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An evaluation of the value stream mapping tool
Article in Business Process Management Journal · February 2008
DOI: 10.1108/14637150810849391
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An evaluation of the value stream mapping tool
Ibon Serrano Lasa
Industrial Management Department, Mondragon University, Mondragon, Spain
Carlos Ochoa Laburu
Business Organization Department, Polytechnic University College, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastia´n, Spain, and
Rodolfo de Castro Vila
Business Organization, Management and Product Design Department, University of Girona, Girona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose– The value stream mapping (VSM) is a tool created by the lean production movement for redesigning the productive systems. Since, it was theoretically developed, some cases have been published where the mentioned tool has been used; however, there is a need to see how it is put into practice, that is to analyze the level in which theory is able to adapt to real practice, the strengths, weaknesses and the key aspects to be taken into account by the applicant teams to obtain the highest performance of the VSM. This paper aims to discuss all of these aspects.
Design/methodology/approach– The methodology used is a case study of a company in which the process of application of the VSM has been thoroughly analyzed. A team created to improve the productive system of a manufacture for plastic casings for mobile phones has carried out this application.
Findings– The research shows that the VSM is a valuable tool for redesigning the productive systems according to the lean system. Nevertheless, there are some key points for the establishing teams that have to take into account, as follows: the time and training resources spent, the use of suitable information systems and a suitable management of the application phases.
Research limitations/implications– The conclusions of this research can be reinforced by the monitoring of the application process in more company cases.
Practical implications– The conclusions of this research are useful for future practitioners, so that they may bear in mind the different aspects of planning projects for redesigning productive systems by using VSM. On the other hand, these conclusions can also be useful for the academic field in order to enhance the theory of VSM.
Originality/value– The paper is a contribution based on practical references according to a thoroughly monitoring of a successful case in establishing VSM.
KeywordsValue analysis, Business process re-engineering, Team working, Manufacturing systems Paper typeCase study
Introduction
At the present time, manufacturing firms need to redefine and redesign their production systems to tackle the competitiveness demanded by the challenges of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-7154.htm
The research team would like to thank to Maier S. Coop for its support and collaboration.
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Business Process Management Journal Vol. 14 No. 1, 2008 pp. 39-52 qEmerald Group Publishing Limited 1463-7154 DOI 10.1108/14637150810849391
current markets (European Commission, 2004). As a result, it is necessary to have practical tools that will support the redesigning process for manufacturing systems (Marchwinski, 2004).
In this situation, the lean production movement (Womack and Jones, 1996) developed and presented the value stream mapping (VSM) tool (Rother and Shook, 1998; Pavnaskaret al., 2003) as a functional method aimed at reorganizing production systems with a lean vision.
To date, many cases have been brought to light, mainly highlighting the success of the tool’s application. However, nothing has been revealed empirically about the actual practical difficulties the practitioners have had to face, either the keys to obtain a maximum effectiveness from the tool.
Therefore, the main objective of the research has been to evaluate how the VSM is put into practice. It is understood that this is a correlation between theory and practice.
That is why this research tries to answer these questions: is really effective VSM in practice? How much time and resources are necessary for its correct application?
Which are the key aspects for the teams to obtain as much performance in use as possible? What aspects should the VSM theory improve in order to make it a reference tool?
So it was by a rigorous case study developed in an industrial company which manufactures plastic parts that this research evaluated how useful the VSM is and come up with some pieces of advice for future practitioners.
The paper is structured as follows: firstly there is a brief description of the company in which the VSM has been established, secondly the VSM, its main characteristics and other methods focused on redesigning productive systems are described. Once described the context of the VSM application, the methodology of the research is explained; this is the research to evaluate the way how VSM is put into practice. As this methodology is presented the VSM application process is explained and finally, the results and conclusions of the research are mentioned according to the objectives previously presented.
Brief description of the company
Maier manufactures plastic components and subunits for the automotive, domestic appliance and consumer electronics industries in production plants located in a number of different countries. It is the European leader in the development and manufacturing of front grilles painted in the bodywork colour, chrome-plated trims, wheel covers and fuel filler flaps and supplies the top nine car manufacturers in the world.
The lean production philosophy is an important place in Maier’s strategy for the future. Their level of commitment in relation to this paradigm is reflected in the SMP (Sistema Maier de Produccio´n – Maier Production System) team, made up of specialists in lean manufacturing whose function it is to provide backing for the different plants in the corporation as far as the organization of flows and the design of production systems from a lean perspective is concerned.
