak (2005) have performed review conceptually
on various aspects of LM.
Many researchers like Brown and Bessant (2003), Prince and Kay (2003),
Sharifi and Zhang (2001) started to argue agile manufacturing can provide better
results than LM due to its characteristics to respond promptly and efficiently as
per requirements of dynamic market place. Agile manufacturing is one of the
manufacturing strategies that rapidly entering the organizations and provide
solutions to the individual customer requirements. Where, LM provides high quality
products with low cost by elimination of waste to the customer in the manufacturing
processes (Maskell, 2001). Narasimhan et al. (2006) discussed agile manufacturing is
more useful manufacturing strategy in highly dynamic environments. But various
conditions of dynamic markets did not well-defined in the literature. However, the
same study also revealed that the performance perspective of agile organizations is
inferior to LM organizations. Hence, LM principles have strong base in literature and
have so many articles published in operations research journals as well as
implemented in many organizations to achieve excellence in manufacturing. LM uses
several tools and techniques like VSM, 5S, kaizen, total quality management (TQM),
kanbans, total preventive maintenance (TPM), poka yoke, etc. to identify and
remove the waste from any procedures (Shah and Ward, 2003, 2007; Singh and
Sharma, 2009).
IJLSS One of the main powerful tools used in LM is VSM (Abdulmalek and Rajgopal et al.,
5,1 2007; Braglia et al., 2006). Rother and Shook (1998) reported that wherever the product
is developing for customer, there should be a value stream. VSM is an important tool
that helps managers to understand the current operational conditions and recognize
improvement opportunities to improve the operational performance. VSM is a
language of symbol and is used as a technique for analyzing material and information
92 flow (Jones and Womack, 2000). It can be used within the factory in a particular
production family as well as beyond the boundaries of the organization. According to
Kalsaas (2002), VSM is a qualitative tool that reduces the inventory pipeline and leads
to reduction in throughput time. So far VSM has proved very effective in identifying
and eliminating waste. VSM is the technique that identifies all of the value-adding as
well as non-value-adding activities that materials are subjected to within the plant,
from raw material coming from the supplier into the plant converted to finished
product end-delivery to the customer (Rosentrater and Balamuralikrishna, 2006). It can
be implemented in any industry, to any activity and expanded downstream or
upstream (Seth et al., 2008). VSM has many sub-tools to carry out all the activities
involved in any system. Hines and Rich (1997) have proposed seven VSM tools that can
be effectively used – singularly or in combination, depending on the requirements of
the value stream.
The complex nature in manufacturing and business activities is mounting day by
day with that newer value stream tools are also emerging. It resulted that a huge
number of tools and techniques developed to fulfill different objectives and waste
reduction. Even though many researchers like New (1974, 1993), Forza et al. (1993),
Beesley (1994) and Jessop and Jones (1995) have used individual tools to identify
different value streams, regarding their overlapping nature and use much more
needs to be done. That is why newer classification and application areas are emerging.
Hines and Rich (1997) have proposed classification scheme about seven new mapping
tools that are: process activity mapping, supply-chain response matrix, production
variety funnel, quality filter mapping, demand amplification mapping, decision point
analysis and physical structure mapping. Pavnaskar et al. (2003) have proposed another
set of classification scheme for LM tools and allied. The classification scheme has
prepared with seven levels: system, object, operation, activity, resource, characteristic
and application. Each and every particular level has linked methodically. Hence the LM
tools and metrics, or manufacturing waste problems, have been classified in a
meaningful and systematical way. Lamming et al. (2000) have reported the classification
of supply networks using lean concepts. With that the application and scope of these
tools increases persistently to apply individually or in combination as per the value
streams requirements in diverse areas such as manufacturing, product development and
supply-chain management. Shen and Han (2006) mentioned about the VSM collaboration
tool and extended its application to connect value chains in both customer and supplier
ends. Numerous researchers have studied implementation of VSM in various phases
from collecting raw material to delivery finished products. Hines (1999) has presented
work on supply chain improvement using VSM tool. Brunt (2000) has made an attempt
to implement VSM across the whole supply chain. McDonald et al. (2002) have reported
an application of VSM enhanced through simulation on a particular production line in
one of the manufacturing industries. Lummus et al. (2006) have used VSM in physician’s
clinic to reduce waiting time of the patient as well as stress on the staff. Lian and
Van Landeghem (2007) have analyzed the effects of LM using a VSM-based simulation LM
generator. Lasa et al. (2008) have implemented VSM tool successfully in plastic industry implementation
and improved productivity, lead time, process inventory, etc. Solding and Gullander (2009)
have presented a simulation-based dynamic VSM to analyze more complex systems. using VSM
Only a few case studies have been reported from Indian manufacturing industry on
VSM application. Seth and Gupta (2005) describes VSM as the complete process of
mapping the raw material and information flows of all the processes in a value stream 93
that starts from suppliers to production process and distribution to the end customer.
Sahoo et al. (2008) have implemented VSM tool in forging industry and improved
in all aspects of production system. Seth et al. (2008) have presented a case study on
VSM application in cottonseed oil industry and reduced their inventory as well as
increased the productivity of the organization. Vinodh et al. (2010) have reported a case
study on implementation of VSM in Indian automobile industry. The same study
reported that the effective implementation of VSM resulted in drastic reduction of idle
time, total cycle time, work-in-process inventory and defects of the products. Singh et al.
(2010) have implemented the VSM tool in one of the Indian manufacturing industries,
which clearly substantiates that lead time, process time, and work-in-process
inventory can be reduced drastically and productivity of the operator can be increased
more than 40 percent. Anand and Kodali (2011) have reported a case study using
simulator to overcome the shortcomings of the VSM physical method. However, there
are only few research case study articles published in the area of Indian auto
component industry. So, the present research tries to attempt how the VSM can be put
into practice in the auto components industry to improve the performance in all aspects
of production line.

