الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Lean six sigma (LSS) is one of the approaches that has been widely employed in various production and service sectors. The promising achieved results as well as the success stories in different application have motivated the implementation the LSS in this study. Despite the immense applications of LSS, there is no unified standard framework for its implementation. Therefore, this research has adopted the integration of lean manufacturing principles and six sigma practices through incorporating the different lean tools into the phases of the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology. The main objective of this research is applying the adopted LSS framework to an industrial case study concerned with changeover time reduction in a TV assembly line. Typically, changeover time is one of the most critical aspects that significantly affect the overall effectiveness of manufacturing systems. Besides, it has been identified as a major source for efficiency declines in production facilities as it drastically consumes time as well as other resources with no added value. Particularly, in small to medium sized manufacturing systems that rely on batch production in achieving the product variety that can cope with customer requirements, changeover time reduction is a key enabler for achieving the organization strategic objectives. In the considered case study, significant reductions in changeover time have been achieved as a result of the LSS implementation. The reported results reveal a 54% reduction in the changeover time, which can essentially improve the line capacity and enhance the resource utilization. |