At the production plant that concerns us, over the last few years the telephony business has taken on a considerable volume. Resources have been assigned, but not with a production system focus oriented towards the business itself, but based to a large extent on sharing already existing means, facilities and production equipment, used in principle for other more important businesses.
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This being the case, the aim of the project has been to carry out an overall redesign of the most important product line in the telephony production system by means of re-engineering the production process, in an attempt to re-orientate to a greater extent towards the actual product line itself.
Table I shows the main characteristics of the selected company.
VSM and other manufacturing systems’ redesigning-oriented tools
Even though diverse applications have been developed in recent years, VSM’s origins are mainly focused on the analysis and improvement of manufacturing environments with disconnected flow lines (Rother and Shook, 1998). This framework is defined and described by Hayes and Wheelwright (1979) in their well-known product-process matrix.
As regards the application process, VSM is based on five phases put into practice by a special team created for such a purpose (Rother and Shook, 1998). The phases are:
(1) selection of a product family;
(2) current state mapping;
(3) future state mapping;
(4) defining a working plan; and (5) achieving the working plan.
Guidelines are needed for the definition of the future state map; lean thinking provides them to assist users in how this map should be drawn (Rother and Shook, 1998;
Marchwinski and Shook, 2003). These guidelines are summarized below:
. The production rate must be imposed by the product demand. Takt time is the concept that reflects such a rate.
. Establishment of continuous flow where possible (unique product transfer batches).
. Employment of pull systems between different work centres when continuous flow is not possible.
. Only one process, called the pacemaker process, should command the production of the different parts. This process will set the pace for the entire value stream.
Properties Maier
Activity Thermoplastic parts
Project description Lean production system redesign
Product family Telephony. TSM-7 family
Number of product line workers (approx.) 80 (Maier .1,000)
Main manufacturing processes Injection, painting, chromium-plating, assembly Product-process classification. IVATaclassification V
Family’s part quantity 20
Layout type Functional
Production strategy Make to stock
Note:aThe product-process configuration classification is based on the IVAT structure described by Hines and Rich (1997)
Table I.
Main properties of Maier’s production system
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Downstream this point the items would flow in a First In First Out (FIFO) sequence; upstream, the production will be triggered by pull signals.
. Pacemaker process scheduling will deal with the maximization of production levelling on mix and volume.
. Improvement of the overall process efficiency. Projects such as work methods and cycle time improvements, changeover time reductions and maintenance management could be launched by the VSM team.
Rother and Shook (1998) affirms that the main properties of this technique are nearly completely in accordance with many of the utilities required for a manufacturing redesigning tool:
. The analysis of the initial situation is based on the acquisition and treatment of numerical data and it uses a graphical interface where is easy to see the relationship between material and information flows.
. The systemic vision provided for each product family flow reflects manufacturing system inefficiencies.
. The provision of a common language for the team and the unification of lean concepts and techniques in a unique body.
. The possibility to be the starting point of the strategic plan for improvement.
But are there other tools or methods focused on redesigning and improvement of the productive system in the VSM application context? A literature review shows that existing tools in the area do not cover the same framework as VSM, neither the same objectives nor the same level or degree of completion of manufacturing systems design.
Some of the most known tools and their characteristics are summarized below.
Process mapping (Paper et al., 2002) based on the flow diagram chart this is a well-known tool to model any business system or subsystem (Hines and Rich, 1997).
The business process reengineering movement supported this technique for the following two reasons: first it is based on the measurement and analysis of quantitative data (Hammer, 1990); and lastly, various possible standardized languages make the tool practical and useful (Baudin, 2002). However, it is too generic and not too much adapted to manufacturing systems modelling (Oyarbide, 2003).
The Icam DEFinition Zero (IDEF0) method is a variant of process mapping. It has been developed and oriented towards modelling manufacturing systems. This tool makes a functional structured analysis to describe the activities of the manufacturing system in a hierarchical way (Roboam, 1993). Nevertheless, it is a qualitative tool that overlooks the quantitative data of the production system (Wu, 1996).
The Graphes a` Re´sultants et Activite´s Inter relies (GRAI) method is related to the development of the decision taking system and it is based on hierarchical production planning (Dougmeintset al., 1983). In addition to not taking into account the material and information flows, like the IDEF0 method, this is a qualitative tool (Wu, 1996).
