Mapping is a fairly common tool in TECHNONICOL. It is used not only to analyze the entire flow, but also for individual processes.

One of the first plants where improvements were made using value stream mapping was the plant in Uchaly. In 2006, the primer value stream was chosen. Before mapping began, we determined what is valued by the client in order to produce only what the client wants; Understand the inherent utility of a product from the customer's perspective as reflected in sales price and market demand. Here is the choice of product for production, and its characteristics. It was important to understand who our client is and what this client is really willing to pay for. We discussed value in detail in the chapter on customers.

In Uchaly, mapping work was carried out under the leadership of production director Sagadiev Aidar. Observations and measurements were carried out at the site for each operation, on the basis of which a map of the current state was created.

A simple diagram depicts each stage of the flow of materials and information needed to fulfill a consumer order. Having determined the current value stream, we analyzed the current stream in terms of operations that create and do not create value. We saw a lot of losses to be eliminated:

1. Excess inventory:
   • stocks of raw materials amounted to 14 days, stocks of finished products 9 days.
2. Excessive transportation:
   • delivery of raw materials from the warehouse to the site, the distance from the site to the raw material warehouse is 50 meters one way, up to 6 trips per day. Total 600 meters;
   • solvent residues were monitored once a day. The distance to the tanks is 200 meters, total 400 meters.
3. Overproduction:
   • production was carried out using a push-pull system.
4. Unnecessary movements:
   • lack of a printer for printing stickers on site. The printer was located in the production workshop, the distance to which is 350 meters in one direction. The sticker was printed up to 3 times a day. The total movement to the workshop for printing the sticker was 2100 meters per shift;
   • transfer of samples for certification and quality control to the laboratory, which is located in the production workshop up to 3 times per shift. Total 2100 meters per day.
5. Overprocessing:
   • packaging of the finished pallet with stretch film. Installing a pallet on a pallet wrapper up to 40 times a day, a distance of 6 meters, a total of 240 meters per shift, packing 1 pallet in 1.5 minutes, a total of 1 hour per shift.
6. Waiting (idles):
   • waiting for finished products on a pallet to be transported for packaging up to 30 minutes a day;
   • waiting for the first batch of primer to be ready - 40 minutes a day: before the start of the finished product, the bitumen hardens in the counters - time to warm up is up to 3 hours.

Then we began the third stage of mapping - organizing the movement of the flow, drawing up a future map of the value stream. We outlined an action plan:

1. Supplier area:
   • reduction of raw material inventories to 6 days. Delivery of buckets according to the “Milk Truck” principle (black and blue buckets in one car), ordering of solvent not every ten days, but just in time;
   • installation of level meters in containers with solvents with data output to the monitor in the control room (visualization of solvent residues);
   • installing a printer on site to print stickers on site;
   • organization of a container warehouse directly next to the primer bottling workshop;
   • moving all raw material stocks to a warehouse located next to the bottling workshop.
2. Production area:
   • installation of heated bitumen meters on site to prevent bitumen from hardening;
   • preparing one batch of primer at the end of the previous shift for bottling it at the beginning of the shift;
   • organization of a laboratory on site to carry out incoming inspection of raw materials, control of technological parameters and certification of finished products;
   • conducting experiments, receiving feedback from trading partners on the quality of delivery in the absence of 2 tapes for fastening and wrapping pallets with stretch tape;
   • creating a continuous process from the moment the label is applied to the packaging of the pallet;
   • creation of a supermarket for stocks of packaging materials.
3. Shipping area:
   • reduction of finished product inventories up to 4 days;
   • installation of limiters at the ramp for quick installation of the machine for loading and unloading;
   • installation of ramp and warehouse number signs on site;
   • placement of the loading ramp closer to the gas storage area.

We mapped the future value stream.

Figure 1. Current and future value stream maps, primer and cold mastic production site in Uchaly.

The primer and cold mastic production area has undergone significant changes. After the implementation of the measures, the production cycle time was reduced to 14 days, the value creation time a year after the initial mapping in 2007 was 95 seconds, in 2008 after the introduction of the flow - 36 seconds. Turnover of finished products increased from 9.78 times a year in 2006 to 17 times a year in 2007. It was possible to double labor productivity at the site, reduce raw material inventories by 8.6%, and finished product inventories by 70.5%. Production and warehouse space was reduced by more than 30%.

When constructing a value stream map, we used the recommendations of the authors of the book “Learn to see business processes. Practice of constructing value stream maps":

Work to improve the entire flow and individual processes in the production flow of primer and cold mastics at the plant is still ongoing, although, of course, the results are not as impressive as the first time. The process of continuous improvement is a spiral. Each turn results in an increasingly less significant reduction in losses and an increasingly closely related and effective work. At some point, continuous improvement turns into a series of small incremental improvements.

