1. You have three choices here...(1) run different processes through the same VSM and get unusable gibberish out the other end (2) run a different VSM for every product and spend forever doing it or (3) grouping similar things together and doing the VSM for each similar group (bucket). Option 3 gives you value for the least amount of work...that's why you bucket (group) them.
2. Different cycle times tends to be different VSMs...not always, but usually...so similar cycle times is your first rough cut toward grouping things into categories (buckets).
3. Your grouping will dictate this. If some have a bunch of NVA, and others have little...they wouldn't be grouped together. Keep a firm eye on what you're trying to accomplish in the end...doing VSM just to do it is not very useful. You have to be aiming at something valuable, and have some idea of what it is before you invest all this effort.
As I mentioned, we had two main products...but I ran 5 VSM's...even some of the similar products were different enough to make it worth separating out into a different group for analysis.
HTH
Thanks Ninja
For what I ´ve read, the purpose of a VSM is to remove NVA activities, considering the 7 wastes.
What I want to do is to detect NVA´s in the processes, and one way to do it, is to draw the current VSM, afterwards, to
design the future VSM, correcting what is needed.
Could you explain what is your purpose when using VSM´s?
My examples
Offset process
1- I have one product (manuals) which passes through 5 processes which run in 5 machines (machines a,b,c,d and e).
Detailing the vsm (current) I can get the NVA´s and VA, from here I will try to remove the NVA (future map) by implementing actions derived from the future map, all this is a VSM for one product, and thats all, in this case the client requests me manuals in different quantities.
Flexography process
2- I have other product (labels in roll) which passes through 1 process, which runs in 1 machine (machine g).
Detailing the vsm (current) I can get the NVA´s and VA, from here I will try to remove the NVA (future map) by implementing actions derived from the future map, all this is a VSM for one product, and thats all, in this case the client requests me rolls of different quantities of labels.
Serigraph process
2- I have other product (advertisements) which passes through 4 processes, in 4 machines (machine h, j,k and m).
Detailing the vsm (current) I can get the NVA´s and VA, from here I will try to remove the NVA (future map) by implementing actions derived from the future map, all this is a VSM for one product, and thats all, in this case the client requests me different quantities of printed sheets.
Summing up , I have different products running in different processes, different machines, different workers.
1- According what you say "run different processes through the same VSM"
in this case how I can do this?, if each VSM consider the known process and machines, running other different process is not possible.
2- According to this "run a different VSM for every product", this is what I plan to do, why you say forever?
3- "grouping similar things together and doing the VSM for each similar group (bucket) ", how? I can´t do it, because
if the cycle time is similar, ok, it could be, but they are different processes, different machines, dont understand
what is the benefit of doing this?
Could you explain what is your focus on doing VSM´s? , trying to "bucket" doing less analysis instead of
analyzing different products, processes, having as a result different scenarios, which lead me to "discover" more NVA´s
as a consequence, more corrections in processes.
Finally, Ninja, maybe I´m too newbie for this, since I cant understand totally all your explanations.
Could you give me a last deep explanation, or maybe suggest me a book or something
to understand it very well.
Thanks a lot
