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APPLICATION OF VALUE STREAM MAPPING INSMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES

Anupam Sihag1*, Vinod Kumar2 and Umed Khod1

*Corresponding Author: Anupam Sihag,Sihaganupam90@gmail.com

Value stream mapping has the reputation of uncovering waste in manufacturing, production andbusiness process by identifying and removing non value adding steps. Value stream mapping isa method of recovering a product’s production path from door to door. In a process, non valueadded actions are identified in each step and between each step by their wastage time andresources. VSM is one of the lean tools to eliminate waste and improved operational proceduresand productivity. Current state map is prepared and analyzed and suggested to improve theoperational process. Accordingly the future state map is drawn after present study, we come toknow about improvement intact time by applying the proposed changes if incorporated in futurestate map.

Keywords: Current state map, Future state map, Takt time, Value stream mapping

INTRODUCTIONThe use of VSM has been attributed to thecause of much of the success that Toyota ofJapan has had since 1980. VSM wasintroduced by Taiichi Ohno in 1960 and 1970’sat its basic level. It is a systematic procedureto identify wasted time and action inmanufacturing process. A value stream is allthe actions (value added and non value added)required to take a product from raw materialto customer, the design flow from concept tocompletion.

Value Added Activities: Machiningprocessing, assembling, painting.

ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.comVol. 3, No. 3, July 2014

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Om Institute of Technology and Management, Hisar, Haryana, India.2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India.

Non Value Added Activities: Scrapping,sorting, storing, counting, documentation.

Value stream means looking at the wholepicture not just individual picture improving thewhole, not just individual part. The value streamis the complete making process for a product.It starts at the concept and ends at the deliveryto the customer. VSM can be a communicationtool, a business planning tool and a tool tomanage change in the production process.VSM provides a simple yet through methodthat relies on current data analysis and display.It links reporting, requirements, matrices,people and lean tools to continue improvement

Research Paper

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and promote process learning. It givesmanagers and employees the same tool andlanguage to communicate. It helps to visualizethe station cycle times, inventory at each stage,manpower and information flow across thesupply chain. In the production where VSM isused, the individual processes are connectedto their customer(s) either by continuous flowor pull, and each process gets as close aspossible in producing only what is customer(s)demand.

LITERATURE REVIEWTaiichi Ohno (1988), Womack et al. (1990),and Peter Hines and Nick Rich (1997), Rotherand Shook (1999), Womack and Jones (1998and 2005), and Daniel and Jones (2006) havestudied the implementation of Value StreamMapping effectively.

Taiichi Ohno (1988) could not see waste ata glance (especially across a geographicalarea). He developed material and InformationFlow Mapping (VSM) as a standard methodfor mapping the flows visually and it becamethe standard basis for designingimprovements at Toyota—as a commonlanguage. It became one of their businessplanning tools. VSM is now utilized throughoutthe world, in many businesses to strategicallyplan and it is the starting point to any leantransformation and implementation. The valuestream mapping was extended in the field ofaircraft manufacturing also.

Ballard and Howell (1994) suggest that thevalue stream mapping can serve as a goodstarting point for any enterprise that wants tobe lean. It provides a common language fortalking about manufacturing process. It tiestogether lean concepts and techniques which

help to avoid “cherry picking”. It forms the basisfor an implementation plan by helping to designthe whole flow.

Hines and rich (1997)has suggested thatthe value stream is “the specific activites withina supply chain required to design order andprovide a specific product or value.”

Hines(1998) found an application of valuestream mapping in the distribution industry.Partsco, a distributor of electronic, electricaland mechanical component decided to mapthe activities between the fiem and is suppliers.Partsce introduce EDI which allowed the firmto work with its suppliers effectively and morequickly. In a short time period the company wasable to reduce the lead time from 8 to 7 days.

Abbett and payne(1999) have discussedthe application of value stream mapping in anaircraft manufacturing unit. The havedeveloped the current and future state mapswith the objective of reducing lead timeaccording to customer’s requirements.

Halpan and Kueckmann (2001) explainvalue stream mapping in aircraftmanufacturing. They draw current and futurestate maps were developed with the objectiveof reducing lead time according to customerrequirements. The implementation of the futurestate map attained lead-time reduction.

McDonald (2002) point out that the VSMcreates a common language for productionprocess thus is facilitating more thoughtfuldecisions to improve the value stream. Thiswill effectively reduce the wastes andimproves the productivity. While researchesand practitioners have developed a numberof tools to investigate individual firms andsupply chain, most of these toll fall short in

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linking and visualizing the nature of thematerial and infirmatin flow in individualcompany. Simchi-Levi (2004) are of theopinion that the customers are alwaysconcerned with their order status andsometimes they value the order status morethan a reduced lead time.

