Implementing Lean Manufacturing Principles With VSM To Reduce Waiting Time In A University Cafe

The Lean Manufacturing Principles includes a different variety of the tools that are useful to eliminate the waste, improve the lead time, waiting time, and improve the productivity in the organization in order to maintain the quality of the product and services offered to the customers.

Out of all the tools the most widely used tools in the Lean Principles include the VSM or simply VSM, this tool is very different from all the existing tools of the Lean Principles. Be it a well-established industry or a start-up, every organization needs and should implement the Lean Manufacturing Principles to be successful in the market and to compete with other organizations.

Companies that don’t use the Lean Principles are prone to have difficulties in rendering their products and services to their customers. Every Organization wants to provide the quality products and services to the customers, in order for them to achieve this particular goal, the VSM can be of very much assistance along with other tools of Lean Principles.

Different Studies conducted by the authors prove that implementing the VSM tools in their organizations have constantly increased the productivity and as well as the quality of the products while reducing all types of wastes proving an edge to the organizations that implement these tools when compared to the ones that are not using the Lean Principles.

According to the great Brazilian business magnate Marcel Telles, “A Company can seize extra ordinary opportunities only if it is very good at ordinary operations." Any organization or industry needs a set of tools that when implemented, increase the improvement in the productivity and services offered to its customers. Lean Manufacturing is as a process of identifying and eliminating waste through making the continuous improvement in different sectors of the organization in order to reduce the waiting time and improve the quality according to the customer’s needs. Lean’s main philosophy is to concentrate time and effort on identifying and refining steps in an operation that the customer deems valuable, and to eliminate wasteful or unnecessary steps in a process. Value Stream Mapping is a lean management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of event that take a product or service from its beginning through to its customer. Value Stream Mapping or VSM is a key tool in the Lean Principles that mainly concentrates on reducing the waste and improving other perspectives within the organization. Value Stream is a collection of all actions, value added as well as non-value added that are required to bring a product or a group of products that use the same resources through the main flows, from raw material to the hands of customers.

VSM is the techniques that bring all the processing steps to one place. It shows the big picture of a shop floor rather than individual processes and improves each area at the production line. It is used to draw attention to different wastes and eliminating them in the future state map.  Industries require continuous improvement in their day-to-day operations to stay in the race to the top of the category. In addition to the Value Stream Mapping, there are different other tools under the Lean Principles that can be used to eliminate the waste and improve the efficiency; some of these include 5S, Kaizen and Kanban.

  VSM is a process of visually mapping the flow of information and material as they are and preparing a future state map with better methods and performance. The industries that implement Lean Manufacturing as their working philosophy can make significant change in terms of their operational performance even if it is in a modified format that best suits their organizational culture. 

Organizations are experiencing very intense competition and pressure due to globalization, maintaining the best quality products, and customer satisfaction. Therefore, they cannot afford the waste of the resources and other factors that affect their operations and alter the productivity and services that are rendered to its customers. It is reported that by implementing the various Lean Principles, mainly VSM can help reduce the unnecessary waste and gradually shorten the waiting time, maintain the quality of the product and also help increase the profits to the organization.      

The problem addressed in this paper is to shorten the waiting time it takes for students to get admitted in to the dining hall and time taken to serve the food at counters by using VSM. Students can be admitted in to dining hall for food only after swiping their identification card by the cashier. There is only one cashier to swipe cards. So, the problem here is with the waiting time for students to get admittance in to the Cafe. The waiting time will be more on weekends when compared to weekdays; because of longer waiting time the students may lose interest in having food.

Purpose of Research

In an increasingly competitive environment, the industries have to come up with different ways of optimizing the available resources to provide the state-of-the art services and facilities to the client or the end users. Be it a well-established industry or a start-up, every organization needs and should implement the Lean Manufacturing principles to be successful in the market and to compete with other organizations. Waiting time, considered as one of the seven types of muda or waste, is a major problem that should be decreased in the work flow of any industry. It will have a larger impact on the total work flow process and production of the quality goods. In any organization, the waiting time has to be shortened for the smooth flow of the processes. It is one of the major constraints that needs to be addressed by organization when providing the products and services to its customers.

