Creating a Value Stream Map for Family Meal Preparation Process

This is a group activity. You will use a simple process from your own life, preparing a family meal, to develop a Value Stream Map (VSM). Use the SIPOC from Activity 2 to identify the basic process. Activity Grading This activity counts for 8% of your final course grade (towards the Activities category). It is graded according to this rubric. Activity Instructions Part 1: Creating Your VSM The Value Stream is to be presented on a single sheet of paper. The technical terms below (i.e. factory symbol) are to be related back to your meal preparation process and modified to suit it. Be creative, have fun with it! A VSM's value is in its simplicity, and the use of common symbols that are internationally recognized. Enter the title of the process in a framed box according to your organization's drawing standards (lower right, center top, rotated 90 degrees along either the right or left margin, etc.). At the top left of the page, insert the factory symbol and name of the key supplier. Enter a separate symbol for each supplier you want to include in the scope of this analysis. At the top right of the page, insert the factory symbol and name of your primary customer. Identification of the basic process under investigation: Here we draw from the SIPOC to present the steps in the basic process. Across the middle of the page, insert a process box for each of the process steps you recorded in the SIPOC diagram. Label each of the process boxes. Don't worry about filling in any data into these boxes yet. The data collection and recording step comes a bit later. Add an additional box in the center top of the page and label it "Production Control". The data you enter into each of the process steps can be summed up or averaged and recorded in this Production Control box to reflect the overall capacity of the process. Identification of the material and information flows through the process: You may now join the symbols on the diagram. Insert the material flow symbol (a block arrow superimposed with a vehicle) between the Supplier and the first step in your process. It is helpful to tailor the symbol of the vehicle to reflect how the materials arrive at your facility, such as ships, trains, planes, or trucks. This is valuable information that affects lead time. If your shipments arrive by a combination of delivery modes, such as airplane and delivery truck, show symbols for each mode of transportation so that the uniqueness and the implications of the supply chain are not overlooked. Repeat the previous step to join the symbol for your last process step to the customer's symbol. Update the symbol with an appropriate vehicle symbol or combination of symbols to reflect how the product will be shipped from your dock to the customer. Join each process to the next in order, applying the symbol that best reflects the nature of the signal to initiate material movement The most common material movement is "Push". Product from Step(n) of the process completes a batch of production, and pushes it to Step(n+1). This is signified by a block arrow with alternating black and white blocks. If Step(n+1) requests material or "pulls" product from Step(n), then use the Pull symbol, a curved arrow that is almost circular, conveying a counter-clockwise direction, suggestive of reaching back before coming forward to its starting point. Add straight line arrows between each process step and between process steps and the Production Control box to illustrate the paper flow of information between steps, if any. Label these lines with the form name if known. Add crooked arrows (in the form of lightning bolts) to show the flow of electronic information between process steps and between process steps and the Production Control box, if any. Label these lines with the field name and the data type if know. Review for each of the 7 wastes: At this point, review your value stream map and identify the potential waste areas based on the flow that you have created. You can record these, and explanations for each where necessary, on a separate Microsoft Word document. Part 2: Submitting Your VSM When you are ready to submit a scanned copy of your VSM and potential waste area document, click on the Add submission button at the bottom of this screen. Either drag-and-drop your files to the indicated area or click on the Add... option and select the files you wish to submit. When you are ready, click on Save changes.