Productivity Improvement Using Simulated Value Stream Mapping: A Case Study of the Truck Manufacturing Industry

The accumulation of process waste in the production line causes fluctuations, bottlenecks, and increased inventory in workstations disrupting process flow. In this paper, the optimal process flow that will improve productivity using simulated value stream mapping (SVSM) for decision-making to provide consistency, minimise errors and non-value adding times in the implementation phase of VSM in the truck manufacturing industry. The proposed methodology applied a discrete event simulation for production process operations improvement to eliminate non-value adding times and provide good quality products at the lowest cost and highest efficiency. The results are the analysis of the current state of the production system in a South African truck manufacturing industry as a potential solution for the production system's future state. The identified non-value adding times in the six most critical workstations were eliminated by SVSM resulting in a productivity improvement of 4%, most importantly bringing the productivity to 95% and total cycle time improvement to 451 for small units and 466 for large units. The results proposed combined VSM and simulation techniques based on empirical data from the observation during time measurement. The Yamazumi confirms the issues observed and the NVA recorded by showing how close the process cycle times are to the TAKT time, which enhance the LEAN application by DES to increase productivity and performance improvement to remain competitive in the global economy.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the impact of the accumulation of process waste on productivity in the truck manufacturing industry. It proposes an optimal process flow using simulated value stream mapping and highlights the importance of eliminating non-value adding times to improve productivity and total cycle time.