Lean Value Stream Mapping for Wal-Mart Layaway Paper Example

Introduction

Wal-Mart buys bike components or parts and assembles the parts. The bikes are then shipped to specific customers or to other Wal-Mart outlets. In this exercise, Wal-Mart bike assembly is examined. Value stream mapping is one of the lean management methods that can be used to analyze the current state of a processor operation and design a lean future state for a series of activities involved in the production of products or a service value stream mapping help in identifying opportunities for reducing waste

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The process being analyzed is the in question is Wal-Mart layaway, a demand fulfillment processed. The process time is the time that was required to complete the whole process from start to finish. The lead-time is the duration of the time the process was ready to initiate an operation to the time the process is completed. The lead-time includes the delays and the actual process time.

The percent complete and accurate refers to the metrics of the product quality of the input into the actual process. For example, a complete and accurate value of 80% would mean that eight times out of ten (8/10), the information is complete and accurate enough to help in analyzing the process from start to finish. This means that lower complete and accurate percentage would mean that the company has insufficient information and the merchandising process cannot be completed as most of the merchandising process or activities would be delayed. In this case, two out of ten (2/10) of the information required is either incomplete or inaccurate. Comparing the process time and the elapsed time can help in revealing delays. For example, in the table below, the process time is 22 minutes (this is also the value-added time) and the elapsed time is the 228 minutes. Therefore, the difference between the 228 minutes (total elapsed time) and 22 (the total process times) is the waste that should be reduced or eliminated. The description of the process time is that it takes 3 hours 48 minutes to 22 minutes of activity (process). Reducing the waste would help in improving the throughput, improve customer satisfaction (Kumar, 2015). Finally, the total percent complete an accurate indicates the overall quality of the process, in this case, is 80%

Include any other appropriate metrics, such as a number of operators, change over time or setup time, batch size, and % uptime.

Calculation of the Takt time

The daily customer demand is 700 pieces of products

Each shift is 8 hours

Wal-Mart has only 1 shift per day

Each shift allows 30 minutes break time

Total daily time is =8x1x60-30=450

The supermarket work for 5 days per week

Total number of minutes per week is 2225 minutes

Takt time= total time/ total number of pieces demanded

Takt time=450/700x60

Takt time=39 seconds per piece

The company should produce package a package every 39 seconds

Total number of seconds per shift=450X60=27000

Calculate the current state summary metrics:

1 Review the component/ parts quality 1 day 130 93%

Verify the parts 25sec 30 98%

2 Assemble 0.513day 95%

Match parts 30 sec 30 97%

3 Value-add bikes by painting/ coloring 0.694 8 100%

Package the parts 42 seconds 2 100%

4 Add Wal-Mart barcode 0.183 4 100%

ship 0.002 second 4 95%

Totals 2.39 days 228 80%

) =2.39 or 1076 minutes or 64530 seconds

The total value added time=97 seconds

) =2.39days and 97 seconds

) =process time/ lead time=6462764530x100

Activity Ratio (AR) =100%

Describe the current state of the value stream and highlight any performance deficiencies and challenges.

The toy assemblies have 486 sub-department that were in charge of toy assemblies. Which mean that there were 486 bikes produced against the daily customer demands of 700 units of bikes? The inventory wait times become:

The inventory wait times become =daily toys produced daily customer Demand The inventory wait times become =486700The inventory waits for times=0.69.

Currently, there are many opportunities for improvements that can be made. For example, each stage is completed in isolation and this can be crashed to improve throughout. For example, the assembly stage can be imported by adding more workers to increase the rate of this state. This way, many units would be produced per minute and per day as compared to the current state (Khurum, Petersen & Gorschek, 2014).

Improving throughput at the fourth stage where bikes are packaged and barcoded would require adding more workers or automating the system. Having a computerized system to package and add the barcodes would also improve the process efficiency and optimize the process cycle efficiency (Ellingsen, 2017). The long lead-time can be reduced by 50% if all the parts were organized and matched according to the stage of production, and the suppliers were consolidated to avoid delays. The company can also create an incentive for the workers and this way, the order frequency would be increased. Finally, benchmarking the while systems would help reduce rework or poor quality that are considered waste and eliminated from the production line.

References

Ellingsen, O. (2017). Commercialization within Advanced Manufacturing: Value Stream Mapping as a Tool for Efficient Learning. Procedia CIRP, 60, 374-379. doi: 10.1016/j.procir.2017.01.039

Khurum, M., Petersen, K., & Gorschek, T. (2014). Extending value stream mapping throughwaste definition beyond customer perspective. Journal Of Software: Evolution And Process, 26(12), 1074-1105. doi: 10.1002/smr.1647

Kumar, D. (2015). Application of Value Stream Mapping in Pump Assembly Process: A Case Study. Industrial Engineering & Management, 04(03). doi: 10.4172/2169-0316.1000162