Gradually, mapping became an integral part of the work of most departments of the company. Maps drawn up by hand began to be transferred to the computer. The mapping process itself has become more formalized. Forms of documents have appeared for drawing up flow maps, annual plans improving flows and flow analysis. If more than one division of the company was involved in the flow, they began to get together to work on improving the end-to-end flow. Figures 3-6 show work to improve the flow of roofing roll materials, which were sold through the company's distribution centers. Accordingly, two divisions of TECHNONICOL are involved in the flow: the Ryazan plant for the production of bitumen roofing materials "Technoflex" and the regional distribution center of the company, from where a whole range of the Company's goods and building materials third party manufacturers.

Figure 2. Map of the current value stream by product group"Roll materials", Ryazan

Figure 3. Map of the future value stream for the product group “Roll materials”, Ryazan

Figure 4. Annual plan for improving the value stream for the product group “Roll materials”, Ryazan

Figure 5. Analysis of the value stream for the product group “Roll materials”, Ryazan

Process improvement

Mapping is a fairly common tool in TECHNONICOL. It is used not only to analyze the entire flow, but also for individual processes.

Figures 6 and 7 provide an example of using a mapping tool to visualize, analyze and subsequently improve the process of shipping finished products to a client.

Figure 6. Current map of the process of shipment of GP to the client, customer service department, Ryazan

On the current map we see in yellow shading the places of subsequent improvements, which made it possible to reduce the number of decisions on the client side and increase the efficiency of the process, allowing us to achieve the result reflected on the future map.

Figure 7. Future map of the process of shipment of GP to the client, customer service department, Ryazan

1 Primer is one of the high-quality and affordable compositions on the modern construction market for strong adhesion of adhesive materials to rough, porous and dusty surfaces.

2 Rother M. Learn to see business processes. The practice of constructing value stream maps / Mike Rother, John Shook; Per. from English - M.: Alpina Business Books: CBSD, Center for the Development of Business Skills, 2005. - 144 p.

For visual image value streams use special maps. A value stream map is a tool that helps you see and understand the material and information flows during value creation.

Value Stream Mapping covers all processes - from the shipment of a product to the receipt of raw materials or a request for an action. A value stream map will help identify hidden waste, often a large part of the cost of a product or service.

However, starting immediately with a map of the entire flow of creation would be difficult. You need to start with a flow that covers the entire intra-factory production process (what is called "door to door"), from the shipment of products to the internal consumer at the plant and ending with the delivery of components and materials. In this process, you can design a vision for the future state and start implementing it immediately.

Value stream map functions:

• 
  helps to visualize the entire value stream.
• 
  allows you to see sources of losses in the value stream.
• 
  serves as a “universal language” for all specialists in which to discuss production processes.
• 
  makes many flow-related decisions clear, understandable, and easy to discuss.
• 
  Links lean manufacturing concepts and methods that help avoid learning "grain by grain."
• 
  serves as the basis for drawing up an implementation plan, i.e. becomes a blueprint for implementing lean manufacturing.
• 
  shows the connection between information and material flows.

Building a value stream map includes the following stages:

1. 
   Select the product family or individual product for which the map will be built.
2. 
   Assign a flow manager to the "mapping the value stream" process.
3. 
   Determine its value to the consumer.
4. 
   Determine which production processes the product goes through from raw material to finished product at the current moment.
5. 
   Graphically display the current state of the flow.
6. 
   Analyze processes and their characteristics using maps.
7. 
   Create a future state map using lean manufacturing tools.
8. 
   Implement organization of flow movement using future state maps.

Step 1: Selecting a Product Family
Before you start mapping, you need to figure out exactly which product family to focus on. Consumers are interested in specific products, not all of a company's products. Therefore, it is not necessary to reflect on the map all the flows that pass through the production process.

Family is a group of products that go through similar processing steps on the same machines.

No need to try to look for product families by studying the processing of raw materials in the "upstream" of the streams, because the same raw material coming in batches can be used to produce different families of products. The search should be focused on the "exit" of the flows: here you can clearly define the qualitative links of products.

The selected product family, first of all, must be clearly described. Then determine how many different parts it uses, how much product the consumer needs and how often.

Stage 2: Value Stream Manager
The structure of companies is often built on the functions that are assigned to individual divisions. Thus, for a comprehensive organization production process“from entry to exit” no one answers. At the same time, building a flow involves crossing intraorganizational functional boundaries. This allows you to optimize the characteristics not of individual processes, but of the entire flow as a whole.

