IMPLEMENTATION OF HEIJUNKA FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: A PROCESS SECTOR CASE STUDY

This article presents the impact of implementing Heijunka, a Lean manufacturing tool in improving the productivity of an Injection moulding industry. Lean manufacturing is a business excellence strategy for continuous improvement in areas of Productivity, Competitiveness, Quality and Customer satisfaction. Heijunka, a lean tool is aimed at smoothing the production and subsequently creating the opportunities to improve manufacturing environment. Heijunka when applied, prepares the industries to face the demand about to generate in the near future. The study reveals that the results of Heijunka were quite substantial in terms of improvement in quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. By implementing Heijunka, we can stop producing work in batches and start processing orders according to the customer demand. Thus based on a process sector case study approach, proposed method was applied as well empirical data were analysed. Results were measured before and after the implementation by performance indicators such as, Cost of inventory, Speed (Lead time), Mix flexibility (monthly set up operations)and reliability level. Evidences prove that there is improvements in operational efficiency as expected.