Lean manufacturing for optimizing operational processes in a bicycle assembly line

Abstract

Manufacturing and assembly industries are continually searching to optimize their resources and achieve improvements in their production systems. At a time when the differentiating factor is found in efficiency and competitiveness in production, Lean Manufacturing (LM) philosophy contributes to these differentiators, focusing mainly on the elimination of waste to obtain an improvement in processes, quality, and delivery times, being evident the results in a short period. This article proposes optimizing processes within a bicycle assembly plant by applying a LM tool called Value Stream Map (VSM), which presents the current production processes and their requirements, facilitating the identification of waste within the system. Regarding process mapping, the bicycle model E26 was selected for illustrative purposes. Additionally, the 5S tool was used to maintain tidiness and cleanliness within the processes for obtaining an agile production flow. The study also included the balancing of lines, getting a reduction of 14% in “cycle time” and 66% in “lead time”, generating a mixed production (push and pull). Moreover, a warehouse distribution of raw material was proposed, obtaining the unification of all the materials involved in the process. Finally, the VSM future’s legitimacy was confirmed through simulation, validating the results obtained from the LM tools’ application.