To avoid focusing on isolated functions, you need one person, a leader, who will take responsibility for understanding the value stream of the product family as a whole and improving it. Such a person is called " value stream manager". He must report directly to the top manager at a given plant (in a given region) in order to have the power necessary to implement change.

Functions of a value stream manager:

• 
  Responsible for the Lean implementation process to senior management.
• 
  Has linear, rather than staff, authority and can make changes in functional and structural units.
• 
  Leads the development of current and future state value stream maps and an implementation plan to move from the present to the future state.
• 
  Monitors all aspects of implementation.
• 
  Reviews and refines the value stream on a daily or weekly basis.
• 
  Acts to ensure that implementation is the highest priority.
• 
  Implements and periodically reviews the implementation plan.
• 
  Insists that his promotion depends on results.

Stage 3. Determining the value of the product
Value – a starting point lean manufacturing.

Value[product, service] can only be determined by the end user. It makes sense to talk about it only if we mean a specific product (good or service or all together), which for a certain price and at a certain time is able to satisfy the needs of customers.

Value is created by the producer. From the consumer's point of view, this is precisely why the manufacturer exists. However, for a number of reasons, it is very difficult for a manufacturer to determine exactly what the value of a product or service is.

One of best examples misunderstandings of value have been conveyed by the modern airline industry. The definition of an airline's customer value is simple: getting from one place to another safely, with minimal hassle, and at a reasonable price. Airlines understand value differently. The main thing for them is to use existing assets as efficiently as possible, even if this means that the passenger will have to make transfers several times and at completely inconvenient points for him. To somehow smooth out such inconveniences, airlines offer passengers various additional services such as lounges for senior management or various gaming systems built into each seat.

Lean manufacturing must begin by defining value precisely in terms of a specific product that has certain characteristics and costs a certain price. All this must be done through dialogue with certain consumers without regard to the company’s existing assets and technologies. The way to do this is to use teamwork to rethink all the company's activities related to its products.

The concept of value in lean manufacturing is closely related to the concept muda. Muda ( muda, waste(s), loss, friction) - any activity (or state) that consumes resources but does not create value for the consumer.

All the activities that make up a value stream can almost always be divided into three categories:

1. 
   activities that create value;
2. 
   actions that do not create value, but are inevitable for a number of reasons (m at Yes first kind);
3. 
   non-value-added activities that can be immediately eliminated from the process (m at Yes second kind).

1. 
   Overproduction . Production of products that were not received
   order leads to excess inventory and generates losses such as excess work force and storage facilities, as well as transportation costs.
2. 
   Waiting (wasting time ). Workers supervising work
   automatic equipment, stand idle waiting for the next
   work operation, tool, parts, etc. or simply sitting idle due to missing parts, delays in processing, equipment downtime and lack of capacity.
3. 
   Unnecessary transportation or relocation . Moving work in progress over long distances, creating transportation inefficiencies, as well as moving materials, parts and finished products to and from the warehouse.
4. 
   Overprocessing . Unnecessary operations when processing parts.
   Ineffective machining due to poor tool quality or
   ill-conceived constructive solution, which entails
   unnecessary movements lead to the appearance of defects. Losses caused by
   inflated quality requirements.
5. 
   Excess inventory . Excess raw materials, work in progress or
   finished products increases the lead time of the order, causes
   Obsolescence of products leads to damage to finished products, transportation and storage costs, delays and procrastination. In addition, excess inventory hinders the identification of problems such as production imbalances, delivery delays, defects, machine downtime, and long setup times.
6. 
   Extra movements . All the extra moves you have to do
   employees in the process of work: searching for what they need, the need to reach for tools, parts, etc. or do their styling. This also includes walking.
7. 
   Defects . Production of defective parts and correction of defects.
   Repair, alteration, waste, product replacement and testing lead to
   loss of time and energy.

Stage 4. Study of the current production process
Despite the fact that a team of specialists is always assigned to the flow manager, the construction of the map is solely his responsibility. Therefore, the flow manager must personally deal with the study of the current state of the production process.

