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

2014 Anupam Sihag, 2014

ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.com

Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2014
© 2014 IJMERR. All Rights Reserved

Research Paper

APPLI CATI ON OF VALUE STREAM M APPI N G I N

SM ALL SCALE I N D USTRI ES
Anupam Sihag 1 * , Vinod Kum ar 2 and Um e d Khod 1

* Corresponding Aut hor: Anupam Sihag,  Sihaganupam 90@gm ail.com

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

Keyw ords: Current st at e m ap, Fut ure st at e m ap, Takt t im e, Value st ream m apping

I N TROD UCTI ON Non Value Added Activities: Scrapping,

The use of VSM has been attributed to the sorting, storing, counting, documentation.
cause of much of the success that Toyota of Value stream means looking at the whole
Japan has had since 1980. VSM was picture not just individual picture improving the
introduced by Taiichi Ohno in 1960 and 1970’s whole, not just individual part. The value stream
at its basic level. It is a systematic procedure is the complete making process for a product.
to identify wasted time and action in It starts at the concept and ends at the delivery
manufacturing process. A value stream is all to the customer. VSM can be a communication
the actions (value added and non value added) tool, a business planning tool and a tool to
required to take a product from raw material manage change in the production process.
to customer, the design flow from concept to VSM provides a simple yet through method
completion. that relies on current data analysis and display.
Value Added Activities: Machining It links reporting, requirements, matrices,
processing, assembling, painting. people and lean tools to continue improvement
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.

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

and promote process learning. It gives help to avoid “cherry picking”. It forms the basis
managers and employees the same tool and for an implementation plan by helping to design
language to communicate. It helps to visualize the whole flow.
the station cycle times, inventory at each stage, Hines and rich (1997)has suggested that
manpower and information flow across the the value stream is “the specific activites within
supply chain. In the production where VSM is a supply chain required to design order and
used, the individual processes are connected provide a specific product or value.”
to their customer(s) either by continuous flow
or pull, and each process gets as close as Hines(1998) found an application of value
possible in producing only what is customer(s) stream mapping in the distribution industry.
Partsco, a distributor of electronic, electrical
demand.
and mechanical component decided to map
LI TERATURE REVI EW the activities between the fiem and is suppliers.
Taiichi Ohno (1988), Womack et al. (1990), Partsce introduce EDI which allowed the firm
and Peter Hines and Nick Rich (1997), Rother to work with its suppliers effectively and more
and Shook (1999), Womack and Jones (1998 quickly. In a short time period the company was
and 2005), and Daniel and Jones (2006) have able to reduce the lead time from 8 to 7 days.
studied the implementation of Value Stream Abbett and payne(1999) have discussed
Mapping effectively. the application of value stream mapping in an
Taiichi Ohno (1988) could not see waste at aircraft manufacturing unit. The have
a glance (especially across a geographical developed the current and future state maps
area). He developed material and Information with the objective of reducing lead time
Flow Mapping (VSM) as a standard method according to customer’s requirements.
for mapping the flows visually and it became Halpan and Kueckmann (2001) explain
the standard basis for designing value stream mapping in aircraft
improvements at Toyota—as a common manufacturing. They draw current and future
language. It became one of their business state maps were developed with the objective
planning tools. VSM is now utilized throughout of reducing lead time according to customer
the world, in many businesses to strategically requirements. The implementation of the future
plan and it is the starting point to any lean state map attained lead-time reduction.
transformation and implementation. The value McDonald (2002) point out that the VSM
stream mapping was extended in the field of creates a common language for production
aircraft manufacturing also. process thus is facilitating more thoughtful
Ballard and Howell (1994) suggest that the decisions to improve the value stream. This
value stream mapping can serve as a good will effectively reduce the wastes and
starting point for any enterprise that wants to improves the productivity. While researches
be lean. It provides a common language for and practitioners have developed a number
talking about manufacturing process. It ties of tools to investigate individual firms and
together lean concepts and techniques which supply chain, most of these toll fall short in

