Abstract:

Purpose- This project aims to analyze and improve the production processes of grab bars which is one of the bill materials of buses that are manufactured in one of the leading automotive companies. Methodology- Value Stream Mapping is used to understand production processes of grab bars for the existing state. Based on this analysis, important parameters such as cycle times, process times are recorded. Then by the help of lean approach, points that can be improved are determined. Due to the these suggestions, a new production process is proposed. To check the validity of the proposed production process, it is run with ARENA Software. As last, Value Stream Mapping is re-designed to display the improvements on the parameters. Findings- Many parameters of production process of current state are improved by applying the lean approaches and validated via ARENA simulation. According to future state ARENA model, the number of completed bars has increased by 24% and the number of defected bars has decreased by %50. Conclusion- The main contribution of this study is in two-folds. Firstly, the production process of grab bars is analyzed in detail and represented by Value Stream Mapping. Secondly, Lean Approach is employed to improve the existing grab production processes.

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