Rules for the flow manager:

• 
  Always independently collect information about the current state, moving along the actual paths of material and information flows.
• 
  First, quickly walk along the entire value stream path on the shop floor, to get a sense of flow and understand the sequence of processes. After quickly going through this path, go back and collect information where each process is running.
• 
  Start at the end (with shipment) - and go upstream: you cannot start with receiving raw materials (and further down). Thus, the study will begin with the processes that have the closest relationship to the customer and that should set the pace for other processes upstream.
• 
  Use a stopwatch and do not rely on time standards or information not received personally. Numbers in documents rarely reflect the actual current state. The data in the files may reflect periods of time when all processes were running normally, such as a three-minute changeover of equipment earlier this year or within a week of the plant opening when no acceleration was required. (Possible exceptions to this rule include equipment readiness data, scrap/rework standards, and equipment changeover times.)

5.1. Construction rules
The rules listed above continue to apply to the actual process of creating value stream maps:

• 
  You need to build a map of the entire value stream yourself, even if several people are involved in the process. The point of mapping is to understand the value stream as a whole. If different people construct different segments, then no one will be able to comprehend the whole.
• 
  Always construct the map manually, using a pencil. You need to start with a rough sketch of the flow directly in the workshop, when an analysis of the current state is carried out. Then correct it also manually, with a pencil. You cannot use a computer.
• 
  Building a value stream map for one product family should not take too much time. After about two days, you need to build a map of the future state and understand where you can start implementing it.
• 
  You can't spend too much time trying to get every detail absolutely right on a future state map. Small details are clarified and mapped onto the future state during implementation work.

Manufacturing process

One process rectangle is equivalent to a specific flow area. All processes must have names. The same is true for departments such as production management.

External sources

Describes customers, suppliers and external production processes.

List of parameters

Used to record information related to production process, department, customer, etc.

Reserves

It is necessary to indicate the quantity of inventory and storage time.

Delivery by truck

Specify the frequency of shipments.

Movement of materials during PUSHING

An item is produced and moved forward before being needed by the next process, usually when running on a schedule.

Transfer of finished products to the consumer

Supermarket

Managed parts inventory that is used to schedule upstream process operation.

Seizure

Pulling materials, usually from a supermarket.

Transfer of a controlled amount of materials between processes in a first-in, first-out sequence.

Describes a scheme used to limit the quantity and guarantee a FIFO queue of material flow between processes. The maximum number of products must be indicated.

Manual information flow

For example, a production schedule or a shipment schedule.

Electronic information flow

For example, via local network or Internet.

Information

Describes information flow.

Production Kanban (the dotted line indicates the kanban path)

One container - one kanban. A card or device that tells a process how much and what kind of product to produce, and gives the green light to do the work.

Selection Kanban

A card or device that instructs a materials carrier which part should be picked up and moved (for example, from a supermarket to a consumer process).

Signal Kanban

One container - one kanban. When a certain point is reached, it signals the need to produce a new batch of products. Used when the supplier's process must produce batches of product because it takes time to changeover the equipment.

Sequential Pull Ball

Gives instructions to begin immediately the production of a predetermined type and quantity of product, usually one unit of product.

Pull system for the production of subassemblies without the use of a supermarket.

Kanban card collection area

A place where kanban cards are accumulated and stored.

Arrival of Kanban batches

Load leveling

Adjusting plans based on checking inventory levels.

Regulating production schedules through observation

Adjusting plans based on checking inventory levels.

"Explosive" Kaizen

Indicates the need to improve selected areas that are critical to the value stream. Can be used for kaizen on the shop floor.

Buffer or safety stocks

Buffer or safety stocks must be indicated on the map.

Operator

Employee (top view)

You can develop your own additional symbols, but use them consistently throughout your company so that everyone knows how to build and understand the maps you need to create lean manufacturing

5.3. Construction algorithm
The construction of the map begins with the level of the production flow of values ​​at the plant - “from door to door”. This map includes generic process names, such as “assembly” or “welding,” rather than recording each step of the process.

Once you see the overall flow of the plant, you can change the level of detail by zooming in on each step within a process or trying to capture the external value stream coming into the plant.

Data required to build a value stream:

• 
  Manufacturing process
• 
  Consumer Requests
• 
  Work time
• 
  Process Motion Control Department
• 
  Process Information

Step 1. Consumer.

To begin any improvement efforts, it is very important to clearly understand the value of the product in the eyes of the end consumer. Otherwise, you risk making value stream improvements that don't give the end customer what they really want.

Thus, building a map begins with consumer requests. The consumer is usually represented by an icon at the top right of the map. Under the icon there is a list of parameters reflecting consumer requirements (full demand, demand by product, packaging, size of shipment, delivery method, etc.)

The picture of a truck and a wide arrow indicate the transportation of finished products to the consumer.
Step 2. Supplier.

Shown in the upper left corner. The list of parameters indicates the volumes and timing of deliveries, batch size, packaging, delivery method, etc. Typically, when deliveries are received, they are placed in a warehouse.
Step 3. Basic production processes.

