Title: A Lean Six Sigma case study to improve the manufacturing process affected during COVID-19

Authors: Rohit Kenge; Zafar Khan

Addresses: SOCMS, Sandip University, Flat No-101, Building-D, Sector-4, Aaryavarta, Near Maharana Pratap Chauk, Nashik-422009, Maharashtra, India ' SOCMS, Sandip University, Flat No-101, Building-D, Sector-4, Aaryavarta, Near Maharana Pratap Chauk, Nashik-422009, Maharashtra, India

Abstract: The key manufacturing industry was badly affected by the COVID-19 in India. In this study, we found that the product demand is dynamic during COVID-19. We selected one of the electrical OEMs in India to execute the value added-Flow analysis and VSM study which showed 96% and 85% of total delivery lead time is contributed by NVA activities at the manufacturing process respectively. We also plotted the spaghetti diagram and analysed that total product movement is 287 metres in the current state with the complex flow. We did total of six main Kaizens after Ishikawa and FMEA. We constructed single-piece flow with saving of the half shop floor space and total product movement was reduced from 287 to 96 metres, while total delivery lead time was reduced from 14.6 to 7.72 days. We concluded that lean Six Sigma deployment in the manufacturing industry solved the problems of demand fluctuations.

Keywords: lean manufacturing; VSM; FMEA; spaghetti; value-added flow.

DOI: 10.1504/IJQET.2023.129120

International Journal of Quality Engineering and Technology, 2023 Vol.9 No.1, pp.20 - 33

Received: 19 Aug 2021
Accepted: 02 Mar 2022
Published online: 21 Feb 2023 *