UTILIZING A PROCESS MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO STANDARDISE THE APPLICATION OF VALUE STREAM MAPPING

The systematic improvement of processes is practically realised in the industry and economy by operating a Process Management (PcM) System. Many authors also recommend a systematic repetition of Value Stream Mapping (VSM); but the global experiences in applying VSM do more or less indicate a single or punctual application of VSM to improve processes or value streams. The findings discussed in this paper describe the systematic embedding of Value Stream Mapping into the life cycle of a Process Management System using the principles of “innovation and continuous improvement”. Thus the Process Management System enables a systematic, regularly repeating application of VSM by extending its 4-Step-procedure. One suitable way to standardise the application of VSM is specified in this paper on a theoretical base to make this approach international applicable

Increasing the efficiency of closed loops of reusable containers in production environments concerning container cleaning

Today reusable containers, widely used in closed loops in production environments, are cleaned irrespective of their cleanliness-status and thus the actual necessity for being cleaned. This often leads to a considerable degree of technically superfluous container-cleaning, associated with high costs, transport efforts and resource utilization. This paper aims at investigating ways to harness the savings potential of a necessity based triggering of the cleaning process amid securing the quality of the container supply, controlling the uncertainty introduced into the container-loops through the status-dependent triggering of cleaning and establishing a process transparency enabling a reduction of the overall container inventory. A case study performed in an automotive supplier is included

An approach to integrate parameters and indicators of sustainability management into value stream mapping

In production research, sustainability is discussed in various forms and often combined with Value Stream Mapping (VSM), a highly accepted method in practice for improving production systems using lean principles. In scientific literature, most authors present frameworks for scoring production processes (e.g. ratios, benchmarks). These approaches aim to reduce (material) input for producing a specific amount of goods. Hence, improved target-conditions of value streams can be designed to increase ecological efficiency and therefore decrease costs. However, the main aim of this contribution is to present an approach to combine generally accepted parameters and indicators of sustainability and VSM. This approach is based on process-oriented accounting of resource consumption along buffers, transports and processes along value streams. This model of integrating sustainability into VSM goes conform with international accepted guidelines to prevent disposals of input resources by reuse, recycle and recovery. On the one hand, following international guidelines and frameworks, this approach can be used for sustainability reporting; e.g. calculating emitted solvents per produced part, kilogram carbon dioxide equivalents per produced part (with units [kgCDE] or [kgCO₂eq]), kilogram disposals per produced part, etc. On the other hand, companies will be able to calculate costs and revenues of sustainable value streams; i.e. to quantify their efforts and benefits monetary. Hence, it is necessary to immerse into material flows in value stream, material consumptions at processes, energy consumption of transports, buffers and processes in value stream, linkage of processes with scrap rates, creation of waste, etc. New data lines in VSM need to be created to represent the parameters and indicators of sustainability. The research findings will be presented by an use case from automotive industry

VASCO - Mastering the Shoals of Value Stream Mapping

Value stream mapping is a lean management method for analyzing and optimizing a series of events for production or services. Even today the first step in value stream analysis - the acquisition of the current state - is still created using pen & paper by physically visiting the production place. We capture a digital representation of how manufacturing processes look like in reality. The manufacturing processes can be represented and efficiently analyzed for future production planning by using a meta description together with a dependency graph. With our Value Stream Creator and explOrer (VASCO) we present a tool, which contributes to all parts of value stream analysis - from data acquisition, over planning, comparison with previous realities, up to simulation of future possible states

VASCO - Mastering the Shoals of Value Stream Mapping

Value stream mapping is a lean management method for analyzing and optimizing a series of events for production or services. Even today the first step in value stream analysis - the acquisition of the current state - is still created using pen & paper by physically visiting the production place. We capture a digital representation of how manufacturing processes look like in reality. The manufacturing processes can be represented and efficiently analyzed for future production planning by using a meta description together with a dependency graph. With our Value Stream Creator and explOrer (VASCO) we present a tool, which contributes to all parts of value stream analysis - from data acquisition, over planning, comparison with previous realities, up to simulation of future possible states