Restructuring of existing production process with lean manufacturing techniques and an application

In a globalized world economy, productivity is of vital importance for organizations to sustain their economic development. Of all kinds of processes, from production to personnel management, finance to sales marketing, increasing the growth of profitability, quality and organization is becoming the main focus. For this purpose, traditional production methods are replaced by lean production techniques. In the lean manufacturing methodology, the processes / operations that create added value for the customer's product are arranged in a way to create a continuous flow and the costs and the wastes are reduced. Continuous improvement is turned into a corporate culture and is always sought for the better. Businesses with a lean manufacturing philosophy design and implement a new system to eliminate waste that will emerge in the production system. In this study, the philosophy, objectives and techniques of Lean Manufacturing System are explained. Improvements have been made with lean manufacturing techniques in a company operating in durable consumer goods and automotive supply industry. As a result of the applications, positive results have been obtained regarding mold change time, cycle time, total equipment efficiency and quality improvements.