USE OF KAIZEN PRINCIPLE AND LINE BALANCING TECHNIQUE FOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT IN THE ASSEMBLY OF AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENTS

Continuous process improvement is critical for organisations to stay in business. An automotive component manufacturer faced productivity challenges after the launch of a new hybrid C-SUV automobile South Africa. This paper aims improve seat cover sewing line through balancing technique. The use standard times balance production initially led bottlenecks, and cycle time was above takt assembly line. Through work-study analysis studies, bottleneck processes were identified. Elements then categorized, kaizen implementation occurred at processes. rebalanced meet calculated time. A root cause also conducted investigate sources muda factors affecting rate working. rebalanced, delay decreased by 33%. Keywords Bottlenecks; Kaizen principle; Muda