An improvement of agricultural equipment manufacturing by using lean techniques : A case study of agricultural machinery company

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study and improve the manufacturing process of agricultural equipment to reduce wastes by using the LEAN tools: a case study of agricultural machinery company. This study found that the main wastes were inefficiency of transportation and working process. The Systematic Layout Planning Pattern (SLP) had been applied. Moreover, the principles of ECRS, the change in input factors (a number of employees), together with simulation and the Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) were also used to determine the appropriate plant layout alternatives by considering the factors such as the productivity, materials handling distance, facilities utilization, and space utilization. The result shared that the best suitable layout is the layout No. 1. Then more improvement the layout No. 1 with the ECRS and the change of input factors (the amount of employees) ,it was found that increased productivity by 16.10%, increased facilities utilization by 15.73% and decreased materials handling distance by 48.12%. Furthermore, the number of employees and the average time of workpiece in system could be reduced from 7 to 6 persons, and 54.41 minutes to 45.65 minutes respectively.

Keywords

• Lean
• Simulation
• Systematic layout planning
• Analysis hierarchy process
• ECRS