The purpose of this research is to reduce the time taken by each student right from entry to the Cafe, taking food and exiting the Cafe.

The application of the VSM requires a simple and systematic plan that involves collection of the data with regards to current state mapping that is being followed by the management of the dining services.  

Reducing lead times and improving the quality typically result in additional growth. Shorter lead times means better customer service. In addition, this research will highlight the important points that refer to the improving of the Lean Principles in the other locations throughout the university.

Extensive research exists on the successes of the organizations that have been implementing the VSM and other tools in the Lean Principles. The usage of these types of tools is mainly to improve the quality of the product, reduce the wait time. This is also, very similar when different industries such as Manufacturing, Distribution, Production and as well as the Marketing industries are compared.

This paper mainly concentrates on the usage of the VSM tools of Lean Principles in the Towers’ café of Southeast Missouri State University to find out the way to reduce the waiting time, one of the seven wastes, to increase the quality of the product and also the customer satisfaction.

In the present research study there are few limitations, such as the research site includes only one university for the study; therefore, the results may be relevant to this particular research site.

The author may not have the access to all the students and Cafe’s that are located on campus. There will be problems in obtaining permission from some of the students, as most of the students will be undergraduates, and the author may require permission from both parents before asking them questions. The author may not get the consent to conduct a study in all the dining areas and may be limited to one or two places on campus.

 The results obtained cannot be generalized because the population is very small and will be limited to that of only the Tower’s Cafe, when compared to all the universities and institutions in the region.

Objective and Justification

This section introduces and defines the terms such as Lean, VSM,

The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A Lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

Value Stream Map, a key tool in many Lean projects, illustrates the flow of materials and information as a product or service moves through the Value Stream. A Value Stream is the collection of all the activities, both value added and non-value added, that generate a product or service required to meet customer needs.

VSM is used to define and analyze the current state for a product Value Stream and design a future state focused on reducing waste, improving lead-time, and improving workflow. A Value Stream map provides a blueprint for implementing Lean Manufacturing concepts by illustrating how the flow of information and materials should operate. Value Stream improvement, sometimes called “flow level kaizen,” is the best tool for identifying and planning opportunities for process kaizen. People often mistake VSM for process mapping. Process mapping simply involves mapping any process.

VSM involves mapping information and product flow for a given value stream. The mapping is done in such a way that allows one to visualize the current state and to plan and implement a future state with measurable goals.

This chapter reviews the application of VSM in different industries such as Fast food industry, automotive industry and tourism and hospitality industry. According to the study on fast food industry by each extra second of wait time reduces the amount that the customers are prepared to pay. Waiting time not only affects the frustration and abandonment of the customer but also how much they are willing to spend on the products and services. The VSM principles are introduced in the automotive industry and rapidly spread to different industries such as Healthcare, Academics, Hospitality, and Production Management industries.

The important objective and concern in the automotive industry is improving the quality of the product when compared to other manufacturers. In addition to this, the companies also look to decrease the costs, which will lead to the improvement of the system productivity.  Material and Information Flow Mapping, in other words VSM is a standard method for the work flow and also serves as the standard for improving the design requirements in Toyota. 

Several examples of successful implementation of comprehensive Lean projects in healthcare institutions were reported. For example, at Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC), where “patient is God,” the hospital reported increased profit margins, decrease in deaths and number of medication errors. Other benefits include an 85% reduction in how long patients wait for a lab result, increased productivity by 93%, and lowering inventory costs by $1 million".

Travel and Hospitality, is one among the most rapidly increasing industries with lot of competitors offering their customers a chance to explore the world. No question that this industry is craving for implementing the different Lean Principles to transform their business in to a top class one.  The Resort companies like MGM and Caesars Entertainment have accrued immense amounts of long-term debt over the past ten years to fuel the great expansion of resorts in markets like Las Vegas. Firms like these can implement Lean 5s, and the kaizen process and benefit the housekeeping industry to eliminate waste and increase efficiency.

