Keywords

1 Introduction

Process improvement is one of the most important needs of industries at a worldwide level. Several techniques are used to accomplish this need. Lean manufacturing (LM), kaizen, total quality management (TQM), six sigma, and lean six sigma (LSS) approaches are including in those techniques. LM is a prevalent technique in shop floor management and is also used for the optimization of resources [1]. As yet, LM was implemented in several industrial sectors such as mechanical, mining, mining machinery, pharmaceutical, defense, and automobile. There are several tools used in lean manufacturing and it depending on the production constraints and customer requirements in terms of product [2]. Here, constraints mean resources availability, delivery time, and production cost. Due to the global competitive environment and a plethora of problems, productivity enhancement has to challenge for the last few decades. Therefore, industries must continually need for an efficient technique to improve shop floor management.

Several researchers have suggested an efficient technique to improve production on the shop floor. Vinodh et al. [3] have suggested that the value stream mapping (VSM) technique was an efficient technique because the reductions have been obtained in production lead time (PLT), total cycle time (TCT), total uptime (TUT), defects, and work in progress (WIP). Rahani et al. [4] have investigated the implementation of the VSM in the automobile component manufacturing industry. The result revealed that hidden non-productive activities on the shop floor like stacking of parts, higher WIP, and more cycle time were eliminated by VSM implementation. Singh et al. [5] have presented VSM as an efficient technique by improvement obtained in an auto-parts manufacturing organization. The result of the study showed a reduction in WIP inventory, PLT, and cycle time. Jasti et al. [6] discussed how improvements could be made in the implementation of a LM approach in the industries. The result of the study proved that lean manufacturing brings out a positive impact on production in form of productivity improvement in terms of customer satisfaction.

Rohani et al. [7] have discussed a study of production line improvement in the chemical industry through VSM. The result of the study revealed that reduction has been obtained in TLT 8.5 days to 6 days and in value-added time (VAT) from 68 to 37 min. Chelbus et al. [8] have identified the three main pillars of a mine and that is the environment of work improvement, planned and autonomous maintenance, and standards in development. As a result of this work, it has been found that lean manufacturing as a technique can be applied to achieve better results in any other mining industry. Garre et al. [9] have identified production problems that occurred during the performance of activities in the production line and eliminated those production problems by the implementation of LM techniques. The result of the study reveals that improvement has been obtained in welding time. Diaz et al. [10] have studied the cycle time of aircraft assembly using LM. The result of the study reveals that reduction has been obtained in cycle time 20% from LM implementation, and 67% from automation implementation. Sharma et al. [11] discussed the implementation of the lean approach on the shop floor of Indian SMEs. As a result of this work, it was found that the implementation of the 5S technique on the SME shop floor effectively improved productivity and also improved the working environment of the employees.

Dadashnejad et al. [12] have investigated the impact of improvements achieved by VSM on overall equipment effectiveness. In the study, a structured questionnaire was designed. The analysis of the questionnaire concluded that VSM can increase performance, machine availability rate, and product quality in the industries surveyed. Gopi et al. [13] have identified wastes in an auto-ancillary unit using VSM. In the study working condition of the auto-ancillary unit has been drawn for the identification and elimination of waste and determines the ideal state of working. The result revealed that manufacturing has been improved by 3.82% in 3 years. Esa et al. [14] discussed how to improve productivity level and production process time in an automotive manufacturing industry. As the result, the reduction has been obtained in setup time for changeover processes from 45 to 28 min as the result of this study. Boateng-Okrah et al. [15] have investigated the level of TQM implementation in the mining industry in Ghana. In this study, a statistical analysis was conducted for knowing the level of TQM in the industry from a questionnaire collection of 60 employees. The analysis of the survey reveals that 42% of employees agreed that TQM is being deployed in the industry. Seth et al. [16] discussed how to achieve lean implementation in heavy-duty power transformer manufacturing environments by implementation of VSM; and Taguchi’s technique was also used in this study to improve. Systematic questioning techniques and shop floor observation were used for data collection. The study results showed a 17.3% reduction in cycle time, 29.78% in non-value-added activities, and 8.48% in value-added activities. The literature review on process improvement techniques implementation on shop floor management shows that there were only a few works has been performed on the improvement of production with optimization of resources since the last decade. It has been also found that productivity enhancement cannot be achieved by the implementation of process improvement techniques and process optimization without a strategy on the shop floor [17,18,19,20].