2.1 VSM symbols

In any manufacturing industry, the operations can be classified into three main genres
(Hines and Rich, 1997). These are non-value-adding (NVA) activities, necessary but
non-value-adding (NNVA) activities and value adding (VA) activities. NVA are
non-valuable activity for both customer as well as organization. These are utter waste
and hence the unnecessary processes need to be eradicated. NVA includes
unnecessary material handling, backtracking, waiting time, etc. NNVA is considered
as waste by the customer but these are necessary for the organization to complete the
operational routines. It is difficult to eliminate these types of activities in the short run
as it may require major alterations to the existing operational procedures.
Examples include walking long distances to pick up under-processed parts,
unpacking inventories, etc. On the other hand, VA activities include the operation
like conversion of input into useful end product. The customers recognize these
activities as valuable and thus, they are ready to pay for it. Examples include
machining of materials, forging of sub-parts, joining of sub-assemblies, etc. To plot the
production processes on “maps”, the study has used the standard symbols to typify
products, operations and information flows. Rother and Shook (1998) have proposed
various process, material, information symbols to draw VSM. The same symbols have
been used in the study to draw current state VSM and improved the current state called
as future state VSM. Table I shows VSM process symbols. Table II shows VSM
material symbols. Table III shows VSM information symbols. Whereas, Table IV
shows VSM general symbols.
IJLSS
Symbol Title Symbol Title
5,1
Supplier or customer Dedicated process

94 Shared process Data box

Work cell
Table I.
VSM process symbols

Symbol Title Symbol Title

Shipments Inventory

Material pull Push arrow

Supermarket Safety stock

FIFO lane External shipment (receiving or shipping)

Table II.
VSM material symbols

3. Brief description of the company

The study has been conducted in one of the auto components company in India, which is
called XYZ Ltd It is the manufacturer of various types of ancillary components for
automotive sector. XYZ Limited provides the complete solution for the specific part
starting from conceptualization to product designing to manufacturing and finally
testing and validation. At present several thousand employees are working in XYZ
Limited in multiple locations. Its major customers are VOLVO, General Motors,
Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bosch, etc. The major product of the organization
is crank shaft manufacturing and supplying to the customers across the world. The
competitors in the business are rising every instance due to many of the major
automobiles industries started their own auto-ancillary industry in India as well as
abroad. The company is keen to know and implement the emerging technologies in its
operation to get the competitive advantage over their market competitors. All the
new and upcoming units in multiple locations are designed keeping in mind the
 LM
Symbol Title Symbol Title
implementation
Verbal information MRP/ERP using VSM

Sequenced pull Production control 95

Electronic information Go see scheduling

Manual information Load leveling

Signal Kanban Kanban post

Production Kanban Withdrawal Kanban

Table III.
VSM information
symbols

Symbol Title Symbol Title

Kaizen burst Human operator

Other information Timeline

Table IV.
VSM general symbols

LM philosophy and environment conscious processes. The organization is also keen to

redesign and modernize the existing manufacturing lines using LM principles to achieve
excellence in the field of manufacturing operations. To fulfill the objectives and improve
the operational performance of the organization, the organization top management
appointed lean experts, who have theoretical and practical experience in the field of
implement of LM principles in the existing manufacturing lines.

4. Research methodology
The research methodology is based on case study strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994).
The importance of case research strategy discussed, carried out and published by
Voss et al. (2002). The same study revealed that case study strategy not only provides
answers to how and why questions, but it is also helpful to build up new concepts and
thoughts, and it can be useful to test the theory and refinement (Meredith, 1998;
IJLSS Snow and Thomas, 1994). The breakthrough concepts and theories in the field of
5,1 operational management have been developed from the field research. Many researchers
have discussed that the case study research helps not only enhance the theory and also
useful to the researchers to improve themselves (Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001;
Voss et al., 2002). The main objective of study is to verify the application of VSM to
improve the production system performance. The research has been performed in
96 several stages. In the first stage, the study conducted literature review on LM and VSM.
In the second stage, performed study on existing production lines in the manufacturing
organization. The study has identified a particular crank shaft production line.
Currently, the organization has four similar production lines with the capacity of
producing around 20,000 crankshafts per annum. The production line has been
manufacturing crankshafts to a particular major customer. The demand from the
customer was very high but the organization was not able to deliver their customer
requirements. The main reason to select the machining production line was producing
less than planned capacity production. Hence the study concentrated on the particular
machining production line to improve overall productivity, quality and performance of
the manufacturing line.
In the third stage, the study collected the data related to the machining production
line, based on which, the study prepared current state of VSM. In the fourth stage, the
study performed analysis on current state of VSM and proposed various improvements
to the organization. Before making final improvements, the researchers of the study
also communicated production line leaders and managers to find out hurdles to
implement proposed improvements and work plan to implement future state of VSM in
the production line. Finally, the future state of VSM has been drawn-based upon
feedback given by organization executives. The future state of VSM contains all
possible improvements and suggestions proposed by the present study. The future
state of VSM has been implemented in the production line and performed data
collection for next six months to finalize the future state of VSM, which was later
successfully incorporated in the production line. Figure 1 shows the complete set of
VSM steps in flow chart. Once the current state mapping has been plotted, the analysis
of the production process had to be carried out for the scope of improvement. One of the
goals of LM is to achieve more value-added activities by cutting down the number of
wastes in the whole operation cycle. The study has suggested eliminating the wastes in
processes with the help of kaizen events to look for the opportunities where it can be
applied to cut down or check wasted time, lead time and thus making the complete
process streamlined. These findings of the study are supported by the findings of
Rosentrater and Balamuralikrishna (2006).