Balkema and Rotterdam (2004) havecreated current map for a steel producer, asteel service center and first-tier componentsupplier. The current state map identifies hugepiled of inventory and long lead-time. In thefuture state map, target areas were subjectedto different lean tools including kanban,supermarket, and continuous flow.

Badrinarayana and Sharma (2007)discusses that the interdependent componentsfrom the value strem and value strem is theset of all specific actions required to bring outa specific actions requird to bring out a specificproduct.

Petter Solding (2009) have presented intheir paper that, the concept for creatingdynamic value stream maps of a system usingsimulation. Creating dynamic value streammaps makes it possible to analyze morecomplex systems than traditional VSMs areable to and still visualize the results in alanguage the lean tools.

Ritesh Bhat and Shivakumar (2011) madean attempt to improve the productivity usingValue Strem Mapping and Kanban Approach-“Change is constant”, is the phrase today mostof the industries believe in and act upon. ValueStream Mapping (VSM) and Kanban are thetechniques believe in and act upon. VSM andKanban are the technique which fall undertechnical approach method and when used

together as a combination gives a tremendousresult.

OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCHToday, automotive suppliers have a greatconcern over improving quality and deliveryand decreasing cost, which leads to improvedsystem productivity. In order to remaincompetitive, waste from the value stream mustbe identified and eliminated so to run systemwith maximum efficiencies. A Production is toorder and large numbers of different productsare produced, each in relatively small volume.A Production shop consists of number ofmachine centres, each with a fundamentallydifferent activities such as inventories,improper utilization. These problems increaseoverall cost of production. The need forcustomized products/parts with reduced leadtimes together with the requirement of globalcompetitiveness requires that products/partsbe produced in small batch sizes as percustomer’s requirement. The processing insmall batch sizes necessitates the adjustmentin the flow of production through differentprocesses as per their processing speeds. Inaddition, it requires close monitoring ofprocesses to reduce process variability(defect free production), efficient plannedmaintenance of all machines (for increasedavailability) and reduction in non value addedactivities such as setup times, movement ofmaterial in between the work processes andadditional processing of material. The efficientutilization of machines while producing in smallbatches reduced WIP inventories, reducedthroughput times and reduction in lead timesleads to competitive manufacturing. It is needfor machine shop manufacturing system toadopt lean environment.

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To improve productivity by identifying wasteand then removing that by implementing leanprinciple in this industry, we focus our attentionon VSM tool. Value Stream Mapping enablesa company to identify and eliminate waste,thereby streamlining work processes, cuttinglead times, reducing costs and increasingquality and hence productivity. The goal ofVSM is to identify, demonstrate and decreasewaste in the process, highlighting theopportunities for improvement that will mostsignificantly impact the overall productionsystem. In this study lean concepts areintroduced using VSM in working environment.

VSM METHODOLOGYMapping the value stream is a big picturetechnique that takes into consideration all theprocesses and seeks to improve theenterprise as a whole. The overall goal of VSMis to move from batch and push to one-pieceflow and pull through the entire value stream.Using a VSM process requires developmentof maps: a current state map and a future statemap. In the current state map, one wouldnormally star by mapping a large quantity andhigh-revenue product family. The material flow(left to right) will then be mapped usingappropriate icons in the rich VSM icontemplate. The product will be tracked from thefinal operation in its routing to the raw materialstorage. Relevant data for each operation,such as current schedule (push, pull and orderdispatching rules) and amount of inventory inthe queue, will be recorded. The informationflow (right to left) is also incorporated to providedemand information, which is essentialparameter for determining the “pacemaker”process in the production system. After bothmaterial and information flows have been

mapped, a time-line is displayed at the bottomof the map showing the processing time foreach operation and the transfer delaysbetween operations.

The time-line is used to identify the value-adding steps as well as wastes in the currentsystem. The comparisons between theprocessing times and takt time is a preliminarymeasures of the value and waste. This takttime is mostly used as an ideal time for eachoperation to achieve. Based on the analysisof the current state map, in than develops afuture state map by improving the value addingsteps and eliminating the non value addingsteps.

Generally VSM has four major steps asgiven by Rother and Shook (1996):

1. Product

2. Drawing current state

3. Drawing future state

4. Develop work plan for implantation of futurestate

Figure 1: VSM Methodology

Selection of critical shopfloor

Preparation of current state mapDocumentation of customer informationIdentification of main processDefine the data to be collectedSupplier informationMap the data

Analysis of current state map

Future state mapTakt time calculationSet the target costImplementing the lean tool

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METHODOLOGY ADOPTEDMain objective of the research is to achievereduced lead time, reduced inventory andcycle time.

