How to do process mapping -Value stream mapping

Good  Morning Friends,

Today's Our topic is Value stream mapping.

Here some people are confuse about value stream mapping (VSM) and plant layout. in layout we are mentioning only plant or machinery layout, flow from inside the plant but in VSM we are taking care of parts and information flow. its not only related to equipment flow  but also information & parts from customer to supplier end. we can see in details how it works & helpful to industry.

Below we will go through

What is VSM

VSM Symbols

Defining the process boundaries

The Process Steps

Information Flows

Process Data

Calculating the Time Line

Multiple Suppliers and Customers

Interpreting the Data

Next Steps (Ideal and future state maps)

What is value stream mapping?

Value stream mapping is a lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of events that take a product or service from its beginning through to the customer. At Toyota, it is known as "material and information flow mapping".

This enables you to see at a glance where the delays are in your process, any restraints and excessive inventory. Your current state map is the first step in working towards your ideal state for your organization.

Value Stream Analysis-

Planning tool to optimize the result of eliminating waste.

Select the product/family

identify the current state VSM which describe the process as it today

Apply lean technique to reduce the waste.

Create future state of VSM which describe the ideal state based on lean principles

Purpose of VSM & Why its required in Lean?

1) Provide optimum value to the customer through a complete value creation process with minimum waste in:

– Design (Concept to customer)

– Build (order to delivery)

– Sustain (in-use through life cycle to service)

2) Many organizations pursuing “lean” conversions have realized that improvement events alone are not enough

3) Improvement events create localized improvements, value stream mapping & analysis

strengthens the gains by providing vision and plans that connect all improvement activities

4) Value stream mapping & analysis is a tool that allows you to see waste, and plan to eliminate it

VSM Symbol-

The picture to the below shows some of the commonly used value stream mapping symbols and their meanings. It is not necessary to use these specific symbols, if you have symbols that are more relevant / descriptive for your processes then use those.

Guideline to create VSM-

1) Select the product or product family

Firstly we need to decide what it is exactly that we wish to map, in a company with many products there may have to be some initial work done to identify which product or family group of products that should be mapped, we may decide to go with highest volume or value, or take a longer term strategic look at those product ranges that we expect to do more business with in the future or we may be guided by our customers as to what to map.

2)Bound the Process

We need to decide the limits of our map, most value stream maps are conducted from supplier through to customer within an organization and these should be the first boxes placed on your VSM to bound the process. It is possible to map the entire supply chain, in this case the start and end points for your process map would be the raw materials and the final consumer.

3)Process Steps

process flow start from customer to supplier or supplier end. The process steps are the various operations that are performed on the product, these are generally located in a single place with one point that inventory enters and then leaves. We are not breaking down each operation into specific tasks, there are other process mapping techniques such as flow charting that would be a better tool for analyzing to that level of detail.

4)Add Information flow-

One of the things that differentiates a VSM from most other mapping tools is the inclusion of the information flows into the map. We need to include how the customers order product, frequency and method, and how we translate that back to our supplier. We also include how we then communicate requirements to our processes to ensure that we produce what the customer wants.

5) Collect and add data

This where we need to do a little thinking and some work, get the team to collect data regarding the performance of each step of the process; typical types of date to collect are;

• Inventory
• Cycle time (time taken to make one product)
• Change over time (from last good piece to next)
• Up-time (on-demand machine utilization)
• Shifts worked
• Net available working time
• Scrap rate
• Pack size/pallet sizes
• Batch Size

6)Time line & Inventory

We create the time line to give us information about total process times and lead times for inventory through our processes; we use the inventory at each stage and the daily demand to calculate the amount of stock in days and add this to the top of the time line, this will allow us to calculate a total lead time. The cycle time for one product is then placed in the lower portion and this will be added to give a total processing time.
It is usual to at this point to have lead times that are several days to several weeks and processing times that are only a few minutes which highlights just how much waste there is in our system.

7) Multiple Suppliers and Customers in VSM

The map produced above is a fairly simple map with just one customer and one supplier, more often than not we have multiple suppliers and customers and it may be necessary to draw on more than one. In this case the process is still the same but when you calculate your timeline use the worst case for inventory. If you have many suppliers it may be worth concentrating on your most important suppliers or grouping them into similar types such as fasteners.
More often than not you can still show multiple customers as one, or if required as groups with similar requirements such as weekly or monthly demands.

Step by step procedure with case study (Practical example) :

I would like to give live example of my Ex company Tata yazaki. It producing wiring harness, here at production we face some problems as follows.

-Shortage in the supply of harness to the Tata customer

-High level of inventory and safety stock of almost 10 days

-Quality complains are increasing day by day so big problem to Maintain the PPM.

Problem are going to increased day by day so start a Gambia meeting in factory. Action done as follows, guideline help to Improve the VSM.

1) Select your Team

We select the team   that each area or stakeholder of the process is represented e.g. Sales, Purchasing, Warehouse etc.


2) Select process to be mapped

Value Stream Mapping is suitable for most businesses and can be used in Manufacturing, Logistics, Supply Chain and some Service orientated Organizations so we select map based on that.

3)Collect data and produce current map

We collected data of process times, inventory or materials information, customer (or demand)requirement the future state maps will be developed using information captured here so it’s imperative

4) Critic current stage

we have big problem in our process flow also Layout so change that accordingly also done brainstorming process to get the idea.

-Challenge the current thinking, encourage your team to make suggestions, look for areas of waste.

5)Map future state

-Compile the future state map on the base of current state of map and the critiques

6) Create action plan and deploy it

Taking a future state map consider an action plan that could be implemented to change the current process to the future state

7)Measure the benefits

as per problem check, we got benefits in inventory, also less material handling, no shortage in demand of supply to the customer also customer satisfaction level increased and our factory rating change from B+ to A .

Key Tips  for VSM:

• Experience directly. You (or your team) should follow the whole value stream yourself. Don’t rely on impressions, assumptions, or conversations about how things “usually” happen. If it’s a physical thing, walk it, use a stopwatch to time various steps, and experience it all as directly as possible. At least one team member needs to walk the whole stream. If you rely on subteams to walk different portions, and nobody walks the whole thing, you will miss an essential perspective to VSM.
• Sketch an initial VSM by hand. Start by sketching in pencil as you document the steps. Later you can use chart-drawing software to communicate and collaborate better and map out a future/ideal state.
• Do initial walk-through. You might start with a quick walk to experience it at an overview level, and then do it again in more detail.
• Try doing it in reverse, from end product or service to its origins. Various items could become more clear and meaningful with that perspective. Many veteran VSM practitioners do it this way.
• Keep asking why. In Lean Six Sigma, it’s sometimes called the Five Whys. The idea is to simply ask why something is done as it is. To the response, another why is asked. This continues until you drill down to the ultimate basis for the action.

 If you have any doubt or query about value stream mapping creating or overview please reply me.

Thanks