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Value stream mapping in a discrete manufacturing: A case study

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 55
Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

Value stream mapping in a discrete

manufacturing: A case study
Anup P. Chaple#1, Balkrishna E. Narkhede*2
#
Department of Production and Industrial Engineering
VJTI, Mumbai, India
1
[email protected]
*
Department of Production and Industrial Engineering
VJTI, Mumbai, India
2
[email protected]

Abstract— The purpose of this paper is to apply value waste which are growing. The lean implementation
stream mapping (VSM) for making improvement allows a company to reinforce the various stages
roadmap in a discrete manufacturing organization. that lead to operational excellence, continuous
This study provides an up-to-date, review of value
improvement, and elimination of activities that
stream mapping. A systematic methodology is
don’t add value [10]. Lean manufacturing is
presented in this paper for selecting product family
and processes for improvements. A current state map
originated in Toyota with names ‘Toyota
is developed after critical observations, calculations, production system (TPS)’ beginning back in the
and analysis for identifying wastes in current system. 1960s [13], [17]. It holds significant promises for
The various tools of lean manufacturing are then substantial advantage for improvement of
discussed to establish improvement roadmap, which communication and integration within the
lead to future state mapping. The improvements organization and supply chain [23]. Lean enablers
evaluated on key performance indicators such as lead are considered as a set of tools, techniques and
time, inventory reduction and increased value
suggestions for implementation and execution of
addition. Few tangible benefits are, reduction in lead
lean principles and help business units to step
time by 59%, improvement in VA/NVA ratio by
138%, and reduction in inventory by 61%. In order
toward leanness [23]. Lean manufacturing system
to implement VSM in a discrete manufacturing is seen by practitioners as an answer for cost
organization, this study gives a complete overview of reduction production system, which encompasses
conducting value stream mapping study. The value tools and strategies for improvement [29].
stream mapping study reported is an original work of
the authors which conducted in discrete VSM is such one of the tool which depicts the
manufacturing scenario represented by low volume entire system under study on a single sheet of
with high variety products. With this context of paper, using symbolic illustrations and icons [19].
complexity to develop value stream maps, the study is A value stream consists of all the materials and
considered to be highly valuable. information required in the manufacturing of a
Keywords— Value stream mapping, lean manufacturing, particular product and how they flow through the
waste reduction, takt time, value manufacturing system [7], [19]. VSM is described
as a technique used for the diagnosis,
1. Introduction implementation, and maintenance of a lean
approach [10]. VSM is a powerful tool that enables
Manufacturing companies need to redefine and the visualization and understanding of the flow of
redesign their production systems in response to the material and information through the value chain
competitiveness demanded by the challenges of [15]. The main purpose of this tool is to reduce the
present markets [25]. Within such scenario, time between placement of order by the customer
companies experience the need for improvement in and the time of delivery of the product [2]. Benefits
its manufacturing processes, in order to provide gained from using VSM to promote the lean
high-quality products at affordable prices and on implementation are well supported in the literature
time. To this end, managers’ concerns in reducing [23].
______________________________________________________________
International Journal of Supply Chain Management Some VSM benefits are [10]:
IJSCM, ISSN: 2050-7399 (Online), 2051-3771 (Print) • Allows a broad view of the entire flow;
Copyright © ExcelingTech Pub, UK (http://excelingtech.co.uk/)
• Helps to identify wastes;
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