5. Case study
In order to perform the study, a team was formed with two members. The two members
have academic as well as consultancy experience in the organizations. To assist these
two team members, the organization provided one employee act as facilitator from the
manufacturing line under study (Rother and Shook, 1998). The main objective of
the facilitators is to provide required information as well as support to the team
members to conduct meetings with employees of the organization. The team member
spent one and a half month in the manufacturing line (crankshaft) to understand the
complete process. The study helped the team to understand the system followed by the
 LM
Selection of implementation
product family
using VSM

97
Current state
mapping

Analyze the
waste &
possible
kaizen events

Future state
mapping

Make the
work plan & Figure 1.
achieve it Flowchart showing five
acheive steps of VSM

crankshaft production line completely. The operations division of the auto industry
is the major department that generally focuses on machining of crankshafts.
The supplier unit supplies the un-machined crankshafts to the operations division.
The operations division performs the primary inspection on few specifications
and performs necessary machining operations on crank shaft to make final product.
Table V shows the sequence of all the operations in operations division. The sequential
process flow diagram executed in the operations division is shown in Figure 2.
The study performed the earlier mentioned five steps as guidelines to implement VSM
tools and thus, carried out the following activities:
.
defined the current situation;
.
carry through the process flow;
.
current state mapping;
.
identified the wastes in the production cycle and NVA activities;
.
categorized them in seven kinds of wastes and kaizen;
.
challenged the necessity of each operation/activity;
 5,1

98
IJLSS

Table V.
The sequence of

operations division
operations executed in
Operation No. Operation description Work center Machine type

1 Initial inspection Manual Manual

2 Both end rough boring and re-centering O-2 CNC machine
3 Semi-finish turning of flange outer diameter O-3 Lathe machine
4 Other journal finish grinding O-4 Grinding machine
5 Thrust journal finish grinding O-5 Grinding machine
6 Pin finish grinding O-6 Grinding machine
7 Gear end and flange end tapping and drilling O-7 Drilling machine
8 Flange end finish boring O-8 Lathe machine
9 Level inspection Manual Manual
10 Flange end finish grinding O-10 Grinding machine
11 Gear end finish grinding O-11 Grinding machine
12 Magnetic (non-destructive) inspection O-12 Magnetic field
13 Keyway milling O-13 Milling machine
14 Dynamic balancing O-14 Balancing machine
15 Oil holes polish and webs deburr Manual Manual
16 Super-finishing of journals, pin and thrust face O-16 Super finishing machine
17 End inspection Manual Roller block
18 Gear end and flange outer diameter lapping and O-18 Lathe machine
polish
19 Oil hole washing and serial punching Manual Manual
20 Final washing O-20 Washing machine
21 Audit inspection Manual Roller block
 .
looked for opportunities to merge or split the operations wherever possible; LM
.
completed the time study of operations according to activity; implementation
.
implementation and prediction of kaizen; and using VSM
.
finally, prepared the layout based on work combination.

5.1 Development of current state map 99

The initial step of create a value-stream map is to gather data that reflects the current
status in the system. The manufacturing orders are received from their customer on a
monthly basis. The organization is anticipating that the demand of the customer
is steady without any fluctuations. The customer releases the orders to the sales
department. The sales department transforms the information to the production
planning control department. Finally the production planning control department
releases the instructions to production manager of the machining production line.
The production managers communicate information to all the team members of
the machining production line. All the activities performed in the production line were
classified in five categories as operation, transport, delay, inspection and storage. The
study has identified altogether 68 operational activities in the machining production
line in the initial stage. The study found both the time and distance covered to the
corresponding activity as reported in Figure 3. Figure 3 shows process flow chart of the
current state. Process flow chart is one-of-the-seven VSM tools proposed by Hines and
Rich (1997). All the information and data were gathered according to the approach
proposed by Rother and Shook (1998). Using this information, the study has identified
the critical operation and calculated NVA time, total process time, total lead time,
process ratio and the TAKT time.
Figure 4 shows the current state map of the production process. The map shown,
lists the information of real time that may vary from shift to shift. Other appropriate
information in the map includes number of operators needed, process inventory,
cycle time, and changeover time. The current state of map is also useful to identify the
existing problem at each and every work station in the manufacturing line.
The timeline listed in the map has the following two components:
(1) the lead time denoted on the top bar of the timeline; and
(2) the processing time given on the bottom.

