II AGRADECIMIENTOSA Dios, por habernos dado fuerza, inteligencia y salud para llegar a cumplir nuestra meta y por darnos estupendas familias. A nuestros padres Nemesio Escriba e Inés Gutierrez y; José Chozo y Rosa Gonzales, principales motores de nuestros sueños, por dar todo su esfuerzo y sacrificio para ser posible que tengamos una carrera. A nuestras hermanas Natividad Escriba y María Alejandra Chozo, por sus consejos, por confiar en nosotros y apoyarnos en todo momento.Agradecimiento a nuestros docentes de la Carrera de Ingeniería Industrial que contribuyeron con la preparación y formación de nuestra profesión, en especial a nuestro asesor de tesis, Ing.Edgardo Gabriel Carvallo Munar quien con sus grandes conocimientos y experiencia en el sector, ha guiado nuestra investigación. Asimismo, un agradecimiento a las PYME peruanas de exportación de prendas de vestir que fueron parte de nuestro estudio, por habernos abierto las puertas para realizar nuestra investigación. IVProposal to improve the sewing process of SMEs in the export sector of garments made of cotton knitwear by applying Lean tools based on flexible manufacturing cells and Pull system ABSTRACT This research addresses the application of the lean manufacturing philosophy in the sewing process of the Peruvian SMEs in the garment sector for export. The main objective is to increase competitiveness through the reduction of lead time. To carry out the study, information collected through in-depth interviews with SMEs of the sector. Then, by applying Value Stream Map (VSM) tool and seven-waste analysis, an excess of lead time is identified, mainly caused by inventories and waits. This represents a total of 5.7 days (62%), which main causes were inventory policies and bundle size. In order to reduce this waste, lean methodologies based on flexible manufacturing cells and pull systems were designed and developed. In addition, a future VSM was carried out, where the final results showed a reduction of inventories and waits of 90% in shelving and 67% in the production line, reducing the sewing process lead from 13 days to 3 days approximately. Finally, through expert judgment, the proposed model was validate, where an 84% approval was obtain (4.2 out of 5). In addition, the validation was reinforce through the simulation in Arena, where was obtain a reduction of inventories by 90%.