Lean Supply Chain Management Information Modeling:Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Lean manufacturing uses less of everything compared to mass production i.e. reduce in human effort, manufacturing space, investments on tools and equipment, processing time that its popularity has shown itself as an important production method in industries. There have been numerous reports of the positive outcomes enjoyed by manufacturers result of implementing lean manufacturing. This report provides a value stream mapping (VSM) of a printer box production where causes that lead to waste are identified and minimized using the lean manufacturing technique. The study defined, measured and analyzed problems in the production. Improvements alternatives are proposed to improve the production line using eVSM software where the current VSM and that of the new production line are established. Differences between them are identified where the benefits of the later are highlighted and suggested to the company Results show that current productions have: 4 days for pallet, 3.9 days for printing parts, 5.88 days for die-cut/ stitching/gluing work in progress, 2.85 days finishing goods and 17 days production lead time. Improvement with leveling, there are noticeable reduction that shows : 1.5 days pallet, 1 day for printing parts, 0 day (negligible) for die-cut/ stitching/gluing work in progress, 2 days for finishing goods and 5 days for production lead time. Future works include mapping other production lines, develop a larger model of company, application to supply chain and quality management, use simulation software such as witness and simplify information flow using online work order for customer demand hence avoiding constraint.