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linking and visualizing the nature of the together as a combination gives a tremendous
material and infirmatin flow in individual result.
company. Simchi-Levi (2004) are of the
opinion that the customers are always OBJECTI VE OF RESEARCH
concerned with their order status and Today, automotive suppliers have a great
sometimes they value the order status more concern over improving quality and delivery
than a reduced lead time. and decreasing cost, which leads to improved
system productivity. In order to remain
Balkema and Rotterdam (2004) have
competitive, waste from the value stream must
created current map for a steel producer, a
be identified and eliminated so to run system
steel service center and first-tier component
with maximum efficiencies. A Production is to
supplier. The current state map identifies huge
order and large numbers of different products
piled of inventory and long lead-time. In the
are produced, each in relatively small volume.
future state map, target areas were subjected
A Production shop consists of number of
to different lean tools including kanban,
machine centres, each with a fundamentally
supermarket, and continuous flow.
different activities such as inventories,
Badrinarayana and Sharma (2007) improper utilization. These problems increase
discusses that the interdependent components overall cost of production. The need for
from the value strem and value strem is the customized products/parts with reduced lead
set of all specific actions required to bring out times together with the requirement of global
a specific actions requird to bring out a specific competitiveness requires that products/parts
product. be produced in small batch sizes as per
customer’s requirement. The processing in
Petter Solding (2009) have presented in
small batch sizes necessitates the adjustment
their paper that, the concept for creating
in the flow of production through different
dynamic value stream maps of a system using
processes as per their processing speeds. In
simulation. Creating dynamic value stream
addition, it requires close monitoring of
maps makes it possible to analyze more
processes to reduce process variability
complex systems than traditional VSMs are
(defect free production), efficient planned
able to and still visualize the results in a
maintenance of all machines (for increased
language the lean tools.
availability) and reduction in non value added
Ritesh Bhat and Shivakumar (2011) made activities such as setup times, movement of
an attempt to improve the productivity using material in between the work processes and
Value Strem Mapping and Kanban Approach- additional processing of material. The efficient
“Change is constant”, is the phrase today most utilization of machines while producing in small
of the industries believe in and act upon. Value batches reduced WIP inventories, reduced
Stream Mapping (VSM) and Kanban are the throughput times and reduction in lead times
techniques believe in and act upon. VSM and leads to competitive manufacturing. It is need
Kanban are the technique which fall under for machine shop manufacturing system to
technical approach method and when used adopt lean environment.

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To improve productivity by identifying waste mapped, a time-line is displayed at the bottom

and then removing that by implementing lean of the map showing the processing time for
principle in this industry, we focus our attention each operation and the transfer delays
on VSM tool. Value Stream Mapping enables between operations.
a company to identify and eliminate waste, The time-line is used to identify the value-
thereby streamlining work processes, cutting adding steps as well as wastes in the current
lead times, reducing costs and increasing system. The comparisons between the
quality and hence productivity. The goal of processing times and takt time is a preliminary
VSM is to identify, demonstrate and decrease measures of the value and waste. This takt
waste in the process, highlighting the time is mostly used as an ideal time for each
opportunities for improvement that will most operation to achieve. Based on the analysis
significantly impact the overall production of the current state map, in than develops a
system. In this study lean concepts are future state map by improving the value adding
introduced using VSM in working environment. steps and eliminating the non value adding
steps.
VSM M ETH OD OLOGY
Mapping the value stream is a big picture Generally VSM has four major steps as
technique that takes into consideration all the given by Rother and Shook (1996):
processes and seeks to improve the 1. Product
enterprise as a whole. The overall goal of VSM
2. Drawing current state
is to move from batch and push to one-piece
flow and pull through the entire value stream. 3. Drawing future state
Using a VSM process requires development 4. Develop work plan for implantation of future
of maps: a current state map and a future state state
map. In the current state map, one would
normally star by mapping a large quantity and Figu re 1 : VSM M e t hodology
high-revenue product family. The material flow
Selection of critical shopfloor
(left to right) will then be mapped using
appropriate icons in the rich VSM icon
template. The product will be tracked from the Preparation of current state map
final operation in its routing to the raw material Documentation of customer information
Identification of main process
Define the data to be collected
storage. Relevant data for each operation, Supplier information
Map the data
such as current schedule (push, pull and order
dispatching rules) and amount of inventory in
the queue, will be recorded. The information Analysis of current state map
flow (right to left) is also incorporated to provide
demand information, which is essential
parameter for determining the “pacemaker” Future state map
Takt time calculation
process in the production system. After both Set the target cost
Implementing the lean tool

material and information flows have been

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M ETH OD OLOGY AD OPTED demand for new model of vehicles. Effective