Both end rough Semi-finish

Initial Other journal Thrust journal Pin finish
boring & re- Turning of flange
Inspection Finish grinding finish grinding grinding
centering outer diameter

Magnetic (non- Gear end & flange

Gear end Flange end Level Flange end
destructive) end tapping and
Finish grinding Finish grinding Inspection Finish boring
inspection drilling

Dynamic Super-finishing of End Gear end & flange

Figure 2.
Keyway milling Oil holes polish &
balancing webs deburr journals, pin & Inspection end lapping and The sequential
Thrust face polishing
process flow diagram
of operations executed
Audit Final Oil hole washing &
in machining
Inspection Washing serial punching operations division
IJLSS
5,1

100 Process Flow Chart 1: Present State

Activity Present Future Savings
Work: Manufacturing of the crankshaft
Operation 15
Transport 36
Method: Present/Future Delay 1
Inspection 11
Storage 5
Distance (m) 275.69
Time (min.) 147.94
Dista Time
Operation
nce (min.)
Material input 75
Loading the crank on inspection table 1.5
Gauge inspection 2.55
Both end rough boring and re-centering on M/c O-2 20.47
Crank movement to M/c O-3 2.4
Semi-finish turning of flange outer diameter on M/c
Manual
O-3
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 10
Crank movement to M/c O-4 2.7
Other journal finish grinding on M/c O-4 13
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 3
Crank movement to M/c O-5 1
Thrust journal finish grinding on M/c O-5 8.5
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection ---
Storage on pallet for next operation ---
Pallet movement to M/c O-6 10
Pin finish grinding on M/c O-6 21.7
Crank movement to inspection table 2
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 5

(continued)

Figure 3.
Process flow chart of the
current state
 Crank movement to M/c O-7 2.4 LM
Gear and flange end tapping and drilling on M/c O-7 14.2
Crank movement to inspection table 2
implementation
Gauge inspection 2.5 using VSM
Loading the crank on track 1.5
Crank travel on track 1
Crank movement to M/c O-8 1.5
Flange end finish boring on M/c O-8 Manual 101
Gauge inspection ---
Storage on pallet for next operation ---
Pallet movement to M/c O-10 34.5
Flange end finish grinding on M/c O-10 6.52
Gauge inspection ---
Storage on pallet for next operation ---
Pallet movement to M/c O-11 32.69
Gear end finish grinding on M/c O-11 6.1
Crank movement to M/c O-12 1
Magnetic (non-destructive) testing on M/c O-12 3.9
Crank movement to M/c O-13 1
Keyway milling on M/c O-13 7.6
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 7
Crank movement to M/c O-14 2
Dynamic balancing on M/c O-14 9.6
Loading the crank on deburr table 1
Oil holes polish and webs deburr 4
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 2
Crank movement to M/c O-16 1
Super-finishing of Jr. pin and thrust face on M/c O-
19.3
16
Loading the crank on inspection table 1
End inspection ---
Lapping and Polish on lathe machine 3.5
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 3.5
Crank movement to M/c O-20 1
Final washing on M/c O-20 4.5
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Audit inspection ---
Storage on pallet for next operation Manual
Forklifts required for crank movement Manual
Loading the crank on track for final packaging 58
TOTAL 275.6 147.94
9 Figure 3.

5.1.1 Calculations from the current state map. Theory of constraint concept highlights
that every system has at least one constraint. Otherwise the organization will
make unlimited profits (Goldratt, 1990). In the present section of study, the bottleneck
operation in the production line is pin finish grinding on a machine M/c O-6,
which takes the maximum time of 21.7 min. The study identified the time spent
for non-value-added activities, which was 1,584.1 min per day. The reason for
 5,1

102
IJLSS

Figure 4.
Current state map of
machining production line
PRODUCTION CONTROL
Crankshaft Machining Sceduling Order (as per
Sales Plan)
Orders

Forged Crankshaft Daily Priorities OEM Customer

Unit Schedule Ammendment
(as per Customer)

Production Monitoring
Planning
(Line Manager)
Facing &
Daily Shipment Schedule
Geometric Planning
centring
1
Shipping&
Despatch
I
Turning Module
Pin milling & finish
jour. turning Operation 11 Operation 12 Operation 13 Operation 14 Operation 15 Operation 16 Operation 17
Bottleneck time = 21.70
3 Magnetic (non- Super-finishing of
destructive) Oil holes polish & journals, pin &
Keyway milling Dynamic balancing End inspection Final washing Total process time =
inspection webs deburr thrust face
3 147.94 min.
I 2 2 2 2 2 2
Planning Cycle time: 3.90 Total lead time =
Cycle time: 7.60 Cycle time: 9.60 Cycle time: 4.00 Cycle time: 19.30 Cycle time: Manual Cycle time: 4.50
I I I I I I I 1,584 min.
Shot blasting
C/O time: 1 hr C/O time: 16 hrs C/O time: 4 hrs C/O time: --- C/O time: 4 hrs C/O time: --- C/O time: 8 hrs Process invetory = 73 Nos.
1
A B
High chance of
getting the Operator is doing
Operator takes 3-4 Distance travelled = 1,347 m
1 No. One operator is 1 No. job without 3 Nos. 1 No. Not enough space 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. washing twice. First
I involved in 3 carrying out for carrying min. to change the with kerosene for oil
Drilling Module operations that may Long distance from out this show of thrust hole cleaning & then
flange the last operation journal.
lead to operator operation. regular.
end finish boring.
fatigue
Web tapping & No inspection
drilling table
Process ratio = (Total
27.1 27.1 65.1 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 process time/Total lead
3 time)
309. 7.60 9.60 4.00 19.30 Manual 4.50 = (147.94/1,584)
= 9.34 %
I IH Module