• Shows the relationship between material and literature review related to VSM. A brief summary
information flow; of company background is provided in section 3.
• Provides a simple and standardized way to Section 4 details the implementation procedure of
treat procedures; VSM to explore underlying problem. The details of
• Makes decisions more “visible,” allowing the current state analysis to develop future state are
previous discussion of possible changes and provided in section 5. Section 6 highlights the
improvements and; expected benefits after implementation of proposed
• Forms the basis for an action plan. model and finally section 7 summarizes the entire
article and provides the direction of future research.
Literature suggests wide application of VSM:
automobile manufacturing [2], [15], [28], [34], 2. Literature Review
water-heater manufacturing [30], camshaft
Ref. [35] presents lean thinking in a systematic
manufacturing [32], process industry [18] and
way; and summarized five critical elements of lean
coffee industry [19]. Although, it is not restricted to
implementation, i.e., value, value stream, flow,
manufacturing, VSM found its applications in
pull, and the pursuit of perfection [36]. According
various support functions as well: sales process [4],
to Ref. [7], any task in a manufacturing facility can
truck transportation [21], supply chain of
be classified into one of three categories: incidental
cottonseed industry [26], electrical manufacturing
work, value-added work, and muda. Incidental
services [27], healthcare [11], housing construction
processes are processes such as inspection that do
[37], upholstery furniture engineering process [33],
not add value to the product but are required in the
project management [6] and new product
current production system. Value-added processes
development process [8] [31].
add value to the product, such as the final assembly
of a product. Finally, muda, or non-value added
Despite the benefits as discussed in above, Ref.
processes, are defined as any process that does not
[10] pointed to the difficulties and limitations while
add value to the product and is not required by the
using VSM. The preceding study highlighted the
current production system. The main function of
difficulties on the front of capturing process and
VSM is to identify opportunities for improvement
material flow between the processes, correct
and the elimination of waste with support from the
observation of wrongdoing and lack of
operational team.
standardization which makes this process stiff. This
specially is problem in discrete manufacturing Value Stream Mapping is a pencil and paper tool
environment, characterized by high number of that helps you to see and understand the flow of
SKU’s, variable demand per SKU, variable batch material and information as a product makes its
size and short runs of production [20]. way through the stream [14]. The participants or
It is undeniable that the application of VSM team is required to obtain essential information
provides important benefits to the productive about the manufacturing processes. It involves
process. That is why it is a practice, applied at so mapping of production path from customer to the
many companies and studied at several universities supplier by visual representation/symbols of every
and research centres. Even with all its benefits, process in material and information flow [10]. Then
when mistakenly applied, VSM can generate poor ask a set of specific and key questions resulting in
results which lead to bad decisions, both mapping of ‘future state, off-course along with the
technically and financially. Therefore, many action plan to achieve it [15]. Ref. [22] emphasized
interesting opportunities exist for making more the use of simulation software for VSM to
rational use of the VSM tool and thus provide more transform database in simulation models easily and
reliable results. The purpose of this paper is to in a short time. This also expedites the
present a case study of VSM to shed light on the implementation of improvements to the system
methodology adopted on complex product-process quickly.
manufacturing system, which will help
practitioners to understand the VSM and its VSM mainly focuses on the analysis and
application in a better and practical way. improvement of disconnected flow lines in
manufacturing environments [24]-[25]. With
The remainder of this article is organized as regard to the VSM application process, it is based
follows: the next section reviews the relevant on five phases put into practice by a special team
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

