Using lean manufacturing to improve process efficiency in a fabrication company

This article presents a case study on improving process efficiency in a mining equipment part fabrication company. The company was facing issues concerning communication, organisation, and workflow processes. This study investigated that ineffective communication among departments was the major weakness which was responsible for the long lead or idle time. This lead time was a waste that affected the company’s productivity. A great amount of time was spent on non-value-added processes. The Kanban Centralised Communication System was implemented. Time study and value stream mapping were also used. A significant improvement in process efficiency from 34% to 85% was achieved by reducing lead time from 4200 minutes to 1680 minutes after streamlining the communication in the company using Kanban.