Combining VSM with Digital Data

Abstract

Productivity improvement is a must for survival in every competitive industry. Hence, to not lose competitiveness and profitability, companies must pay attention to this area. Luckily, there are numerous different ways of addressing it. If taking a production perspective, one way of dealing with the productivity is to reduce work in process (WIP) and shorten lead times. Historically, the tools and concepts of lean production have been frequently and successfully used in that context. In this report, the lean tool value stream mapping (VSM) is applied in a Swedish manufacturing company to give suggestion on how their production can be changed to improve their productivity. To mitigate some of the commonly stated drawbacks of a traditional VSM, the report investigates how the methodology can be combined with digital production data. The study results in several improvement suggestions, possibly leading to improved productivity if being implemented. All improvement suggestions are comprised into an implementation plan, serving to guide the company if implementing suggested changes. Regarding the digital production data being utilised, it is concluded that it can help mitigate common VSM drawbacks, such as reducing the time spent on manual measurements, and making it less static and more easily updated. It is also shown that the ‘go and see’ approach in the VSM methodology can be a good complement when using digital data. To support productivity improvements in the future, an internal production assessment standard is developed to the company. Lastly, a roadmap towards digitalisation is created to encourage the studied company to be more digitalised