created for such a purpose [24]-[25]. The phases an electrical products. The products are of wide
are (1) selection of a product family; (2) current range classified on the basis of output (X KW to Y
state mapping; (3) future state mapping; (4) MW) to fulfill the diversified demands of
definition of a work plan; and (5) achievement of customers based on their needs. They are in
the work plan. discrete manufacturing, represented the
environment of low volume and high variety of
Since the inception of VSM, an extensive literature products. The manufacturing technologies used are
has identified the strengths of lean tools when casting, machining, assembly and painting.
applied in the real-world and across different fields Company ABC has a wide variety of customers
[36]. VSM has proved effective in identifying located all over the world. Company ABC’s
physical details of the manufacturing process and products are standard catalog products as well as
has been introduced as a functional method to help made to their customers’ exact specifications (eg.
practitioners reorganize manufacturing systems MTO – Make to Order).
[36]. Lower production costs, faster response time
to the customer and higher quality of products are Company has sales offices which handles enquiries
therefore outputs that can be expected when from customers, once they gone through the exact
applying VSM to a production process [15]. requirements, next step is to update into standard
checklist. Catalogues for different product families
Literature suggests the use of lean metrics like lead are developed to make enquiry process easy. This
time, value added time, cycle time and takt time checklist along with order quantity is then
when applying the VSM tool [1], [15]. Few forwarded to engineering team to release BOM
definitions of the KPI’s or lean metrics are given (bill of material) and drawings, followed by release
below: of production orders by Materials Management
team. Next step is to order the components and
Lead time is the time a product takes to flow
lined up in-house production based on its
through the value stream or the process, from start
manufacturing lead time. In this sector, all the
to finish [15], [24].
manufacturers are competing on basis of lead time.
Value added time refers to the time of the However, Company ABC is facing challenge of
operations that, according to the customer/client, shortening the manufacturing lead time of 3 weeks
add value to the product and for which he is willing from existing 32 days (>4.5 weeks). In order to
to pay [15], [24]. achieve this, company has already started to
explore various tools and techniques that fall under
Cycle time is defined by the period of time lean manufacturing. Keeping this in mind,
between repetitions of the same task. It is, company ABC wants to use VSM to explore the
therefore, the time taken by all operations of the wastes in manufacturing and eliminate them.
slowest station/operator of the process [15], [24].
Although the managers had knowledge about how
Takt time is the frequency in which a product must lean manufacturing could help the company, the
be produced, to meet the client's demand. This workers at Company ABC had yet to complete a
metric is used to synchronize the production and lean manufacturing project, and expressed their
the sales cadence [15], [24]. desire to transform the facility using lean strategy
in order to increase the efficiency of their plant.
Takt Time can be determined using the following Although lean has potential applications enterprise-
formula: wide in Company ABC. Hence, Company ABC
agreed and offered lean project which involved
study and implementation of VSM for its major
product line. For this purpose, a VSM team is
formed to collect data, analyse it and implemented
3. Company background
the suggestions to improve manufacturing
The company under this research study is a part of efficiency.
large organization (ABC) which is stretched into
diversified businesses. This company is OEM 4. VSM to develop current state
(Original equipment manufacturer) and produces
VSM provides a depiction of both current-state and
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

future-state maps. The difference between the Further to this, Ref. [31] stressed the importance of
current state and potential future state is helpful in increasing the ratio of value-added time, and the
visualizing what conditions would work when same time decreasing the ratio of non-value added
improvements are conducted. Current state map but necessary and waste time. In order to meet
serve as the basis for developing future state map these expectations, there is need to find out wastes
that eliminate waste (non-value added) steps and associated with material and information flow in
interfaces while pulling resources through the the manufacturing. The seven wastes includes [31],
system and smoothing flow. [35], overproduction, inventory, extra processing,
transportation, waiting/queuing, excess motion and
VSM provides a visual platform to capture the defect work.
input/output of “door to door” steps, involved
resource, cycle time and utilized time [31]. This The overall methodology adopted in this research is
distinct feature has replaced VSM over shown in Figure 1, which shows the steps involved
conventional recording approaches from analysis in implementation of VSM and their objectives in a
perspective. The five principles of lean single line. The initial analysis was conducted to
management forming the backbone of VSM are: select the product family for potential
defining value for the product from customer’s improvements. The Pareto analysis was conducted
point of view, developing value stream and to prioritize the products based on the order
eliminates wastes, uninterrupted flow, pull system quantity and total revenue resulting of it. In the
by avoiding push to customers and pursue to reach
next step, the current state is mapped with the
the perfection level [35], [36]. Based on these lean
prospect of reaching to the improved future state.
principles, any activity being performed can be
classified into following three categories: 1) Value The action plan is prepared with an objective of
added activity: create values perceived by external reaching to future state and realize all the benefits
customers for which they willing to pay; 2) Non by eliminating wastes. Next sub-section discusses
value added activity but necessary: activities which the actual data collection for the underlying study.
may not create value for external customers, but
they are necessary due to un-avoidable
circumstances; 3) Waste: activities that add no
value for external customers, these activities should
be identified and eliminated.

