Abstract
Productivity is one of the most important criteria in manufacturing industry and it has a significant impact on quality, delivery and cost. Many factors including lead time, manpower and production process need to be properly designed in order to obtain better productivity. So that, the right components can be delivered at the right time and at the right quantity. The purpose of this study is to introduce a systematic improvement method for increasing productivity of the battery assembly production line at a multi-national company in Penang, Malaysia. Some lean tools, for instance, Just in Time (JIT), Pull System and Setup Reduction can be considered towards achieving the objectives that had been set for this study. Time study has been used as data collection method in which time required for each sub assembly process has been taken accordingly. The data has been plotted in a bar chart for line balancing analysis. Then, the data was analyzed using Yamazumi Chart to segregate between necessary and unnecessary elements in sub assembly processes and also to determine which sub assembly processes or activities that can be combined together with minimum cycle time. As a result, the workstation has been reduced from 17 to 15 workstations in which the productivity has increased from 87% to 120%. The combination of appropriate sub assembly processes has reduced the manufacturing lead time which is inversely proportional to productivity rate.
