Improvement of Workflow and Productivity through Application of Maynard Operation Sequence Technique ( MOST )

To sustain in business under the current global situation of fierce competition a company needs to reduce or eliminate the idle and/or down time of operations in addition to improvement of the current working methods. In this case study, the problems and challenges of an auto company engaged in assembling car rear window assembly are attributable to non-optimal operations with inefficient capacity planning. The whole assembly line suffers due to the absence of established standard time for activities carried out by operators, the non-value added activities involved and the inefficient methods such as manual screwing, unplanned aisle and walking distance, material wastages and imbalance in the material flow. This study is conducted through application of Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) in the rear window assembly section to capture the workflow activities using systematic and descriptive workflow data block for the value adding, value engineering and methods engineering analysis. Subsequently, new methods and work standards are developed in advance for capacity planning, workplace layout design and manning analysis. Thus through the process redesign and process flow analysis, material handling and workflow are improved. Consequently, it has been possible to reduce the production cycle time to cater the higher level of demand with shorter takt time maintaining the current level of manpower.