Tempering &
induction
hardening 3

Operation 1 Operation 2 Operation 3 Operation 4 Operation 5 Operation 6 Operation 7 Operation 8 Operation 9 Operation 10
Both end rough Thrust journal Gear end & flange
Initial inspection boring & re- Semi-finish Thrust journal Pin finish grinding Flange end finish Flange end finish Gear end finish
turning of flange finish grinding finish grinding end tapping and grinding grinding
centering boring
3 3 outer dia 3 3 3 3 drilling 2 2 2 2

Cycle time: 2.55 Cycle time: Cycle time: 8.50 Cycle time:
I Cycle time: 20.47 Manual Cycle time: 8.50 Cycle time: 21.70 Cycle time : 14.20 Cycle time: 6.52 Cycle time: 6.10
I I I I I I I Manual I I
C/O time: --- C/O time: 8 hrs C/O time: 1 hr C/O time: 6 hrs
C/O time: 6 hrs C/O time: 12 hrs C/O time : 3 hrs C/O time : ..... C/O time: 7 hrs C/O time: 7 hrs
A
Manual butting is As it is performed
Manual operation Longest
manually operation It requires operator Long distance from
Job length is more carried out in gear Bottleneck backtracking
FI F O 11 Nos. 1 No. cycle time varies 8 Nos. Heavy oil leakages 5 Nos. Heavy oil leakages 10 Nos. 5 Nos. to bend upto 1-2 m 12 Nos. therfore it has less 7 Nos. 5 Nos. the last operation
than the inspection end counter dia. are observed are observed operation accuracy. Second of up to 36 m on
from operator for loading & thus require one
table length Lack of on machine on machine on the line backtracking on the the line. Third
to operator. unloading casual always
safety guards line Backtracking
First Backtracking

238.7 21.7 173.6 108.5 217 108.5 260.4 151.9 108.5

2.55 20.47 13.00 21.70 14.20 6.10

Manual 8.50 Manual 6.52
non-value-added time was maintenance of excess inventory on the line, which was LM
73 units (as can be observed in the current state map given in Figure 4). Similarly for implementation
the current production line, the total process time was coming around 147.94 min. From
the study of the complete process, it came out that the time available per day was using VSM
1,305 min and the productivity index of the line was 0.85 or 85 percent. Thus, TAKT
time was 36.975 min , 37 min.
103
5.2 Analysis of the current state of map
The next step after plotting the current state map is to identify the wastes and to
continuously improve the process by applying kaizen activities and other LM tools.
The study has identified 68 operational activities in the current state of map. The study
has tried to find the problems and wastes in the production process. The study has
applied the kaizen events to reduce waste or eliminate the problems. The decreasing
amount of work-in-progress lead to reduction in defects, the cost of process inventory,
amount of stocks and shortening of setup time (Özkan et al., 2005). One of the major
observations of the study is the movement of material in the production line. The study
find out lot of unnecessary movement of material and transportation between gauge
inspection to machine o/p 10 and another gauge inspection to machine o/p 11.
The material is moving in terms of batches by using pallets instead of continuous flow
or single piece flow. The movement of material is also around 65 m in the pallets.
Transportation and unnecessary movement are the seven LM waste proposed by
Ohno (Monden, 1993). The study has proposed gauge inspection in production line
instead of performed inspection out of production line. With that inventory level of the
production line also come down in terms of numbers and improved the quality of
product with avoiding of damage product during transportation and unnecessary
movement of the material. The line balancing is one of the important factors to achieve
the continuous flow in the production line (Lasa et al., 2008). The study also proposed
the line balancing based on pace maker operation in production line. The results of line
balancing clearly indicates the possibility of bring down the number of operator in
production line from 15 to 14. Similarly, the study proposed a total of 39 kaizens after
consultation with organization managers, operators and management to convert the
current state of VSM into future state of VSM. Table VI shows the list of kaizens
implemented on current state of machining production line. All the proposed kaizens
have classified based on improvements in terms of production, quality, cost, delivery,
safety and morale. The problems found on the particular operation with the possible
solution and improvements in terms of PQCDSM are reported in Table VI. Figure 5
highlights the distribution of kaizen events (total of 39 events) in terms of PQCDSM.

