Implementing lean in an medium scale industry - a case study at Country-Cone Enterprises Ltd. Ghana

Abstract: Lean manufacturing is a known principle used in today’s industries to eliminate various hidden wastes that do not add value to the finish product. Lean concept has many advantages which have helped many companies over the years to stay more competitive in global and national business.With the help of value stream mapping as a main tool, the current state of the company can be analyze so to detect any non-value adding processes termed as waste. Future state of the company is then planned to make sure all non-value processes are eliminated from the entire production line.Many companies are currently choosing lean production with the ultimate aim of bringing overall operating cost to barely minimum. Choosing lean production means continues improvement within the company to be able to achieve the benefits of lean production.This thesis aim at studying the production lines, how information are distributed across the entire company from suppliers to the customers. Interviews will be conducted with various distribution centre managers, suppliers, and also technicians to familiarize with how things are done currently and the way forward to achieve the aim of operating on lean. Operators and other staffs will be trained to understand how lean works and also the need for continuous improvement and not just a one-time improvement.Recommendations will be made to enable the company to reach the ultimate aim of operating on lean principle which has been known to be helpful.Key words: lean manufacturing, value stream mapping, continues improvement, hidden waste