Step 1: To draw Current State Map by usingfollowing substeps:

Substep 1: Identification and drawing theproduct flow from the raw material entry pointof manufacturing division to the finished goodsexit point of the mfd.

Substep 2: Calculating the number of WorkIn Process (WIP) for each component at eachwork cell.

Substep 3: Calculating the cycle time andutilization percentage of each process.

Substep 4: Plotting the current state map thatis essentially a snapshot capturing how thingsare currently being done.

Step 2: Create a Future State Map which is apicture of how system should look after theinefficiencies in it have been removed.

CURRENT STATE MAPThe data regarding the cycle time, setup timeand lead time was calculated from themanufacturing line of inner wheel housing.Further the details of various processesinvolved in the involved in the manufacturingwere noted down. The various manufacturingprocesses used are drawing, trimming,restriking, punching/piercing and weldingoperations. Hence the cycle time, setup time,WIP quantity required, WIP others, number ofshifts were noticed. Finally a current state mapwas drawn.

Maximum forecast per month is 50000 bythe help of past records and increasing

demand for new model of vehicles. Effectivenumber of working days is 27 for the forecastmonth; number of shifts per day is 3. Availableworking time per day is 1320 minutes.

So as we know, Takt time = Actual workingtime per month/demand of product

Takt time = 27*1320*60/50000 = 42.7 sec

ANALYSIS OF CURRENTSTATE MAP OF INNERWHEEL HOUSINGFor the analysis of existing status, a fewassumptions are made. Regarding demandof wheel housing, it is assumed that maximumdemand may reach up to 50000 per month.This is derived from past sales data at theindustry under study. The current State Map

Figure 2: Inner Wheel Housing CurrentState Map of Manufacturing for

Comparison Between Takt Time andStation Cycle Time

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 Anupam Sihag, 2014

captures information at a particular instance,which may vary from shift to shift. For the sakeof analysis the shift and opertator variation isnot considerd. Comparison of takt time withcycle time as shown in Figure 2.

FUTURE STATE MAPThe plan of action for improving the future statevalue stream mapping were.

• To develop a new layout, where the line flowof the components was possible. Thismakes the inspection and quality controltasks much easier.

• To carry out online inspection and scrapreduction programs.

• To review the work sequence in order toreduce idle time.

• To identify value added and non valueadded elements and eliminate non valueadded activities.

With the application of Value StreamMapping Future State Map is shown in thefigure. Future State Map capture all theinformation and data as per requirement of takttime.

Figure 3: Current State Map for Inner Wheel Housing

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ANALYSIS OF FUTURESTATE MAP OF INNERWHEEL HOUSINGFrom the calculations of.anaysis of currentstate map of inner wheel housing the benefitsare summarized in Table 1. There are clearindications that production lead time can bereduced from (18 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes and52 sec) to (11 days, 1 hour 1 minute and 39sec).

And processing can be reduced from124.7 sec to 107.2. High demand at caparois easily achievable with reduction in both WIPand finished goods inventory in supply chain.All these proposed changes will lead to asignificant cost reduction at caparo, andhence will also he[p in reducing overall costsin supply chain. Now Caparo will be in a

Figure 5: Future State Map

Figure 4: Future State Map ofManufacturing for Comparison Between

Takt Time and Cycle Time

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 Anupam Sihag, 2014

position to deliver at an hourly rate, and highquality inner wheel housing at lower cost,which was also the requirement of lean andresponsive environment. Aftr applyingproposed changes station cycle time will be98.2 sec.

CONCLUSIONLean production means continuousimprovement, we must keep on changing thefuture state into current state for getting thebetter results. Value stream mapping helpsin attaining the higher usage levels by theproficiency of shop floor practices. VSM toolhas greatly proved to be a effective tool foreliminating waste in cycle time. This powerfultool only highlights process inefficiencies,transactional and communicationmismatches but also guides about theimprovement areas. On the shop floor timeis money. If the time is wasted money iswasted. By applying the value streammapping tool in a small scale automobileindustry, a current state map is developed.By eliminating non value added activities. Thefuture state value stream shows markedimprovement in the process inventory,production lead time and processing time. Inthis study process inventory time reduced from3 to 1 days resulting in improvement of33.33%. Process lead time was reduced by52.94% and the processing time wasreduced by 80.69%.

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Production lead time Days-hrs-min-sec 17 days 1 hr 2 min 52 sec 9 days 1 hr 1min 38 sec 52.94%

Processing time Sec 121.7sec 98.2 sec 80.69%

Table 1: Comparison of the Existing vs Proposed Process for Inner Wheel Housing

PercentageChangesVariables Units Current Proposed

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