5.3 Future state of map

Lean thinking is providing the guidelines to develop a future state of map and the
methodology of map drawn (Rother and Shook, 1998; Marchwinski and Shook, 2003).
Some of these guidelines are: production rate should be decided based on TAKT time,
production schedule is based on bottleneck operation, try to maintain continuous flow,
if not possible, at least incorporate pull production system, and improve overall process
improvement through cycle time improvement or change over time reduction, etc.
(Lasa et al., 2008). Based on guidelines aforementioned, the study has developed the
future sate map. The future state of map has constructed with incorporation of various

Table VI.
List of kaizens
state of production line
implemented on current
M/c No. Operation Problem found
O-2 Both end rough boring and re- Due to absence of door, burrs falls out
centering of the machine
Manual butting is carried out in gear
end counter diameter
O-3 Semi-finish turning of flange As it is performed manually
outer diameter operation cycle time varies from
operator to operator
O-4 Other journal finish grinding Long distance of around 11-12 m from
the last operation
Table adjustment is done manually
leading to operator fatigue
O-5 Thrust journal finish grinding Metal to metal contact is present on
gauges leading to less accuracy,
due to absence of rack or table to keep
gauges
O-6 Pin finish grinding Absence of track for the crank
movement from last operation
Gauges may get damaged as they are
kept on metal table
Accumulation of inventory due to
unmatched process time
Plastic cover of tackle found
damaged, that may damage or leave
mark on journal diameter
Locating tooling and gauges is time
consuming
Half bearing clamping pads are of
hard metal that may damage the
ground journal diameter
5,1
104
IJLSS
Proposed changes KAIZEN
P Q C D S M
Safety door should be introduced
Auto indexing and automated butting
should be provided
In fixing it with re-centering
operation in M/c O-2 will save one
operation
Change the layout to minimize this
distance
Couplings should be provided to
adjust the table length
Table or proper rack should be
provided to keep the gauges
Track should be laid down between
the two operations
Rubber sheet or wooden tray should
be introduced
Line speed and process time should
be set properly
Proper hook should be used with
provision of replacing the cover
periodically
Need for proper storing mechanism
Soft metal clamping pads should be
used to reduce chances of damage
(continued)
M/c No. Operation Problem found Proposed changes KAIZEN
P Q C D S M

Lubricating oil falls on machine Introduction of lay shaft cover

platform due to absence lay shaft
cover
Auto table positioning is not present Introduction of auto table positioning
Lack of light on the operation table CFC lamps should be used to reduce
cost and for better visibility
Presence of oil and uneven height of Even height platform should be
the platform makes the job lifting introduced and avoid leakage of
difficult coolant
Operator and grinding wheel may get Need for proper storage
damaged due to improper storage of
wheels
Slippery steps of wheel loading area Need for meshed type staircase
Lead screw found untied Lead screw should be closed for
length setting and coupling
O-7 Gear and flange end tapping and Long distance from the last operation Change the layout to minimize this
drilling distance
O-8 Flange end finish boring Presence of extra drilling machine To save the line space and unused
between the previous and current machine, the extra machine should be
operation removed
Backtracking of up to 3-4 m on the line Change the layout to avoid this
backtracking
Accumulation of inventory due to Line speed and process time should
unmatched process time be set properly
O-10 Flange end finish grinding Longest backtracking of up to 36 m Change the layout to avoid this
on the line backtracking; thus improving the line
speed
No proper place to keep the gauges. Rubber sheet or wooden tray should
Gauges may get damaged as they are be introduced
kept on outer table
(continued)
implementation
using VSM

105
LM

Table VI.
 5,1

106
IJLSS

Table VI.
M/c No. Operation Problem found Proposed changes KAIZEN
P Q C D S M

O-11 Gear end finish grinding Long distance from the last operation Change the layout to minimize
this distance
One operator is involved in three Need for thorough operation splitting
operations that may lead to operator
fatigue
No inspection table for dimensions Inspection table introduced
No proper place to keep the gauges. Rubber sheet or wooden tray should
Gauges may get damaged as they are be introduced
kept on outer table
O-13 Keyway milling High chance of getting the job Need to introduce sensors and nylon
without carrying out flange end finish pusher of flange end bore size in order
boring to avoid missing operation
O-14 Dynamic balancing Long distance from the last operation Change the layout to minimize this
distance
O-16 Super-finishing of journals, pin Magnetic separator is not functioning Need to repair it
and thrust face properly
Operator takes 3-4 min to change the Third arm should be introduced on
show of thrust journal the machine
Oil sucking and recycling mechanism Need to replace or repair it
not functioning properly
Absence of holder for emery paper Place holder should be introduced
Cotton and waste papers pile up on Need for dustbins to dump the waste
machine paper and cottons
Mix up of papers of pins and journals Visual indicators introduced
Oily and slippery platform Need for meshed type platform
Absence of light for visual display Proper lights for better visibility
modifications suggestion on current state of map based on analysis conducted in the LM
earlier section of the study. It also has the kaizen burst around the processes indicating implementation
improvement. The company XYZ has implemented the changes as proposed by the
present research. After applying those suggestions, the total number of activities came using VSM
down from 68 to 61 activities. Figure 6 shows the process flow chart of the future state.
The future state map is shown in Figure 7.
5.3.1 Calculations for the future state map. In the study the constraint of production 107
line is bottleneck operation of pin finish grinding on machine M/c o-6. After
implementing all proposed kaizens in the machining operations line, the research
identified that the bottleneck operation time remained same as that of current state
map for the pin finish grinding occurring on machine M/c O-6 and the value is 21.7 min.
The total process time had reduced to 142.18 min. The future state of map (Figure 8)
clearly shows that the sum of all the non-value-added time is 412.3 min that is equals to
total lead time. On implementing the changes as prescribed by the team, the production
increased to 40 units per day. The future state of map TAKT time was calculated and it
is 27.731 , 28 min.

