Productivity Improvement through Layout Redesign - A Lean Approach Case Study

Wa-Muzemba Anselm Tshibangu, Steve Berlinski

2012

Abstract

This paper explains how a small-size company located in the western New York region has used a lean approach to redesign its operational layout and eliminate unnecessary transportation moves to deal with financial turmoil and survive global competition. Although this is a true real world case study, the company’s name is referred to as West City Vacuum Forming Inc. (WCVF Inc.) throughout the paper to protect the company privacy as they are still in business today. A couple of years ago when WCVF Inc. lost two of its major customers to competition and technology changes, the company sales were tragically impacted and severe measures of cost reductions were urgently needed in order to maintain the company in business. WCVF Inc. then decided to retrench and re-evaluate its manufacturing practices. As a result of this self assessment effort, drastic measures including a significant downsizing of the workforce and a consolidation of the space floor were addressed to save the company from financial turmoil. This paper specifically analyzes the floor consolidation aspect because it resulted into a new configuration of operational layout that improved WCVF Inc. operations, productivity, and material flow by eliminating unnecessary transportation activities. Other benefits recorded include annual operational costs saving of approximating $50,000 and a reduction in cycle times in the order of 4.8 days for some products, representing a cut of 5%.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Anselm Tshibangu W. and Berlinski S. (2012). Productivity Improvement through Layout Redesign - A Lean Approach Case Study . In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO, ISBN 978-989-8565-22-8, pages 519-526. DOI: 10.5220/0004047705190526

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icinco12,
author={Wa-Muzemba Anselm Tshibangu and Steve Berlinski},
title={Productivity Improvement through Layout Redesign - A Lean Approach Case Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO,},
year={2012},
pages={519-526},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004047705190526},
isbn={978-989-8565-22-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO,
TI - Productivity Improvement through Layout Redesign - A Lean Approach Case Study
SN - 978-989-8565-22-8
AU - Anselm Tshibangu W.
AU - Berlinski S.
PY - 2012
SP - 519
EP - 526
DO - 10.5220/0004047705190526