2 Research Objective

The main objective of this research work is to explore the effect of applying process improvement techniques in a case example of the industry’s loader vehicle manufacturing process. The main steps taken to carry out the present work are enumerated below:

  1. (a)

    The beginning of the research work is to collect information on the working condition in the industry’s loader vehicle manufacturing process through discussion with employees and observing problems in shop floor management.

  2. (b)

    This step identified the most frequently occurring waste and determines reasons using the fishbone diagram.

  3. (c)

    Observed how the implementation of process improvement techniques could bring value to the production process.

  4. (d)

    Which technique would bring improvement in shop floor management and optimization of resources?

  5. (e)

    Finally, a conclusion is presented considering improvements achieved by the implementation of lean manufacturing technology in the company’s production.

3 Production Description

The present work has been carried out in a loader vehicle manufacturing industry located at the National capital region, India. This vehicle is in high demand due to environmental issues, low maintenance costs and less requirement of labor. Figure 1 shows a flow chart of the major production process involved in the manufacturing of the vehicle.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Flow chart of production processes

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4 Implementation of Process Improvement Technique

LM is a prevalent process improvement technique and it has been mostly implemented in previous research work based on shop floor management [21,22,23,24]. The authors studied the literature review to understand the working style of LM, and It was found that LM first identifies the cause of waste generation and then tries to eliminate waste by taking appropriate action [25,26,27]. At present research work, the loader vehicle manufacturing process was studied and production information has been collected by observation and discussion. Table 1 shows the production condition of the shop floor.

Table 1 Production information on the shop floor
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The loader vehicle manufacturing process was categorized into subsections and then focusing on individual work activities. Productivity improvement depends on the elimination of waste and reduction of the processing time in the process [28,29,30]. The shop floor problem was analyzed by implementing lean techniques. The production problems have been identified using the fishbone diagram. The fishbone diagram of waste in the production processes on the shop floor that was obtained from discussing and brainstorming is shown in Fig. 2. Table 2 shows the problems in the production process and the actions taken to eliminate them.

Fig. 2
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Fishbone diagram

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Table 2 Suggested action for the elimination of problems
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5 Results and Discussion

The results of the present work obtained from a comparative analysis of the working conditions of the shop floor. The result of the study proves that LM is indeed a superior technique than other process improvement technologies. Figure 3 shows improvements obtained in production on the shop floor.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Production improvement on the shop floor (Time unit—Minute)

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It has been observed that lean manufacturing implementation in the present case study results in increased productivity which was possible by identifying all types of non-value-added activities (waste). Lean manufacturing has also proved to be helpful in identifying waste and suggesting an effective action for their elimination.

6 Conclusions

In present research work, lean manufacturing has been implemented to eliminate waste in the vehicle manufacturing industry. The main conclusion obtained by the present work are discussed below:

  1. 1.

    It has been observed that the process improvement technique can provide effective benefits when applied with lean manufacturing for shop floor management. Because it successfully enhanced productivity and optimize resources.

  2. 2.

    The present research work provided a modified lean manufacturing approach that is capable of improving productivity within limited constraints.

  3. 3.

    The Working time, production time, and idle time have been improved 70 min, 80 min, and 80 min respectively by improvement in production planning.

  4. 4.

    Additional improvements were accrued by shop floor utilization and a reduction of inventory resulting in productivity enhancement.

  5. 5.

    The authors of the present research work strongly believe that the present study could be beneficial for young researchers and industry person for improvement in shop floor management.