6. Results and conclusions

6.1 Results
Hines et al. (1998) and Braglia et al. (2009) have discussed the VSM is static tool that
requires a few months of time to check the sustainability of the results. Hence the study
also observed sufficient number of months before finalize the final results. The brief
summary of the calculations and results from the study are shown in Table VII. The
results in Table VII clearly shows the positive changes in process ratio from 9.34 to
34.48 percent, reduction in TAKT time from 37 min to 28 min and overall reduction of
seven operational activities. By comparing the current state and future state maps, it is
seen that the change in process inventory level came down from 73 units to 19 units
and also there is reduction in total lead time and total process time.

6.2 Conclusion
Indian automobile industry is one of the fast developing industries with growth rate of
14-18 percent per year. However, the major automobile organizations are facing
problems to fulfill the customer requirements and to stay competition with the global

Morale, 2
Production,
11
Safety, 9 Production
Quality
Cost
Delivery
Safety
Morale Figure 5.
The distribution
Delivery, 4 of improvement
events (total of 39 events)
Quality, 9 in terms of PQCDSM
Cost, 4
IJLSS
5,1
Process Flow Chart 2: Future State
Activity Present Future Savings
Work: Manufacturing of the crankshaft
Operation 15 14 1
108
Transport 36 33 3
Method: Present/Future Delay 1 1 0

Inspection 11 11 0

Storage 5 2 3

Distance (m) 275.69 184.5

Time (min.) 147.94 142.18

Distance Time
Operation
(m) (min.)
Material input 75
Loading the crank on inspection table 1.5
Gauge inspection 2.55
Both end rough boring and re-centering on
20.47
M/c O-2
Crank movement to M/c O-4 3.2
Other journal finish grinding on M/c O-4 13
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 3
Crank movement to M/c O-5 1
Thrust journal finish grinding on M/c O-5 8.5
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection ---
Crank movement to M/c O-6 2.5
Pin finish grinding on M/c O-6 21.7
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 3
Crank movement to M/c O-7 1.3
Gear and flange end tapping and drilling on
14.2
M/c O-7
(continued)

Figure 6.
Process flow chart of the
future state
 LM
implementation
using VSM
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Gauge inspection 2.5
Loading the crank on track 0.5
Crank travel on track 3 109
Crank movement to M/c O-8 0.5
Flange end finish boring on M/c O-8 Manual
Gauge inspection ---
Crank movement to M/c O-10 1.5
Flange end finish grinding on M/c O-10 6.52
Gauge inspection ---
Crank movement to M/c O-11 4
Gear end finish grinding on M/c O-11 6.1
Crank movement to M/c O-12 1
Magnetic (non-destructive) testing on M/c
3.9
O-12
Crank movement to M/c O-13 1
Keyway milling on M/c O-13 7.6
Gauge inspection ---
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 5
Crank movement to M/c O-14 2
Dynamic balancing on M/c O-14 9.1
Loading the crank on deburr table 1
Oil holes polish and webs deburr 4
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 2
Crank movement to M/c O-16 1
Super-finishing of Jr. pin and thrust face
on M/c O-16 14.24
Loading the crank on inspection table 1
End inspection ---
Lapping and Polish on lathe machine 3.3
Loading the crank on track 1
Crank travel on track 3.5
Crank movement to M/c O-20 1
Final washing on M/c O-20 4.5
Crank movement to inspection table 1
Audit inspection ---
Storage on pallet for next operation Manual
Forklifts required for crank movement Manual
Loading the crank on track for final packaging 56
TOTAL 184.5 142.18

Figure 6.
IJLSS
5,1

110

Figure 7.
The sample of
improvement
implemented in the
production line

players in terms of cost, quality and services. Some of the notable automobile
industries are able to meet the customer requirements in the aspect of delivery time
and demand. One of the reasons why most of the Indian manufacturing organizations
or auto-component industries are still not able to implement advanced manufacturing
systems (like LM) is due to lack of knowledge and information. Hence most of the
auto-component industries are spending much of their resources to fulfill the
customer requirements. The objective of the research is to check the application of
VSM in Indian auto component industry. The study clearly shows that VSM is
important LM tool, which can be used to identify various wastes in the
production system of Indian manufacturing industries. The study results clearly
proved that all types of lean wastes can be identified with the help of VSM. Currently, it
is in improvement phase and giving commitment for its uninterrupted efforts in
elevating technological frame and quality improvement. The results obtained from the
study may help other companies to find methodology to implement the LM tools like
VSM.
6.2.1 Limitations. To implement any philosophy or tools in any industry, the top
management of the organization should be involved to implement the tool in
that organization successfully. LM is one of the long-term manufacturing
philosophies, which can take time and cost to get the desired results to any
organization. One of the limitations of the study is the application of VSM tool
restricted to a specific production line in an Indian auto-component industry. Before
generalizing the results of the study, researchers need to conduct similar study across
the industry sectors.
 PRODUCTION CONTROL
Crankshaft Machining Sceduling Order (as per Sales
Plan)
Orders

