Conclusions
The use of the VSM improved the approach in LP initiatives as it reveals obvious and hidden waste that affected the
productivity of D45T production. There is a significant amount of the time products spent on the production system usually
was waiting and non-value added. Quantitative evidence showed that many of the Lean tools have an expected impact
related to the reduction of this waiting time. The evaluation of these improvements through the use of the CT evaluation
highlights the economic impact of time improvements. The VSM applied to assess the expected impact of a change in the
production process resulted in savings (lower rejection rates) and to a certain extent, a positive view was due to the fact that
there were substantial gaps between standardized work and real work – this gap meant that workers did not follow strictly
assembly standards and improvising the SOP could be a key driver in continuous improvement sustainability on the
production floor as operators are fully aware on the long-term commitment to practice Lean.