Improving the performance of an assembly line to increase production capacity using value stream mapping: A study case

Abstract

Time in an assembly line is costly. Every movement or activity in a manual handling process effects the duration of a cycle time. This research focuses on how to improve the performance of an assembly line to increase the production capacity of the assembly line by using value stream mapping. The first activity is to find a bottleneck in the assembly line by value stream mapping, then conduct the root cause analysis from the bottleneck to find the root cause. In this research, the bottlenecking workstation layout is ineffective and therefore needs to be improved. By estimating motion in the activities using MOST Work Measurement, the layout is then improved so the operator can achieve a shorter cycle time by reducing the ineffective movements and by that, the assembly line could achieve a better stream flow at a higher capacity. Although the improvements might not seem much because the research could only achieve 0.8 second reduction in cycle time, this still allows the operator to achieve a higher production capacity level by 11.27%.