VSM AND SIMULATION TOOLS EMPLOYMENT IN CONJUNCTION FOR PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT-A PAKISTAN CASE STUDY

Abstract

Manufacturing rms now-a-days are in a dire need to enhance their productivity in order to meet the increasing demand. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is said to be an important tool in analyzing and diminishing the wastes of a manufacturing rm thus increasing its productivity. VSM when used alone has limitations due to its static and simple nature. To deal with the unanswered questions of VSM, use of Simulation along with VSM is suggested by the researchers. In this paper an attempt has been made to apply VSM and Simulation together in the shop oor of a fan manufacturing rm facing problems mainly related to High production costs, haphazard layout of workshop and high level of inventory. The solution provided focused on layout improvement incorporating ow of material, bottleneck identi cation and management and reduction in inventory levels. Various Lean tools were used to address the problems including Value stream mapping, use of Kanban cards to aid batch manufacturing and use of simulation with Simul8 software to quantify the gains made as a result of stated improvements.