How does the Application of Value Stream Mapping help a food production company reduce Lead Time and wastages in a production line?

Abstract

As the competition rise, the industries need to improve their performance to gain competitive advantage. This can be achieved either by cutting down costs and improving the firm’s efficiency to be able to offer customer products at low prices or differentiation. One of the main philosophies to cut down the costs by reducing the wastages and improving efficiency is the lean manufacturing to improve performance in production by cutting down wasteful or non-value added activities while increasing the value added activities of a company. This can be achieved by using the Value Stream Mapping. This dissertation uses Almarai as Case study company in which its Juice production department is chosen to propose use of Value Stream mapping and identify the wasteful activities and propose changes in production processes cutting down time, resources, motion and other wastes and achieving future efficiency. This dissertation will apply the VSM mapping tool by presenting the production line and the flow of information, material and labor in graphical manner and propose changes to the production to achieve a future state with better performance and reduced wastages. Using the VSM technique the process cycle efficiency can be increased by 10% and utilisation time can be improved from approx. 75% to 95% for different production machines. VSM technique shows that it can act as a valuable tool for the management to unleash the vast improvements.