Limitations of the Study

The present study will be conducted in the dining services in Towers’ Café at Southeast Missouri State University. This dining services are outsourced to the fast food company giant named Chart-Wells which provides the food services in addition to the dining services and operations management. The author is trying to expose whether the services offered to the students in the Cafe, are efficient enough to deliver the food on time. If not based on the data acquired the current and future state mapping will be calculated.  The author will use the VSM tool along with the previous calculations to analyze how the services provided by the dining services can be improved by shortening the waiting time, eliminating waste and improving the quality of the food.  

VSM enables a company to identify and eliminate waste, thereby streamlining work processes, cutting lead times, reducing costs and increasing quality. VSM should be viewed as the backbone of any Lean Initiative and process improvement endeavors.  Simply picking trouble areas for improvement without examining the entire Value Stream of the product family or families utilizing the resource can create undesirable results long term.

Through Value Stream Mapping, a team of employees can map the current state from customer back to raw material, including all steps, both value-added and non-value-added, and develop a future state vision to act as a blueprint for Lean activities. The Future State often represents a significant change compared to the way the company currently operates. The VSM team will develop an implementation strategy to make the Future State a reality.

The design that is used in the present research by the author includes the following modules:

1)  Questionnaire design

2)  Personal interviews.

In addition to these two designs, the other ways to collect the data includes different steps and they are as follows.

1)  Collect the Existing Data

2) Create and Analyze the Current State Mapping

3) Create and Analyze the Future State Data Based on Calculations

4) Work Plan after Implementation of VSM Tool

The most important part of this research study is to collect the data from the Towers Cafe’. The data collected is related to the waiting time that students experience right from the moment they enter the Cafe until they take their ordered food.    

From the data that has been collected on waiting time it needs to be segregated into different parts of small intervals so that each part will have the time recorded. This division of waiting time into small parts will enable to author to easily analyze the current state of the waiting time in the Cafe.

After the current state mapping is analyzed and the data is recorded properly, then the future state mapping data has to be recorded by making some changes in the deliverables from the moment students enter the Cafe to until he/she exits the place with their food. For example, introducing an automatic ID scan will make it easier for both student and as well as staff by reducing the waiting time at the entrance of the Cafe.  

When implementing the VSM (Value Stream Mapping), the first and most important thing is to collect the existing data and create the current state mapping of the waiting time that is to be recorded in the Cafe. Analyzing the collected data of the current state mapping, and with respect to this data and after making some changed to the work flow process, the future state mapping data can be assessed based on the application of the VSM and then time can be analyzed will be required by the same services in the future state mapping.

After the required data is collected and all calculations are performed, then the difference between the current state and future state mapping will produce some results. The responses from the two modules the questionnaire design and personal interviews. The results from both the statistical calculations and the two modules will be combined to produce the final conclusions on how the VSM tool from the Lean Principles can be used to reduce the waste such as waiting time and improve the quality of the product that will be delivered to the customer.

As mentioned by the author and from the topic of the study, the participants for the research will be the students accessing the dining services on campus, and staff members working in the dining services on campus. The student population may contain different groups such as male students, female students, and students from different countries, and students from particular regions. Both the domestic and international students include the bachelor’s students, master degree students and doctoral students utilizing the dining services on campus.

To conduct both the studies with the described participants the author has to take the permission from the concerned management office of the dining services located on campus, they have to give the proper approval to conduct this study because the study is being conducted on their operating premises.

The instruments by which the data is collected for this research study are the questionnaire design and the personal interview. Apart from these two instruments the complete data on the waiting time is acquired by collecting the data from the Towers Cafe’ located on campus with the permission from management if needed.

This study will be differentiated using the categories such as weekdays, weekends, morning, noon, and night. For this questionnaire design and the interview to make it relevant to the research study the author has to seek the guidance of the professor in the same university or a different university or else take the help of the different authors who have already done some work in the related field.

Various things such as the waiting time, customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction, and working staff views are recorded using the questionnaire design and the personal interviews from both students and the staff working in the Cafe. No identity of the participants will be revealed and the questionnaire and survey conducted will be anonymous.

