PurposeIn the recent scenario, there has been an increasing trend toward lean practices and implementation in production systems for the improvement of an organization’s performance as its basic nature is to eliminate the wastes. The increasing interest of customers in customized products and the fulfillment of customers’ demand with good productivity and efficiency within time are the challenges for the manufacturing organization; that is why adopting lean manufacturing concept is very crucial in the current scenario.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors considered three different methodologies for fulfilling the objective of our research. The analytical hierarchy process, best–worst method and fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis are the three methods employed for weighting all the enablers and finding the priority among them and their final rankings.FindingsFurther, the best results among these methodologies could be used to analyze their interrelationships for successful lean supply chain management implementation in an organization. In this paper, 35 key enablers were identified after the rigorous analysis of literature review and the opinion of a group of experts consisting of academicians, practitioners and consultants. Thereafter, the brainstorming sessions were conducted to finalize 28 lean supply chain enablers (LSCEs).Practical implicationsFor lean manufacturing practitioners, the result of this study can be beneficial where the manufacturer is required to increase efficiency and reduce cost and wastage of resources in the lean manufacturing process.Originality/valueThis paper is the first of the research papers that considered deep literature review of identified LSCEs as the initial step, followed by finding the best priority weightage and developing the ranking of various lean enablers of supply chain with the help of various methodologies.

No abstract

Purpose-The main aim of this paper is to develop a new mathematical model for the multi-manned parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem (MPTALBP) generally occur in plants producing large-sized high-volume products such as buses or trucks. Methodology-In this paper, the proposed mathematical model is applied to solve case study of multimanned parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem to minimizing the total idle time and reduce the cost associated with tools in mated stations of an assembly line. The proposed mathematical model is solved using a branch and bound algorithm on lingo 17 solvers. Findings-Based on the computational result, it can be seen that less number of workstations are utilized as compared to the theoretical minimum number of workstations with a shared tools approach that reduces space as well as the cost of tools. Practical implications-Since the problem is well known as np-hard problem a company case study problem is solved and the result of the study can be beneficial for the automobile industry to reduce tool cost and overall cost by tools sharing approach. Originality-On the basis of this literature review paper is first to address multi-manned parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem using the exact solution approach.

Purpose Parallel two-sided assembly lines are usually designed to produce large-sized products such as trucks and buses. In parallel two-sided assembly lines, both left and right sides of the line are used for manufacturing one or more products on two or more assembly lines located parallel to each other. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new mathematical model for the parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem that helps to evaluate and validate the balancing operations of the machines such as removal of tools and fixtures and reallocating the operators. Design/methodology/approach The proposed approach is explained with the help of an example problem. In all, 22 test problems are formed using the benchmark problems P9, P12, P16 and P24. The results obtained are compared among approaches of the task(s) shared, tool(s) shared and both tool(s) and task(s) shared for effect on efficiency as the performance measure. The solution presented here follows the exact solution procedure that is solved by Lingo 16 solver. Findings Based on the experiments, line efficiency decreases when only tools are shared and increases when only tasks are shared. Results indicate that by sharing tasks and tools together, better line efficiency is obtained with less cost of tools and fixtures. Practical implications According to the industrial aspect, the result of the study can be beneficial for assembly of the products, where tools and tasks are shared between parallel workstations of two or more parallel lines. Originality/value According to the author’s best knowledge, this paper is the first to address the tools and tasks sharing between any pair of parallel workstations.

No abstract