The material and information flows’ modelling and simulation software is another interesting way of redesigning manufacturing systems. In spite of its quantitative character and correct focus, the software, education and the amount of time needed could be an important reason for it not being so useful in any company (Oyarbide, 2003).
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Therefore, it can be assured that as the theoretical characteristics show, the VSM has itself an application field and that this is different from other methods and tools used to improve productive systems. However, there is a need to evaluate how these theoretical characteristics are adapted in real practice. This is the main objective of this study.
Research methodology
In order to find the answers, the adopted research methodology was based on the case study strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989). We considered this methodology because it was the best way to have high validity with practitioners (the ultimate user of research) and also fits well with the refinement theory objective. Vosset al.(2002) emphasizes it is important that case research is conducted and published because it is not only good at investigating questions of how and why, but it is also particularly suitable for developing new theories and ideas and can also be used for theory testing and refinement and it is an excellent means for the development of theory in operations management (McCutcheon and Meredith, 1993). Many of the breakthrough concepts and theories in operations management, from lean production to manufacturing strategy, have been developed through field case research. Finally, case research enriches not only theory, but also the researchers themselves (Vosset al., 2002).
So, following the guidelines provided by the case study methodology, the research team exhaustively monitored the development of the VSM application process in Maier to analyze how effective the technique was and to analyze the keys to its correct application.
As a first step, a special team was created with specific figures to manage the VSM process (Rother and Shook, 1998):
. The value stream manager would be in charge of the product family with which the VSM process would be carried out. The person who should report about the development of the process to the general management of the firm.
. The facilitator would be the person who knew the production process best. This role would be responsible for providing the required data and information.
. The coordinator would be the one to collect the required data and manage the documentary files and act as secretary in the different meetings.
. Finally, the lean specialist would be the one to assume by the principal researcher. Its main function would be to guide the team in technical lean aspects and to provide training about the tool. Nonetheless it should not interfere in the team’s decisions as literature on case studies suggests (Yin, 1993).
The team selection was considered by special evaluation in order to assure every member had the required capabilities to start the VSM process. After each team was created, special additional educational training about lean manufacturing concepts and VSM were imparted to its members in several special workshops. After that, the aforementioned five major steps were carried out.
Each team member had a number of hours assigned to develop the first four stages.
These hours were defined on the basis of the modest literature written about this fact that suggests a duration of a few days to complete the first four steps of the process (Keyte, 2002; Womack, 2001). The number of hours assigned for each of the members
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was 24 hours for value stream manager, facilitator and lean specialist; and 68 hours for the coordinator.
Foreseeing that the toughest step would be the collecting of production data, the coordinator would be the person that would have more hours to develop his tasks. In addition, three-months (12 weeks) of lead-time were established to work on the first four stages of the process as a whole. The assigned time would be integrated into the three-month period as the team considered correctly. Last of all, once the working plan was defined, in six months the research team would evaluate how the plan was going.
As determined by the case research methodology, the whole process would be monitored and controlled by the researchers, who would combine different ways to collect the process data. As a matter of fact, the results and conclusions reached are mainly derived from the exhaustive observation of each one of the application process phases, as well as from the triangulation obtained by different semi structured interviews obtained from the teams responsible.
Project development
The company team carried out the production system redesign project following the five phases established by VSM.
Selection of a product family
The business unit in charge of telephony production, currently manufactures different plastic parts that make up mobile phone bodies, button units and keypads. The models of mobile phones for which these parts are currently being manufactured include the family of products corresponding to the TSM-7, a type of top range telephone, which is a new product, involves a complex process and for which the demand is currently low but with a pronounced upward trend forecast over the next few years.
The most important components of each TSM-7 telephone due to the complexity of their routes are:
. Front cover.Front part of the mobile phone body.
. Back cover.Back part of the mobile phone cover.
. Battery cover.Mobile phone battery cover.
It is worth highlighting that the final product sent to the customer is not the assembled mobile phone (set of front, back and battery covers). The final product consists of each of these parts separately. So, finally a decision was made to draw a map for the TSM-7 that included the three main components (front, back and battery cover), which followed a process that was slightly different.
Current state mapping
Figure 1 shows the current state map prepared.
The most outstanding features of the current system are as follows.
