Cycle time reduction of a truck body assembly in an automobile industry by lean principles

Cycle time should be considered a viable option when an organization is trying to improve efficiency, productivity, and cost base and customer responsiveness. Tools of lean manufacturing and line balancing are used to reduce the cycle time in an automobile assembly plant, which contains many non-value added activities and work. Assembly Line Balancing is the process of assigning operations to workstations along an assembly line, in such a way that the assignment is optimal in some sense. This paper deals with studying the existing operation time for assembling, line balancing to avoid station delay, and the implementation of lean tools resulting in a shortening of the cycle time in an assembly line. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.