In the past time studies have been used in identifying the amount of time that an employee will take to complete a certain task. In the recent times, this method is being used to measure the length of time that is required for a customer to receive service. This study was conducted at the Towers Café’ of Southeast Missouri State University. The main objective of the study was to find out the way to reduce the waiting time so as to increase the quality of product and also customer satisfaction. The first step of the study was to determine the time that the participants used from the time they entered the café to the time that their orders were served. The data was collected during the pick hours that’s during lunch and dinner. This is the period when most of the students would visit the Towers Café’ and delays and inefficiency are likely to occur during these hours. This gives a good opportunity to identify the problems that arise due to increased waiting time

The Towers Café’ operates continuously from 7.00 am-8pm for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The café usually serves from 800- 1,200 students daily. At the entry, the students hand in their Cards to the cashier who swipes the cards to approve the entry to the café. After entering the student can then proceed to other venues where they are served with food. Depending on the preferences of the student he or she can visit several venues to get the desired meals at a particular time. There is no limit on the length of time a student can stay in the café, but once they leave the cafeteria, they cannot re-enter without paying for another meal. The demand for certain types of food determine the length of the line and the time that time that a student will have to wait until a meal is made to order.^,

The length of time taken by each participant was different in different venues that the student visited. In the study segments within the time taken by the participants were selected and defined the segments based on the speed of service. The speed of service was divided into two-time components. Which IS as follows;

1. Waiting in a cashier line- this was the length of time that the participants spent in the cashier line waiting for their cards to be swiped.
2. Waiting at the service line- this was the line that the participants had to stand in the line waiting to receive food.

Methods that would be used to collect data were developed. The start and end of each component were also defined. The research was conducted with the help of six research assistants who were trained for the time study. To test the accuracy of the data collection methods a pilot study was conducted prior to the study.

Semi-structured questionnaires were also administered to the participant during the interviews. The researcher would inform the participant the purpose and the objectives of the study and allowed them to decide whether they would participate or not this was to ensure that no participant was coerced to take part in the study.

The questions aimed at examining the issues related to delay. However, the questions were not directly connected to delay unless the participants complained about the time taken to receive their orders. The questions asked were mainly based on the responses of the participants in relation to the duration of the service. During the interviews, data was recorded in notebooks where participants would not agree to be recorded directly using other devices.

The needed data was collected from the Towers Café’ database which provided the data and time of sales in each day. The observational data collected at the Towers café’ included the daily pick hours, the length of time the student waits in the queue to be served by the cashier and the time taken to be served after placing the order, and the activities taking place at the counter as the students wait to be served. Microsoft Excel was used in recording and analyzing the quantitative data collected during the study.

The study involved 20 student participants who visited the cafeteria for different meals and five staff members. The participants were selected randomly before joining the entrance queue. The students who were selected at different intervals from the time they joined the queue to the time they received their orders. The data was collected in two sessions that is during the lunch time and at dinner with each session involving ten participants. To improve the accuracy of the time taken three research assistants recorded the time when each participant joined the cashier queue and the time the cashier swiped their cards. And the other there research assistants would record the time taken by each participant from the time the cashier swiped their cards to the time they received their orders. The time taken for each time component was taken, and comments were made on any unusual observations were recorded in the data collection forms. The total time is taken from the cashier to the time when the participant received food from the counter was calculated to find the wait time using the equation;

The research assistants entered the data collected after each session in the excel spreadsheet. Then average time taken by each participant in specific time components were measured. This practice was aimed at providing quantitative data for the study.

Random selection was made for the interviews without any bias in relation to gender, ethnicity, and age. The selected participants included both domestic and international students at different levels of study. This provided an all-inclusive sample that would provide accurate information.

The participants spent an average of 4 minutes 12 seconds at the cashier's queue and an average of 3 minute 12 seconds at the counter waiting for their orders to be served. This indicates that a lot of time is spent waiting for the cashier to serve the cards. On average each participant spent 7 minutes 24 seconds waiting to be served.

