Draw The Current State Value Stream Map (VSM) For This Product/Service, From Start To Finish: 7 Deadly Wastes Case Study, TCD, Ireland

Assignment 2

This assignment aims to assess your understanding of lean concepts and your ability to create a Value Stream Map (VSM) to represent the process of supplying products or services to customers. VSM is a tool to systematically analyze such processes to identify waste and non-value-add activities. It always begins with the customer placing an order and ends with the customer receiving that completed order. It should map each process along the way. Using the case study ABC Cheese Company complete the following:

Part 1 – 

Using the detail from the case study:
1. Draw the current state Value Stream Map (VSM) for this product/service, from start to finish.

2. Analyse the Current State Value Stream Map – Questions you may wish to consider include: What is the main problem statement for this VSM, for e.g. delivery performance to the customer is below agreed targets, customer complaints regarding the quality of service are very high, sales are reduced due to an issue within the process, etc. What are the current challenges that exist within it? Identify where the significant non-value-adding activities occur?

Part 2 –

Using the DOWNTIME acronym (also referred to as TIM WOODS or 7 deadly wastes), identify as many areas/processes of waste in the current VSM, explaining the reasons for your assessment in each case. The purpose of this is to get the student to critically analyse what waste exists and why some wastes have a greater impact on customer satisfaction than others.

Part 3 –

1. Draw a proposed future state Value Stream Map for this operation, which addresses the challenges discussed in part 1 and the waste identified in part 2 The future state map should address the non-value-adding activities identified in part 1 and eliminate as many as possible them.

2. What Supply Chain Management concepts and other Lean tools can you apply to help this operation? For example, identify new lean tools that could be employed to improve customer satisfaction, kanbans, JIT, vendor managed inventory, supplier selection process etc

3. Include a rationale for the suggested improvements to the Future VSM justifying all the changes made. Why did you choose the specific solution in part 2 above? You can also discuss why other options were not used.