Value Stream Mapping - Trying to do Value Stream Mapping of our Products

[peach]

I am trying to do a value stream mapping of our products. I am new to this and following the learning to see book.
My question is, we have different machines (Lathe, milling, etc) make different products. I have done a product matrix to group products that use similar machines and already did the current state and future state for one group. I am doing the same for another product group but this group uses some of the same machines as the first product group. At the downstream I am planning to have a cell layout for machines that can do one piece flow. Now the problem is, different product group uses different machines in this cell layout. I can see this creates problem as nothing tells the operator the routing of different products. How do people normally solve this issue?

 

[AdamP]

Re: Value Stream mapping

Hi! It sounds like you've made good progress so far.

At this point unless your company is planning to purchase additional equipment to allow multiple cells with single piece flow, you'll need to look at production smoothing, or heijunka to plan the workflow across shared resources.

From what I have seen, this leads to the use of FIFO and aggressive set-up reduction kaizens to minimize the waste of having different parts processed on shared CNC equipment.

From the VSM view, this will probably have you add kanbans or specifically sized FIFO lanes at the needed locations to make sure the overall WIP in the line stays controllable - so you don't create in-process inventory.

Hope this helps,

Adam

 

[peach]

Re: Value Stream mapping

Thank you Adam. Can you tell me how do i schedule different products? Here i am using some of the same machines and my pacemaker changes for different products groups. Also i can see the product routing could be a problem.

 

[palmer]

You have to factor in the percentage of the product made. Some may take several widgets further down the line, some may sell more of the end product than the others.

Production Inventory Control systems and software usually do this but are limited to how their parameters are set up.

You may want to try a spaghetti diagram to see how much overlap you have on machine usage. That may narrow your focus points or highlight congestion where you can suggestion the addition of equipment.