Application of lean manufacturing techniques in a refractory brick plant

Performance indicators plays very important role for manufacturing industry due to financial reasons therefore quite amount of work is being done on improving production performance. Lean manufacturing techniques are main preffered by companies which are performance improvement methods. Lean production techniques are preferred for this study to solve problems of production lines and improve processes of a refractory producer. Value stream mapping is used to designate waste sources of a pilot product family. By analyzing value stream map, non-value added activities are identified such as set-up times, scrap and work-in-process inventory. To make future state value stream mapping kaizen, total productive maintanence, 5S and set-up-tim reduction techniques are used and imrovement plan is made. Applied lean techniques are monitored for one year. Via lean techniques application a great deal of reducing is achieved of preperation time, scrap and work-in-process inventory. Consequently, a new value stream map is arranged after the application of lean techniques; and study is evaluated as the initial, target and obtained situation.