Technical
Value Stream Mapping - Basic & Advanced Level
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a lean manufacturing technique to
analyze, design, and manage the flow of materials and
information required to bring a product to a customer. It uses a
system of standard symbols to depict various work streams and
information flows.
Runners, Repeaters & Strangers
Customer demands for all products are ascertained and a Pareto
of the products with respect to customer demand is made. 20% of
products which contribute to 80% of the production volume are
called Runner products, 80-95% of the production volume is
called Repeaters and the balance 5% are called Strangers.
Designing Product Families
A Product x Process Matrix is made. Products that pass through
similar processes and equipment are grouped into product
families. Value Stream Mapping is done for one such Product
Family.
Aim
The GAP between the Current State and the desired Future State
VSM for the Value Stream Plan. The Value Stream Plan sets
the Direction [Hoshin] for the organization. This Hoshin is
converted into the Process Kaizens at the Gemba level to achieve
the Hoshin. Thus, the whole organization gets involved in the
improvement process.
Scope
The Future State VSM will form the strategy to define the future
state of the organization. The strategy could be stratified
into Short term, Medium-term and Long-term strategies
Methodology
Preparing the Current State VSM
The Current State VSM is made for one Product Family. The
Current State VSM is prepared with the real data from the Gemba.
The current customer demand is taken and all other data like RM,
WIP, and FG inventories, cycle times, changeover times,
operators used etc. are put into the Current State Map.
The Current State Map will be analyzed to separate the processes
that will be batched and the processes that could be with
continuous flow through calibrated Super Markets.
Analyzing Total Work Content
The continuous flow processes need to be connected to produce
continuous flow along the Value Stream - downstream of the
supermarket. To create a Connected Flow the processes could be
connected to form a cellular layout. For this, we need to
calculate the Total Work Content and the Operator Manning of the
Cell.