Demand. The customer transmits some monthly purchasing forecasts in a totally informal way without making any sort of commitment. This demand can vary significantly from month-to-month. As regards to day-to-day demand, this is quite uniform in terms of the total volume of parts, but not in terms of each reference. Orders are placed on a daily basis and Maier does not know until the day before which references and quantities it has to send from its finished product stock to the customer.
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Figure 1.
TSM-7’s current state map
Current State map TSM7 10 sec.1.7 sec.14,4 sec.10 sec.3 DAYS5 DAYS0.17 DAYS17 DAYS0.7 DAYS
Telephony Unit Planning
COMPANY Automotive Unit Planning Nºref=5 OEE=82%FTT=97%Nºshift=3Workers=3C/O=10’C/T=12”
TAMPOGRAPHY + ASSEMBLY N° ref=250OEE=47.1%FTT=81%N°shift=3Workers=5Batch=11000C/T=1.7”PAINTING Workers=2 N°shift=3 FTT=97% OEE=82% N° ref=5
C/O=5’C/T=14.4”
ASSEMBLYN°ref=36 OEE=90%N°shift=2Workers=8Batch=C/O=5’C/T=10”
INSPECTION Battery(35000)Back (35000)Front (35000)N° ref=11OEE=79%
Workers=4Batch=22000C/O=80’C/T=10”
INJECTION (9 machines) EPE(TSM7)=6days
FTT=97%N°shift=3
11000 units
1800 units2500 x3 = 7500units
Cap. 11000 u 2 times/week 0 units 8500 units
Cap. 5500 u/day
Fortnight Frequency Plastic Supplier
Cap. 5500 u/day
PAINT INSPECTION
8000 units Cap. 5500 u/day
Paint Inspection Planning 1 shipment/day
CUSTOMER
Demand= 3500 u/day 3500 Front 3500 Back 3500 BatteryVerbal forecast 70.000 u/mounthForecast Orders Daily Daily
Daily DTD = 26 days
FRONT BACK BATTERY
COMMON EPE (TSM7) = 6 days
t
Q
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Physical system. The nine plastic injection machines are used for different telephony families and other types of small volume parts. Any of the nine machines can inject any of the references.
The paint installation is not only shared with the automotive business unit, but the scheduling of the installation also depends on that last unit. The tampoprinting, assembly and final inspection installations are specifically dedicated to the different parts of the TSM-7. It should also be highlighted that an operation with low-value added like paintwork inspection is outsourced to an outside plant, which means a significant delay in the lead time and a lack of continuity in the flow.
As there are shared resources, the distance between the different centres of operation means that work has to be done on the basis of significant transfer batches, which means that in-process stock is built up throughout the logistics process and the flow is slowed down.
Information system. A brief analysis of the scheduling system shows how complex it is. In addition to schedule almost all the points in the production system, the fact that different people plan these points make the system much more complicated. In addition to this, the painting operation for the mobile phones is carried out using a painting installation that belongs to another business unit, subordinating the planning of telephony to the freeing of painting capacity by the automotive business unit.
As can be seen from the map (Figure 1), for a work content per part of quite a lot less than 1 minute, the presence time in the system is around 26 days. The improvement target approved by the team for the redesign was the reduction of the manufacturing lead time from the original 26 to 20 days.
Future state mapping
The map devised for the future is shown in Figure 2.
The guidelines for lean action provided by VSM will be used to explain the properties of the map:
Takt time calculation. The takt time for the TSM-7 is about 15 seconds per unit.
Anyway, the time that will be established as the definitive reference in the future state map will be 10 seconds per unit. An initial overcapacity is forecast to be able to meet market fluctuations in a flexible way (Jin-Haiet al., 2003).
Continuous flow. To summarize the load-capacity analysis of the nine existing machines, two machines will be used to inject any of the components of the TSM-7.
Another important decision concerning this point is the internalization and automation of operations with low-value added that are carried out at outside plants, like the paint inspection work.
Pull systems. The aim is to create a single supermarket pull system between the paint and injection installations for the TSM-7. On the other hand, the rest of the pull systems to be implemented will be of the sequential type or based on FIFO lines, always downstream from the pacemaker process.
Pacemaker process. For this case it was decided that the pacemaker process should coincide with the system’s bottleneck, the painting process. So the bottleneck will only be planned with the programme most suitable for maximizing the system’s throughput, as advocated by the TOC (Goldratt and Fox, 1986). From this point,
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Figure 2.
