Application of Lean Focus onManufacturing Process : A Case Study of an American Furniture Company

Abstract: Introduction: To improvement the target company’s manufacturing process by applyinglean principles, including using and analyzing the internal value stream mapping. Asmore and more companies have paid attention to implement lean thinking in theirmanufacturing process, the value stream mapping played an important role for manycompanies to make a transition from their traditional production systems to lean systems.The content and resources of this master thesis come from an American furniturecompany named KAMA which mainly produces office furniture with different components.Although there are various types of products, the authors merely focus on the officechair products. This research is an attempt to understand and analyze the problemsin the production flow on the example of KAMA’s office chair products that includesPH product family as the target research part.Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to investigate, analyze and find out solutionsfor waste-related problems in the office chair manufacturing flow of KAMA.Method: A single case study will be applied in this study paper. Data should be collectedfrom telephone interviews with company’s managements, the studying ofKAMA’s internal documentation and the secondary data from lean project report collectedby Consultant EIMI. In order to improve the production process, the valuestream mapping method will be applied to build the current value state map of CompanyKAMA and identify the potential wastes during the manufacturing process, andthen analyze and give the solutions for future improvement. Additional, other methodsincluding the order penetration point analysis, make-to-stock theory, and the CONWIPanalysis have been subsequently applied in designing a draft of the future state map.Conclusion: From the constructed current value stream mapping of KAMA officechair manufacturing process, it can be found that the most essential wastes are overproduction,waiting, unnecessary inventory and unnecessary movement. In addition, theimproper workstation arrangement and unnecessary waiting time have been identified asthe critical wasting reasons. Thus, any solutions to reduce or eliminate the identifiedwastes have been considered and would be given in the future state. In order to improvethe efficiency and reduce the unnecessary movements, adopting the appropriate cellularlayout in the mechanical workshop is quite beneficial. The mentioned methods to reducewastes have been summarized in the draft of the future state map of the company.The main benefits of the proposed future state value stream mapping are faster and accurateorder fulfillment process, reduction of unnecessary movements in workshop, lowinventory, high productivity and reduced costs in the flow of KAMA’s manufacturingprocess.