Identify the product family and study

Initial Study
of process to improve

Current State Map Mapping of current (as is) state

Future State Map Eliminate waste

Action Plan Preparation Action plan for each improvement with

responsibility and time frame

Implementation Implementation of actions

Figure 1. VSM implementation phases with objectives

4.1. Selection of product family figure 2, is in the form of Pareto chart which shows
quantity along with cumulative percentage in order
The starting point of conducting the VSM study in of decreasing quantity. Further to this P-Q analysis,
discrete manufacturing and low volume with high the revenue is taken into consideration as an
variety products is a selection of product family. additional parameter for better representation.
The approach for the selection of product family is Product-Revenue Analysis (P-R analysis) is
through performing Product-Quantity Analysis (P- performed in the form of Pareto chart which shows
Q analysis) which is the classical approach for revenue along with cumulative percentage in
product mix segmentation. The P-Q chart shown in decreasing trend (see figure 3). The combination of
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

two Pareto analyses (P-Q and P-R analysis) leads to • flow is unidirectional with minimum backtracking
the Classification Matrix (Table. 1) that defines or cross-flows between machines; and
nine distinct products classes ranging from High-
High (upper class) and Low-Low (lower class). • flow paths in the cell must consist of smooth
contours.

In another word, machines that are dedicated to a

single product family offers an opportunity to
improve the layout structure. On the contrary,
machines that are shared by products belonging to
different families act as constraints for layout.
Thus, before proceeding with VSM, it is necessary
to identify all the processes/machines that are used
Figure 2. Product-Quantity Chart
by more than a family. Table 2 is a product-process
matrix, it indicates different product families eg.
Family 1 – Product 1, 2 and 3, Family 2 – Product
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, finally Family 3 – Product 10,
11, 12, 13 and 14. Products 15 and 16 remained
independent products and could not become part of
any product family.

Figure 3. Product-Revenue Chart 4.3. Drawing the current state map

Table. 1 Priority Matrix
The production processes of selected product/group
were carefully observed and studied through a
structured “Gemba walk”. Gemba refers “the real
place” where the actual actions are executed.
Gemba walk encourages by “go-see” principle. In
another word, getting out of office and walking the
process. This enables discovering issues and fix
them. Ref. [31] pointed two advantages of Gemba
Ref. [3] have underlain the logic that high volume walk for continuous improvement: first, powerful
products are responsible for the largest part of non- way to support continuous improvement and
value-added costs such as: material handling, WIP, process standardization with the help of company
queuing, and other operational costs. Figure 2 leaders, managers and supervisors; and second, it
clearly shows that the product P1, P2 and P3 are helps building relationships with team leaders by
contributing highest (70%) in accordance with getting to know teammates better and helping them
quantity. Hence, we selected these products (P1, P2 improve the processes.
and P3) for VSM study.
By doing so a sense and sequence of material and
information flow were gained. The mapping is
4.2. Product-Process Matrix done through the door to door flow of a system
(also called as dock-to-dock) starting at the
The second step of the framework consists in the
customer end and going upstream towards supplier
identification of the processes that, being common
end. This way mapping was began by process
in more than a product, act as a possible group of
directly linked to the customer which should set the
products for study. Additionally, it summarizes
pace for other processes further upstream. Value
machines being shared by more than a product
stream map was hand drawn on a paper. The reason
family, which could be a possible constraint for
for a paper and pencil approach to mapping instead
lean manufacturing implementation. Ref. [3]
of using a computer is that by hand drawing key
suggests a facility layout must possess the
points can be understood and the focus will shift on
following characteristics, to achieve a continuous
understanding the flow instead of how to use a
and leveled flow:
computer. The main point of value stream mapping
• flow between consecutive pairs of operations is not the map but understanding the material and
takes place over short travel distances; information flow.
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

Table 2 Product-Process Matrix

PRODUCT
P-1 P-2 P-3 P-4 P-5 P-6 P-7 P-8 P-9 P-10 P-11 P-12 P-13 P-14 P-15 P-16
W-1 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
W-2 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
SUB-ASSEMBLY 1