TSM-7’s future state map
2 days
Max. 1.000 u Max. 3500 x 3 Max. 1.000 u
Future State map TSM7 10 sec.1.7 sec.14.4 sec.
2 DAYS
COMPANY Telephony Unit Planning Automotive Unit Planning Nº ref = 5OEE = 90%FTT = 97%Nºshift = 3Workers = 3C/O = 10’C/T = 12”
TAMPOGRAPHY + ASSEMBLYFortnight Frequency
Plastic Supplier 1 shipment/day
CUSTOMER OEE C/O =ASSEMBLY Nº ref = 5OEE = 82%FTT = 97%Nºshift = 3Workers = 2C/T = 14.4”
SMED FIFO
FIFO
FIFO FIFO
FIFO
Forecast Orders Daily PULL N° ref = 3 Battery EPE = 2 daysBackFrontOEE = 85%FTT = 99%N°shift = 3Workers = 0.5Batch =C/O = 80’C/T = 10”INJECTION (2 machines) Nº ref = 250OEE = 70%FTT = 95%Nºshift = 3Workers = 5Batch = 11,000C/T = 1.7”PAINTING 17 DAYS1 DAY 10 sec.
DTD = 20days
FRONT BACK BATTERY
COMMON
FIFO
Max. 11.000 u FIFO
AUTOMATE
Verbal forecast 70.000 u/mounth N° ref = 36
OEE = 90%N°shift = 2
Workers = 8Batch =
C/O = 5’C/T = 10”
INSPECTION INBOUND PAINT INSPECTION Carrier
Demand = 3500 u/day 3500 Front 3500 Back 3500 Battery
Q t
Q t
Q Max. Painting Batch
2 machines 0.1 days0.5 days
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the aforementioned FIFO lines will be established downstream, as will the supermarket pull systems upstream.
Levelling out production. In this case, the production mix will come from the optimum programme for the bottleneck. The production volume will continue to be daily. In principle, ideas like pitch or the heijunka panel do not fit in.
Improvement in efficiency. Short-term plans to improve efficiency have not been set up, but it is clear that methods for reducing changeover times for both the injectors and tampoprinting stations will be applied in the future. In the tampoprinting stations, a plan focusing on overall equipment efficiency is also required.
Planning
Based on the analysis of the future state mapping, an improvement plan has been deployed for the next few months focusing on the new design established in the future state map and aimed at meeting the main target of reducing and establishing manufacturing lead time at 22 days for the first six months of the implementation, being able to reduce it to 20 days by the end of the year.
The improvement plans can be divided into three sections:
(1) development of a detailed design of a new plant layout;
(2) physical conditioning of the factory building; at first, this work will be given to an engineering company; and
(3) start up of a continuous improvement dynamic, aimed above all at increasing the efficiency of the different production equipment mentioned above.
Execution
The first review was carried out six months after the establishment of the plan (Table II). In short, it can be seen that the target proposed of reducing the lead time to 22 days within six months has been met. The calculations concerning finalizing the details of the design of the new environment have been completed, the outside work has been brought to Maier and the initial contacts have been made with the engineering firm. The main obstacle came from the temporary economic situation of the company, which to a certain extent put a brake on the investments planned for the new system.
Research results
Results are structured according to the matters explained as objectives of the study in the section “Introduction”: firstly, the efficacy of the tool is analyzed; secondly, the time and resources needed for the application are explained; thirdly, the key aspects considered to obtain a higher efficiency in their use are described; and finally, the points to reinforce the VSM to obtain a higher potential on its practical applications are also described.
Main goal
Initial state
Anticipated state
Anticipated state six months later
Real state six months later
Lead time reduction (in days) 26 20 22 22
Table II.
Objective consecution
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VSM efficacy
The most important result in terms of validating the tool was the success of the application (Table II). However, the research project based on the case study also obtained important information to endorse and complete the conclusions of the research. As mentioned above, these results came from two main sources of information: observation of the process and interviews carried out with members of the implementation team.
As far as the evaluation of VSM as a technique for redesigning production systems is concerned, interviewing the team served to rate it as excellent for production process re-engineering. The team was very satisfied with the methodology provided and the results obtained and thought that the methodology would be very useful for any subsequent redesigning of the production system. The main strengths of the VSM mentioned by the team were the advantages gained by clearly showing up any waste, the use of a standardized language and the corpus that lean techniques acquire based on VSM.
