1. A Study on Productivity Improvement in Production
Line by Implementation of Lean Principles
Nur El Syahira Binti Shari
Department of Manufacturing Engineering Technology
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
elsyahira11@gmail.com
Tan Hauw Sen Rimo
Department of Manufacturing Engineering Technology
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
tanhauwsr@utem.edu.my
Mohd Soufhwee Abd. Rahman
Department of Manufacturing Engineering Technology
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
soufhwee@utem.edu.my
Abstract— This project is specifically concerned on the
productivity improvement in production line by implementation
of lean principles. In order to improve the productivity of the
industry, the wastes need to be reduced. There are two major
purposes of this project; to reduce bottleneck at production line
by using one-piece-flow method and to minimize overprocessing
at production line by using new standardized work.
Keywords—lean manufacturing; bottlenecks; overprocessing;
one-piece-flow; standardized work
I. INTRODUCTION
Lean manufacturing focusing on the way to eliminate waste
and to improve the efficiency in manufacturing environment.
There are seven types of wastes that exist in manufacturing;
transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction,
overprocessing and defect. These wastes can affect the
production and productivity of the company or industry if
being left alone. The scopes of this project are to concentrate
on the problems in secondary assembly production line that
were cause by bottlenecks and overprocessing cause by the
operator only. This project was carried out in the
manufacturing industry. There are two types of lean tools that
were used in this project which is one-piece-flow and
standardized work. One-piece-flow method was applied to
reduce bottleneck at the production line and the standardized
work was used to evaluate operator performance by prepared
new standardized work.
II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Data Collection
 The data collection is gathered at the secondary
assembly production line for model Assy Stand P-
Base. The standard time was calculated.
 The reasons for bottlenecks and overprocessing were
identified.
B. Data Analysis
 From the standard time calculated before, the
workstation that had the highest and second highest
standard time was identified as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. The Standard Time of Process
C. Problem Solving
 New standard time was calculated and line balancing
was made.
 New process flow made from line balancing then
implement standardized work to minimize
overprocessing by operators.
 Improved the layout of the workstation to implement
one-piece-flow to reduce bottlenecks at the
production line.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Through the standardized work method, the overprocessing
can be minimized. One of the reasons why the overprocessing
occurred is because of the operator skill itself. So, when all the

2. operators used were from final assembly and secondary
assembly line, the standard time or cycle time of the operator
was decreased.
When the standard time decreased, the line balancing helps to
distribute the workload between operators equally. In this
process, although the bottlenecks occurred at station 3, the
changes cannot be made in here because of the processes in
station 3 are quiet complicated than others. That is why the
changes were made before and after station 3 which is station
2 and station 4.
As for bottlenecks in station 5, the solution was made by
combining station 4 and station 5 together. The results from
line balancing and new standardized work are shown at Fig. 4.
After the implementation, the standard time of processes was
improved from 39.90 seconds to 29.48 seconds.
Fig. 4 The Improvement at Process
After the new standardized work made and new workstations
layout was implemented, it promoted a good flow of the
processes because the processes at all stations became
continuous and the bottlenecks reduction can be achieved. The
data about the bottlenecks were taken from September until
November for 50 samples at each month. The reductions of
the bottleneck were shown in Fig. 5.
Besides, the production outputs also increased from 80 parts
per hour to 112 parts per hour as shown in Fig. 6. Hence, the
methods applied can increase the productivity of the
production line.
Fig. 5 Bottlenecks Reduction
Fig. 6 The Output Comparison
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of lean principles in the secondary
assembly line for product Assy Stand P-Base; standardized
work and one-piece-flow in this case study brings benefits for
manufacturers to improve the production performance in the
industry. The standardized method helps to minimize
overprocessing in operators. The one-piece-flow method helps
to reduce bottlenecks in production line. Hence, from the
implementation of lean principles, a lot of benefits can be
achieved by the company and the most important things are
the manufacturers can increase the productivity and will
ultimately decrease cost and gain more profits as the results of
applying lean principles in the production line.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank her supervisor and co-
supervisor, Mr Tan Hauw Sen Rimo and Mr Soufhwee Abd.
Rahman and also Mr. Shamsul and Mr Murad for providing
guidance for her bachelor degree project at Universiti
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) and in the chosen
industry.
REFERENCES
[1] The Machine That Changed The World, 1990
[2] Triumph of The Lean Production System, 1988