Lean Production in the Precast Concrete Components' Industry

This article is a case study applying Lean Thinking and Lean Production principles in a factory that produces prefabricated reinforced concrete components. The objective is to reduce waste production and increase productivity. Nine factories were analyzed, of which one was chosen for developing an implementation model. A number of changes were proposed based on Lean concepts and the study of several similar factories to improve productivity. A Black Belt Team was created to improve the execution and continuance of the lean concepts. Value Stream Mapping was also used as an aid in the identification of existing waste and improvement opportunities, to which various Lean tools were applied in order to solve the identified problems. The main conclusions of this study are that it is possible to achieve a significant improvement in the production system of prefabricated reinforced concrete components using Lean philosophy. Improvements in the reduction of lead-time, reduction of waste and increase in productivity are achieved with simple and low cost techniques.