The lean manufacturing system applied to an auto parts industry in the heavy vehicles segment

This paper aims to demonstrate how the adoption of a continuous improvement program, based on lean manufacturing tools, can benefit the production of automotive filters for heavy vehicles, considering improved productivity and reduced operational waste, with a consequent increase in effectiveness and cost reduction. In this study we used the lean manufacturing tools, mainly kaizen and value stream mapping. During its development, the application of a kaizen project in a production line of automotive filters for heavy vehicles, aimed obtaining increased productivity and better distribution of physical space, through the reduction of rework time, reduction of downtime due to maintenance and reduction of setup time. The use of lean manufacturing tools, through the instruments presented in this study, guaranteed the viability of improvements in the productive sector. This work allowed the observation of a consistent improvement in production capacity, with productivity increase, through the improvement of the operational time and reduction of time of waste. The best distribution of physical space and the best arrangement of items used by the production process were also achieved through the consolidation of two production lines.