W-3 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
W-4
W-5 √
W-6 √
W-7 √ √ √ √ √ √
W-8 √ √ √ √ √
W-9 √ √ √ √ √
W-10 √ √ √ √ √
S-1 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PART 1

S-2 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
S-3 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
S-4 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
R-1 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
√ √ √ √ √
SUB-ASSEMBLY 2

R-2
PROCESS

R-3 √ √ √ √ √ √ √
R-4 √ √ √ √ √ √
R-5 √ √ √ √ √ √
R-6 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
R-7 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
R-8 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
R-9 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
A-1 √
A-2 √ √ √
A-3 √ √ √
A-4 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
ASSEMBLY

A-5 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
A-6 √
A-7 √
A-8 √
A-9 √ √ √ √ √
A-10 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
A-11 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Now since mapping will begin from customer end, change is made in the machine setting. No. of Shifts
the customer factory icon (from standard process is the number of shifts per day and
icons of VSM) is used to note down the customer
demand per month, customer demand per day, Takt No. of Operators is the number of operators
time and Lead time of product/s. The next step is to working on that process.
draw the basic production processes with the use of
various standard VSM symbols. To indicate the The amount of inventory is recorded between two
process, a process box is used. workstations i.e. to be processed and processing
jobs of a workstation. As the mapping approaches
The data to be recorded in the process box is: the supplier side the raw material inventory in the
factory is recorded. The Production Planning and
Cycle Time (C/T) which shows the machine on to
Control Department monitors the Customer end,
machine on the time of a process. The time an
Supplier end, and the manufacturing activities in
operator takes to finish the process before starting it
again. the factory. A current state map, basically with a
high level description of information and
Changeover Time (C/O) is when a machine manufacturing processes, having deep insights into
switches over from one product time to another a the present situation is developed for Product 1,2
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

and 3 in combine (see figure 4). It offers a clear improvements on overall state of map. The
view on current process so that improvement problems or gaps need to be identified and on
opportunities can be explored by visualizing current state by bursts, this provides a roadmap and
problems and wastes. This map provides holistic guidance for the future state map by filling up the
view of information-process flow which otherwise gap areas and eliminating obstacles that prevent
not visible, it also helps in visualizing the effect of flow.

Figure 4. Current state map

5. Analysis of current state map to throughout the system, it is important to identify

the root cause of the muda and reduce or remove it.
develop future state According to the analysis of current state map,
following observations were made:
5.1 Analysis and brainstorming
• Less flexibility of the overall system: Since the
Once the current state map was developed, company caters to customized requirements, it
brainstorming session was conducted to come up disturbs the original production method. This
with ideas to reach to future state map. causes a delay in delivery of the products at a
Brainstorming is a popular and effective tool to certain time which shows the incapability of the
generate creative solutions by looking at the system. Information is being transferred to
problem in novel ways and utilizing the diverse
many points in value stream, which further
experience of all team members involved [31]. It
enables deep diving to explore root causes and creates problems like synchronization, setting
increases involvement of team members to share priority, FIFO, etc.
ideas with better solutions. More specifically, it • High inventory: During our door to door
takes stakeholders into account to reach to the mapping, we have found a high accumulation of
solution, which generally is more feasible and inventory at places on the shop floor. 23 days of
sustainable in nature. Additionally, active finished goods inventory lying at dispatch
participation encourages the specific role to play by center and more than 10 days of inventory of
each team member, which creates positive and components lying at very start of value stream.
rewarding environment for problem solving and This high inventory not only restricts space but
leads to improved bonding among them [5], [31].
also locks the money involved in production
After identifying where muda was located due to material waiting which is also a waste.
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

