Machine tool component manufacturing - a lean approach

B. John, V. Selladurai and Rajesh Ranganathan

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2012, vol. 12, issue 4, 405-430

Abstract: This paper presents the application of lean manufacturing concept in the production of machine tools. Normally, lean principles are applied in the production of discrete parts, which are produced in large quantities and variety. But in machine tools, the production volume is comparatively low and variety is high. The machining operations and the cycle time required for the machining of major components of machine tools are normally high. In this paper, the manufacturing of main structure for the conventional high precision, centre lathe using cellular manufacturing is dealt with in detail. Traditionally, a process-type layout or a group technology layout is adopted in the manufacturing of lathe components. Both the methods have inherent problems and hence, the new method using lean manufacturing tools is introduced. The case study of a turning machine manufacturing company is considered for the detailed analysis. The performance improvements achieved through lean manufacturing is converted into mathematical equations and is optimised. The methodology described in this paper includes mathematical formulae that balance the work being performed to optimise the production resources necessary to achieve customer demand.

Keywords: lean manufacturing; cellular manufacturing; manufacturing cells; value stream mapping; VSM; turning machines; manufacturing layout; machine tool manufacturing; production optimisation; machine tools. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=47951 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijsoma:v:12:y:2012:i:4:p:405-430

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Services and Operations Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().