Table 1. Average time used per component

Component	Average time
Waiting in the cashier queue	4 min 12 sec
Waiting at the service line	3 min 12 sec.
Average total time for service	7 min 24 sec

Table 2. Table is showing the average time spent in the cashier line and the service line in Towers Café.'

Participants	Time in the cashier line (min)	Time in the service line (min)
Participant 1	4. 35	3.30
Participant 2	3.83	2.95
Participant 3	4.25	3.50
Participant 4	3.75	2.75
Participant 5	4.95	3.20
Participant 6	4.00	3.87
Participant 7	3.85	2.98
Participant 8	4.40	3.50
Participant 9	3.50	2.75
Participant 10	4.45	3.46
Participant 11	4.35	3.00
Participant 12	3.60	3.40
Participant 13	4.75	3.25
Participant 14	4.20	2.80
Participant 15	4.98	3.45
Participant 16	3.95	3.80
Participant 17	4.30	2.85
Participant 18	3.90	3.65
Participant 19	4.50	3.29
Participant 20	3.75	3.35
Average time	4. 20	3.21
Total average time		7.41

Figure 3 graph showing the average time spent in the cashier line and the service line in Towers Café.'

From the above data was identified that 55% of the students take spend more than four minutes at the cashier line. Out of the 55%, 27% of the students spent more than four minutes thirty seconds at the cashier line. This was recorded during the time when there was high student flow into the café. The delays were as a result of the increased workload on the cashier. 45% of the students taking below four minutes in the cashier line. This indicates that delays in the service at café are largely contributed by the manual swiping of cards at the entrance.

At the service line, the students spent an average of 3 minute and 12 sec with 35% of the students spending less than the average time with 40 % of the student spending less than 3 minutes in the service line. 0nly 10% of the student spent 3 minutes 30 seconds and above in the service line. This was recorded during the times when the flow of students in the café had increased.

From the data provided above and the graph, a certain trend can be noted that can elaborate the relationship between the time spent at the cashier’s line and the time spent at the service line. When time spent at the cashier increased, there was also an increase in the time spent at the service line and vice versa. This indicates that if the time spent at the cashier line is reduced, the time spent at the service line would also reduce significantly. This would lead to efficiency in the café.

The results collected from the interviews were also analyzed in order to evaluate the perception that the students had on the waiting experience at the Towers Café’. The study also included the views of the staff including the management on the waiting time. From the information gathered from the interviews, it was noted that most of the students were not pleased with the delays at the entrance of the Café while few were not concerned with the time taken. Most of the students did not like to spend a long time in the queues, and in case there is a high flow of students at the café some would be discouraged, and thus they opted not to join the long service queues.

In summary, the data and information collected during the study have indicated the wastage of time that is experienced at the Towers Café’ mainly due to the delay at the entrance where the cashier manually swipes their cards. The time taken at the entrance also affects the time spent at the service line. The delays in service usually have some impact on the customers considering that in this case the students mainly attribute the majority of the customers time is an important variable that should be considered in the delivery of service.^,, It is important for the management of the café to find out a method that will help in reducing the waiting time from the entrance to the time the customers receives their orders. This would greatly contribute to the satisfaction of the customers as well as the efficiency and quality of the services.

The management of the Towers Café should consider fixing an automatic ID scan at the entrance of the café that will enable students to swipe their card. This will help in reducing the waiting time at the entrance and will make it will also make it easier for the staff members to carry out their task. The machine will also increase efficiency in the café and reduce the length of queues at the café which will encourage many students to visit the café’.^,

The management of the café should also increase the serving station capacity to enable a large number of students is served within the shortest time possible. This will also be effective in reducing the length of time spent at the service line.

The café management should also provide clear signs indicating where specific types of food are served. This will enable them to form multiple queues which will reduce the waiting time significantly as it will help the students easily locate the venue where there preferred is being served.^, 

In case the Towers café will consider renovating the café in future I would suggest that they design the serving stations in a way that will allow the students to serve themselves on both sides of the venue. This will help the students to easily trace the queue entrances, eliminate confusion, and reduce the waste of time waiting.

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