Time and resources needed
As regards the time and resources invested by the time, Table III summarizes the data obtained from the observation of each stage of the process. In short, the most costly stage was the creation of the current state map, the toughest job was that done by the coordinator and the total project lead time from the selection of the product family to the deployment of the implementation lasted approximately ten weeks; therefore, the initially estimated and planned deadline was a good choice.
Key aspects for a higher efficiency on its use
Related to the previous section about the time and resources needed, the impressions of the team obtained through interviews also pointed to the development of the current state map as the most costly stage, due to the work involved in gathering the process data, which however, was facilitated to a great extent by consulting the company’s information systems. Thus, the use of this resource was considered an important help and a key aspect to speed up the VSM application process. These information systems were used in two fields: first, as contrast and validation for the information gathered together in the plant by the coordinator, and second, as suppliers of information processing which require a statistical analysis to obtain indicators of the family products in an aggregated level.
Number of team meetings 5
Team hours in meetings 8
Value stream manager (hours) 6
Facilitator (hours) 12
Coordinator (hours) 76
Lean specialist (hours) 9
Lead time (weeks) 10
Deviation in relation to planning (12 weeks) 0
Most costly stage Current state map
Table III.
Work load of the VSM application process
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Another point highlighted in the interview was the need to involve management. The team underlined the need to keep the board of directors informed and involved in the process, this can help speeding up the process of taking decisions related to aspects were some investments should be done. Up to this point, the team emphasized the importance for the management to have some knowledge about the productive aspects about the company and the lean production philosophy.
Limitations of VSM
The following main weakness was mentioned by the interviews: the lack of training in several lean concepts on the part of company personnel. In this section, we highlight the doubts of the team when taking some decisions, like the establishment of the pacemaker as point of scheduling. This was a point not taken into account with high criteria by theory. On the other hand, the levelling of the production mix and volume called heijunka systems (Marchwinski and Shook, 2003) has not been internalized by the team members, this aspect is needed to have a higher theoretical and informative contribution.
Conclusions
VSM has shown itself to be a suitable tool for redesigning production systems. This is vouched for by the results obtained in the application project and the information obtained from the exhaustive monitoring of the case.
As the main keys to ensuring the success of its application, the following aspects should be mentioned:
. Having a team ready with established roles in accordance with what the VSM technique advises.
. The need to involve management in decision making and showing the importance of the project to the company.
. Exhaustive monitoring of the stages of VSM. In this regard, it is important to set aside time for the dedication required by the application. The time involved in the TSM-7 project could serve as an initial reference.
. The importance of information systems for obtaining, comparing and processing data concerning the production flow. This resource is of great value for two main reasons: on the one hand, it speeds up the data acquisition process for drawing up the current state map and, on the other, it endorses the data obtained in the production plant itself.
. Finally, it is necessary to highlight the training of the team to be able to achieve more ambitious future state maps, which would include more innovative concepts from the lean production paradigm as well as other conceptual contexts such as the TOC approach.
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Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T. (1996),Lean Thinking. Banish Waste and Create Wealth in your Corporation, Touchstone Books, London.
Wu, B. (1996), Manufacturing Systems Design and Analysis. Context and Techniques, Chapman and Hall, London.
Yin, R.K. (1993),Applications of Case Study Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Further reading
Hines, P., Holweg, M. and Rich, N. (2004), “Learning to evolve. A review of contemporary lean thinking”,International Journal of Production Management, Vol. 24 No. 17, pp. 994-1011.
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About the authors
Ibon Serrano Lasa is a Lecturer at Mondragon University. His main research field focuses on the design and improvement of manufacturing systems, Industrial Management Department, Mondragon University, Mondragon, Gipuzkoa (Spain). Ibon Serrano Lasa is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Carlos Ochoa Laburu, MSc Professor at the University of the Basque Country. His research is mainly oriented towards Production and Operations Management, Business Organization Department, Polytechnic University College, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastia´n, Gipuzkoa (Spain).
Rodolfo de Castro Vila, PhD, Professor at the University of Girona. His research is focused on Lean Thinking in Production and Operations Management and in Supply Chain Management, Business Organization, Management and Product Design Department, University of Girona, Girona (Spain).
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