Implementing Continuous Improvement in Metal Casting: Case Study of an Aluminum Foundry

The paper intends to identify and suggest improvements in two areas crucial for implementing lean principles in an aluminum semi-permanent casting small to medium enterprise (SME). This paper builds an analytical model to measure production performance and presents a case study of an aluminum foundry. The case study reveals the use of two lean principles of bottleneck identification and lean buffering could allow for timely response to customer requirements. This paper helps in identifying areas for lean manufacturing tailored to the needs to foundry SMEs, in which the number of published studies is very limited.