PurposeThe current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) are followed in the pharmaceutical sector to ensure that products are consistently produced and controlled to the appropriate quality standards as required by the marketing agencies. The purpose of this paper is to share improvement experiences due to implementation of lean principles combined with cGMP in a pharmaceutical company.Design/methodology/approachTo conduct the study, an intensive review of literature has been conducted. For analysis of the problems existing in the selected production line, the 5‐whys methodology was followed. The current state value stream map (VSM) has been developed after making several company visits and necessary computations. For improvement of the system, various lean strategies have been proposed and the future state VSM developed.FindingsThe methodology assisted this company in reducing lead times, cycle times and WIP inventory in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the storage area was reduced by 38 per cent and production staff was reduced by 50 per cent.Practical implicationsThe prime purpose of a lean strategy is to eliminate wastes and to search for continuous improvement in processes. The proposed lean strategies indicated scope for improvement in production efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing operations.Originality/valueThe guiding principle of cGMP is that quality is built into a product, and not just tested into a finished product. This paper makes several contributions to the pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The proposed lean strategies are considered to be highly valuable for implementation in similar manufacturing industries.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated design approach for rapid product development (RpD) of a broken product. Design/methodology/approach -Reverse engineering (RE), re-engineering (ReE) and RpD systems have been incorporated to infuse agile characteristics in the proposed design and development process. A case study involving a broken clutch shoe was selected to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed integrated approach. Findings -Integration of RE, ReE and RpD presented an unconventional approach towards achieving reduced lead times for design and development of products. Agile characteristics have been manifested for the broken clutch shoe by retrieval of a digitized parametric computer aided design (CAD) model. Moreover, development and selection of an enhanced feasible design (M 3 ) as well as delivery of the corresponding prototype was accomplished just in one week. Originality/value -The proposed integrated approach for RpD can provide solutions to similar industrial situations wherein agility in the product design and development process can be infused so that the developed part can be delivered quickly to the customer at the reduced time and costs.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive work flow for the improvement of the Reverse Engineering (RE) process in producing non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) models from scanned point cloud data. This should become a reliable guide in the creation of desired 3D-CAD models in order to improve efficiency of downstream operations and further to make decisions regarding quality control. Design/methodology/approach -The paper deals with a detailed investigation of operations in achieving an object's accuracy in the data editing phase and data fitting phase that employs the use of a 3D scanner. A case example involving the ShapeGrabberw AI310 laser scanner was used in digitizing the physical object. Operations considered for investigation at the data editing phase include relaxation, decimation of triangles and sharpening of edges. Contour detection, construct patches, target patch count, grid construction and grid resolution are selected as the operations for investigation in the data fitting phase. Evaluation of the generated digitized models was carried out by performing tests which include 3D Comparisons and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerance (GD & T) testing. Findings -The process of data editing is considered to be extremely time consuming which requires a high degree of skill in order to carry out the data manipulation steps. For the purpose of investigation, an electrical socket cover was considered as the object for digitization. The study found some contributors to enhance the quality of the digital model that can be used in the first piece inspection. The results indicate that although the operations associated with the data fitting phase affect the overall quality of the digitized model; they are however, limited by whatever the quality achieved at the data editing phase. Practical implications -The RE work flow described in this research will assist designers and practitioners in improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of design and manufacturing functions. Originality/value -The data editing and fitting processes are time consuming due to various adjustments necessary in obtaining a NURBS model from the digitized data. Thus, the proposed RE work flow identified the steps to realize the desired CAD models from the point cloud data. Moreover, from this study, practitioners will get a concise overall understanding about which geometrical features need to be adjusted so that the required model can be achieved; instead of the need to develop this procedure by themselves through the process of trial and error.

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