• Poor 5S and Visual management: 5S denotes machines create bottlenecks in the process
Sort: remove unnecessary items, eliminate halting the entire flow.
obstacles, evaluate necessary items, Set in
order: easy availability of items preventing loss The above problem leads to high accumulation of
of time, smooth workflow, Shine: workplace inventory worth 66.4 Million INR, high lead time
should be clean, Standardize: everything of 52.4 days and very low VA/NVA ratio of 4.7%.
according to standards, orderliness, Sustain: to While mapping future state map, the improvements
keep everything in working order. Basic visual were considered according to above key areas.
markings for high, low inventory, FIFO lane,
order quantity, target, and backlog were 5.2 Future state mapping
missing.
• High material movement: Due to the high The purpose of value stream mapping is to
highlight sources of waste and eliminate them by
quantity of orders, the company outsources
the implementation of a future state value stream
certain sub- assemblies which lead to a very
that can become a reality within a short period of
complicated network of material movement. time. The goal is to build a chain of production
Keeping track of the activities, like where the individual processes are linked to their
transportation, rework etc. increases the actual customers either by continuous flow or pull and
manufacturing time. Another reason was each process gets as close as possible to producing
process layout and specialized machines, which only what its customer needs when they need it.
restricted the single piece flow. The future state map is a depicted in figure 5, after
• No synchronization in flow: Due to improper working out the inventory values and other changes
communication, unavailability of material, in the flow as per the answers to the key questions.
difference in process timings between the Key questions to be asked for the future state map:
parallel paths there exists no proper
synchronization. Another reason for this is Push • What is the Takt time?
flow, which means the process produces • Will you build finished goods supermarket from
something regardless of the actual needs of the which the customer pulls? The answer to this
downstream customer process and pushes it question depends on various factors such as
ahead hence adds up the inventory for the next customer buying patterns, the reliability of
workstation. processes and the characteristics of the
• No FIFO: “first in first out” of products.
material/components was not followed • Where can you use continuous flow processing?
throughout the shop floor. Most times the • Where will you need to use supermarket pull
components ware picked up randomly. systems in order to control the production of
• Batch production at certain places: upstream processes?
Unnecessary batching of components due lack • At what single point in the production chain (the
of single piece flow increases the inventory ‘pacemaker’) will u schedule production?
between processes restricting space. This also • How will you level the production mix at the
increases the batch size to trade off high setting pacemaker process?
time. • What increment of work will you consistently
• Difficulty to know priority: Lack of release and take away at the pacemaker
identification makes it difficult to identify the process?
sequence hence priorities can’t be determined. • What process improvements will be necessary
Most of the times, it is verbally communicated
for the value stream to flow as the future state
which leads to miscommunication causing design specifies it?
disruption in flow.
• High downtime at certain workstations: The main practices that were included in the future
Machine breakdowns occurs due to the state map were:
following reasons, i.e. over-running machine’s
capability, improper maintenance, asking the • Pull system This describes the extent to which
untrained person to operate the machine, rough production is driven by customer demand [9], in
use by operator etc. Breakdowns at certain which following process withdraws (pull) parts
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

from the preceding process. The benefit is workstation in the sequence in which it is
operators gain an accurate knowledge of timing handed over by the previous workstation. FIFO
and quantity required. It removes any excess or builds up inventory but it always a controlled
waste of resources in term of labour or machine inventory. The maximum and minimum limit in
capacity. a FIFO lane was predetermined. Once the max
• FIFO This ensures that when a product is being limit reaches the supplier gets an indication to
produced it should be consumed by the next stop producing.

Figure 5. Future state map

• Supermarket There are places in value stream While making the future state map it was
where continuous flow is not possible and observed that at some places, due to high
batching is necessary, thus by supermarket changeover times batch production was
system batching can be done in a regulated mandatory unless and until by providing
amount. A ‘‘supermarket’’ is nothing more than optimum safety stock option, it was ensured that
a buffer or storage area located at the end of the the availability of sub-assembly would be as per
production process for products that are ready to the requirement without disturbing the setting of
be shipped [1], this can also be extended to the upstream process.
intermediate processes. The customer pulls • Milk Run It is a system where material handler
whatever is needed and it is replenished by the provides frequently variety of components in
supplier. A production kanban triggers small quantities directly to workstation based on
production of parts, while a withdrawal kanban Kanban signals, during one course several
is a shopping list that instructs a material workstations are served [12]. The major benefit
handler to get and transfer parts. of this system is to reduce the level of
• Safety Stock This is generally used to protect inventories at the workplaces and prevent
against sudden fluctuations in customer orders operators from leaving workplaces to bring the
or machine breakdown. By monitoring and parts. Milk Run system implemented to ensure
analyzing the distribution database the that the delivery of raw material would be done
particulars of the safety stock were determined. as per the daily requirement.
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

