*Author for correspondence Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(45), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i45/104841, December 2016 ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645 Lean Tools Implementation for Lead Time Reduction in CNC Shop Floor of an Automotive Component Manufacturing Industry R. Suganthini Rekha 1 *, P. Periyasamy 1 and S. Nallusamy 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, St. Peter’s University, Chennai-600 054, Tamilnadu, India; rekha.mira24@gmail.com, psamy75@gmail.com 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. M G R Educational and Research Institute, Chennai-600 095, Tamilnadu, India; ksnallu@gmail.com Keywords: CNC, Gear Box, Lead Time, Line Balancing, VSM, Work Standardization Abstract Objective: To examine the existing system of a production line in a shop floor of steering gear box manufacturing industry and to improve the productivity using lean methodology without much affecting current working systems. Method/ Analysis: An extensive range of lean manufacturing tools are available to take care of all kinds of issues faced by different manufacturing industries. It also helps for successful cost reduction of the manufacturing component and to assure the quality of manufacturer and customer. Findings: The critical Non-Value added Activities (NVA) were recognized and probabilities required for development has been recognized. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) has the reputation of finding waste during manufacturing and business process which facilitate to identify and remove or stream the value added steps and to eliminate the non-value added steps. Application/Improvements: After accomplishment of appropriate lean tools, it was found that the total setup time was condensed by about 180 minutes and cycle time was condensed by about 98 minutes which ultimately reduces the lead time and increases the productivity. 1. Introduction Now a day’s lean manufacturing technique is used as an imperative vertebral column of the production system in manufacturing divisions. Lean manufacturing has mostly been implemented in manufacturing industries during the last thirty years to identify the waste and to develop suggestions that will eliminate the same in manufactur- ing companies. Te end users expect their manufacturing vendors/suppliers to be responsive in delivering products on time and hence, they are continuously leaning towards cycle time reduction in all the processes. Cycle time is one of the most signifcant characteristics in manufac- turing and it is an interval of time during which a set of consecutive actions takes place repeatedly. In turn cycle, time is defned as the time of longest operation in a sub- assembly and assembly line in a manufacturing industry. Te cycle time will be reduced when the line is balanced properly and sub-assembly layout is optimized. Lean manufacturing has been already implemented in most of the large-scale automotive manufacturing industries. Yet there has been no information on the implementation of lean manufacturing technique in the production line of medium and small scale industries. Due to the high demand in the competitive market, the manufactures has to concentrate in the reduction of cycle time during the manufacturing. Most of the manufactures are interested in utilizing the advanced Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machines for producing the variety of products within the prescribed time to get the required product easily. In this research article, lean tools implementation is focused for steering gearbox manufacturing industry