Forged Crankshaft Unit Daily Priorities OEM Customer

Schedule Ammendment (as
per Customer)

Planning Production Monitoring (Line

Manager)
Facing & Geometric Daily Shipment Schedule
centring Planning
1
Kaizen Burst Shipping &
I Kaizen Burst Kaizen Burst P = 4, Q = 1, C = 1, Despatch
Q=1 D=1 S=2
Turning Module
Pin milling & finish
jour. turning Operation 11 Operation 12 Operation 13 Operation 14 Operation 15 Operation 16 Operation 17
Bottleneck time = 21.70
3 Magnetic (non- Super - finishing of
Oil holes polish &
destructive) Keyway milling Dynamic balancing journals, pin & End inspection Final washing Total process time =
webs deburr
I inspection 2 2 2 2 thrust face 2 3 2 142.18 min.
Planning Total lead time =
Cycle time: 3.90 Cycle time: 7.60 Cycle time: 9.10 Cycle time: 4.00 Cycle time: 14.24 Cycle time: Manual Cycle time: 4.50
I I I I I I I 412.3 min.
Shot blasting C/O time: 4 hrs
C/O time: 1 hr C/O time: 16 hrs C/O time: 4 hrs C/O time: --- C/O time: --- C/O time: 8 hrs Process invetory = 19 Nos.
1 A B
Distance travelled = 1,347 m
I 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No.
Drilling Module

Web tapping Process ratio = (Total

& drilling process time/Total lead time)
21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 = (142.18/412.3)
3 = 34.48 %
3.90 7.60 9.10 4.00 14.24 Manual 4.50

I Kaizen Burst
IH Module c = 1, s = 2
Tempering & Kaizen Burst
Kaizen Burst P = 4, Q = 3, Kaizen Burst Kaizen Burst
induction Kaizen Burst P = 2, C = 1, D = 1 Kaizen Burst
D = 1, M = 1 Q=1 C = 1, S = 5 P = 1, Q = 1
hardening 3 Q = 2, D = 1, M = 1

Operation 1 Operation 2 Operation 3 Operation 4 Operation 5 Operation 6 Operation 7 Operation 8 Operation 9 Operation 10
Both end rough Semi-finish turning Gear end & flange
Initial inspection Other journal finish Thrust journal finish Pin finish grinding Flange end finish Flange end finish Gear end finish
boring & re- of flange outer end tapping and
grinding grinding boring grinding grinding
3 centering 3 dia 3 3 3 3 drilling 2 2 2 2
I Cycle time: 2.55 I Cycle time: 20.47 I Cycle time: Manual I Cycle time: 13.00
I Cycle time: 8.50 I Cycle time: 21.70 I Cycle time: 14.20 I Cycle time: Manual I Cycle time: 6.52 I Cycle time: 6.10

C/O time: --- C/O time: 8 hrs C/O time: 1 hr C/O time: 6 hrs C/O time: 6 hrs C/O time: 12 hrs C/O time: 3 hrs C/O time: --- C/O time: 7 hrs C/O time: 7 hrs
A

FI F O 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 4 Nos. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No.

21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7 86.8 21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7

2.55 20.47 Manual 13.00 8.50 21.70 14.20 Manual 6.52 6.10
implementation

machining production line

Future state map of
Figure 8.
using VSM

111
LM
IJLSS
Description Current Future
5,1
Production planned by planning department 30 Nos per day 40 Nos per day
Number of operations 15 14
Transport 36 33
Delay 1 1
112 Inspection 11 11
Storage 5 2
Total distance travelled by crankshaft in the
production line (m) 275.69 184.5
Total process time (min) 147.94 142.18
TAKT time (min) 36.975 , 37 27.731 , 28
Table VII. Process inventory (Nos) 73 19
Comparison of the results Total lead time (min) 1,584 412.3
obtained Process ratio (%) 9.34 34.48

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About the authors

Naga Vamsi Krishna Jasti is a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of
Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, Pilani Campus, India. He is currently
working in practice school division at Pune off-campus centre. His areas of interest are lean
manufacturing and green manufacturing. He received his ME degree in mechanical engineering
and pursing PhD from BITS, Pilani, India. He has published several articles in international
IJLSS and national journals, conferences, etc. He has eight years of teaching and research experience
from BITS, Pilani. His teaching interests are lean manufacturing, world class manufacturing,
5,1 manufacturing science, production planning and control, and green manufacturing.
Aditya Sharma was a student of Master degree in the Department of Manufacturing
Engineering of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, Pilani Campus, India.
He has currently started a consultancy in green supply chain management. He has completed
industry project in one of the major auto-component industries. His areas of interest are green
116 manufacturing, green supply chain management and green product development. He has
published several articles in international and national journals, conferences, etc. Aditya Sharma
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: aditya.2311@gmail.com

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