• Process improvement It is a small and effective 61%, which is 4.31 Crore INR. Table 4 summarizes
improvements toward reducing the value added the results achieved through VSM. Although, there
time. This effectively optimizes work hours of are numerous opportunities for the further
labor and production rate of the machine. improvements including 5S and visual management
Current state map pointing to the small on the shop floor, implementation of Andon and
percentage of VA in total time, hence it Jidoka system for transparent issue resolving.
becomes necessary to focus on reducing NVA
first. Process improvements give direct Table 4. Comparing results between current-state
reduction in cost and encapsulates tangible map and future-state map
benefits. Simplification of product and
processes for manufacturability significantly Current Future Improvement
Comparing items
reduced process time. state state ratio
Communication
4 1 -75%
The endeavour of future state map is the output of points
the proposed changes based on the gaps identified Lead time, days 52.4 21.5 -59%
in the current state map. Ref. [16] emphasized that
VA/NVA ratio, % 4.70% 11.2% 138%
suppliers must acts as the seamless extension of the
Inventory
focal organization. Hence, it was advised to involve 66.4 26.1 -61%
(Million INR)
suppliers in the implementation in a later stage to
regulate deliveries as per proposed process.
7. Conclusions
6. Results and discussions The case study presented in this paper intends to
give lean practitioners a reference for implementing
Observations of the current state map and analysis lean systems in discrete manufacturing operations.
of the critical path revealed the opportunity of In this case study, the VSM team began the process
establishing pacemaker process. In current by identifying the product family, based on its P-R
research, team has decided the final assembly as and P-Q analysis. Next, a process at a glance and a
the pacemaker process. By using the supermarket current value-stream map were created. A future-
pull systems, the scheduling needs to be done only state value stream map was then created which
at one point in your door to door value stream. This served as a goal for future lean activities. The team
point is called as the ‘Pacemaker Process’, because asked the questions to identify the root cause of the
how the production is controlled by this process issues that kept the company from moving towards
sets the pace for the further downstream processes. the future state. Various lean tools/practices were
Assembly is the juncture which is the final then identified as solutions to overcome these
customer in the manufacturing processes. By hurdles and achieve greater process efficiency.
monitoring this point, the assembly requirements
from upstream would be demanded in a Implementing lean manufacturing can increase the
predetermined manner. This will regulate the competitiveness of a company in the global arena.
working of the entire plant for this product family. In this case study, Company ABC reduced their
Thus, the assembly being the pacemaker process is lead times while at the same time improving the
selected as the target area for improvement. VA/NVA of their products after lean
Considering the fact that 17 quantities are produced implementation. Communication was greatly
on assembly on a daily basis currently, instead of simplified when a design change occurred. The
producing it in batches, if a single piece flow is manager only needs to inform at a pacemaker about
implemented the production will take place as per the production plan, rather than informing to
the takt time. Thus the delay or excessive inventory complete value stream as in the previous system.
dumped upon the next workstation will be
completely eliminated. However, it is necessary to reflect on the main
limitations of this research methodology from an
The results of the future state map shows that the implementation perspective. First, this research
average lead time reduced to the 21.5 days from assumed that the layout will continue to be a
52.4 days. In another word, reduction of lead time process layout and due to bulky and specialized
machines, perfect single piece flow cannot be
by 59%. This can be achieved by reduced inventory
achieved. Secondly, the case study does not
levels of components and finished product. Future
consider an automation of processes and material
state significantly reduces the inventory costs by handling system due to management’s decision of
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Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2017

not investing for same. Third, the case does not [5] Baumgartner, J. “The step by step guide to
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