Main objective of the research is to achieve number of working days is 27 for the forecast
reduced lead time, reduced inventory and month; number of shifts per day is 3. Available
cycle time. working time per day is 1320 minutes.

Step 1: To draw Current State Map by using So as we know, Takt time = Actual working
following substeps: time per month/demand of product

Substep 1: Identification and drawing the Takt time = 27*1320*60/50000 = 42.7 sec
product flow from the raw material entry point
AN ALYSI S OF CURREN T
of manufacturing division to the finished goods
STATE M AP OF I N N ER
exit point of the mfd.
W H EEL H OUSI N G
Substep 2: Calculating the number of Work
For the analysis of existing status, a few
In Process (WIP) for each component at each
assumptions are made. Regarding demand
work cell.
of wheel housing, it is assumed that maximum
Substep 3: Calculating the cycle time and demand may reach up to 50000 per month.
utilization percentage of each process. This is derived from past sales data at the
Substep 4: Plotting the current state map that industry under study. The current State Map
is essentially a snapshot capturing how things
Figure 2 : I nner W heel H ousing Current
are currently being done. St at e M ap of M anu fact urin g for
Com par ison Bet w een Tak t Tim e a nd
Step 2: Create a Future State Map which is a St a t ion Cycle Tim e
picture of how system should look after the
inefficiencies in it have been removed.

CURREN T STATE M AP
The data regarding the cycle time, setup time
and lead time was calculated from the
manufacturing line of inner wheel housing.
Further the details of various processes
involved in the involved in the manufacturing
were noted down. The various manufacturing
processes used are drawing, trimming,
restriking, punching/piercing and welding
operations. Hence the cycle time, setup time,
WIP quantity required, WIP others, number of
shifts were noticed. Finally a current state map
was drawn.
Maximum forecast per month is 50000 by
the help of past records and increasing

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

Figure 3 : Cu rren t St a t e M a p for I nn er W heel H ousing

captures information at a particular instance, • To carry out online inspection and scrap
which may vary from shift to shift. For the sake reduction programs.
of analysis the shift and opertator variation is
• To review the work sequence in order to
not considerd. Comparison of takt time with
reduce idle time.
cycle time as shown in Figure 2.
• To identify value added and non value
FUTURE STATE M AP added elements and eliminate non value
The plan of action for improving the future state added activities.
value stream mapping were. With the application of Value Stream
• To develop a new layout, where the line flow Mapping Future State Map is shown in the
of the components was possible. This figure. Future State Map capture all the
makes the inspection and quality control information and data as per requirement of takt
tasks much easier. time.

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AN ALYSI S OF FUTURE Figur e 4 : Fu t u r e St at e M a p of

STATE M AP OF I N N ER M anufact uring for Com parison Bet w een
W H EEL H OUSI N G Ta k t Tim e an d Cycle Tim e

From the calculations of.anaysis of current

state map of inner wheel housing the benefits
are summarized in Table 1. There are clear
indications that production lead time can be
reduced from (18 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes and
52 sec) to (11 days, 1 hour 1 minute and 39
sec).
And processing can be reduced from
124.7 sec to 107.2. High demand at caparo
is easily achievable with reduction in both WIP
and finished goods inventory in supply chain.
All these proposed changes will lead to a
significant cost reduction at caparo, and
hence will also he[p in reducing overall costs
in supply chain. Now Caparo will be in a

Figure 5 : Fu t u re St a t e M a p

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

Ta ble 1 : Com par ison of t h e Ex ist ing vs Pr opose d Process for I n ne r W he el H ou sing

Percentage
Variables Units Current Proposed Changes
In process inventory No. of days 3 1 33.33%
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%

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