A rectangle is used to represent the process. The basic rule for creating an adequate door-to-door flow map is that each box represents a process in which materials move along the flow. Since drawing a rectangle for each step of a single process would make the map too unwieldy, rectangles are used to represent a group of processes where ideally the flow moves continuously. The rectangle ends when the process is interrupted and the material flow stops.

Processes are drawn from left to right on the bottom half of the map in the order in which they are processed, not in the order of the physical location of the equipment.

When examining areas through which the material flow of products passes, you find places where inventories accumulate. It is important to mark these "points on the current state map because they show the places where the flow is interrupted. To mark them, we use a warning triangle sign. If the inventory between two processes accumulates in more than one place, draw triangles for each such place. Observed volume inventories are indicated under the triangles indicating their quantity and/or time.


Step. 3. Material flow.

The material flow is drawn with arrows from the initial process to the subsequent one.

In most cases, many value streams merge with each other and with other streams. Such flows must be drawn sequentially, one after another, as shown here. However, if there are too many branches, there is no need to draw each one: the key components first, and others later, if necessary.

Flows from the supplier to the consumer are drawn with a solid thick line with arrows showing the connection of the processes.

If there is an ejector production system moving ejected materials, use a striped arrow.


Step 4. Process data.

When a flow is examined, data that is important for making a decision about the future state flow is collected. Therefore, under each rectangle describing the process, a table of parameters of this process is given. The information should be as homogeneous as possible, but if there are specific features of a particular process, it can be supplemented.

Mainly the following information is provided:

• 
  cycle time(time between the moments when parts exit the process, in seconds);
• 
  changeover time equipment for switching production from one type of product to another (in this case, this is the switching time between the production of left-hand and right-hand brackets);
• 
  number of people necessary to perform the process, which can be shown with operator icons inside rectangles;
• 
  available working hours per shift spent on this process (in seconds, minus the intervals of breaks, meetings and cleaning of premises);
• 
  information about the readiness of the equipment.

Step 5. Information flows.

Depicted as a narrow line with an arrow. If information is transmitted electronically, the line breaks, taking the form of a “lightning bolt”. The information goes from right to left at the top of the map.

Step 6. Timing.

When constructing value stream maps, seconds are used as the unit of measurement for cycle times, takt times, and available labor time.

Under the process rectangles and inventory triangles, a time line is drawn, which indicates the movement of the order lead time required for one product to pass the entire path in the workshop, starting from the receipt of raw materials and ending with shipment to the consumer.

The lead time (in days) for each inventory triangle is calculated as follows: inventory quantity divided by daily customer demand. By summing the execution time of each Process (rectangle) and the inventory holding time (triangle) in the Material Flow, you can obtain an estimate of the total lead time for a production order.

The time of value creation is indicated next to it. You can map the time it takes for an order to go through the process and the time it adds value like this:


The final map reflects the current state of the production process and serves as input for making decisions about its reorganization, which are reflected in the form of a map of the future state.

Stage 6. Analysis of processes and their characteristics using maps
Analysis of processes and their characteristics using maps is carried out by the flow manager together with the team to develop a future state map.

When analyzing the current state of the value stream, the following key questions are answered:

1. 
   Are there non-value-creating activities that can be immediately eliminated (muda of the second kind)? Such actions are immediately visible on the value stream map. This can include several “storage” signs standing in a row, i.e. the flow simply moves from one warehouse to another without adding value in between. On the other hand, there may be a lack of linearity in the production process, which increases transportation time and cost.
2. 
   What is the takt time? Takt time is used to synchronize the rate of production with the rate of sales and indicates how often one part or product must be produced to satisfy customer demands at the rate of sales. Takt time calculated by dividing the available labor time per shift (in seconds) by the amount of customer demand per shift (in units). In future state maps, takt times are specified in process parameter lists.
3. 
   Will the product be created for the convenience store from which the consumer pulls it, or will it be sent directly to shipping? The answer to this question depends on several factors, such as the products your customer is purchasing, the reliability of your processes, and the characteristics of your products. Producing products directly for shipment will require either high reliability and short lead times, as well as order-to-delivery flow, or large safety stocks. There are often places in the value stream where continuous flow is not possible and accumulation of output is inevitable.

• 
  Some processes are designed to operate with very long or very short cycle times, and multiple product families require machine changeovers (for example, stamping or injection molding);
• 
  some processes are carried out by third parties that are located far enough away that processing products one at a time is unrealistic;
• 
  Some processes have too long lead times or insufficient reliability to integrate directly with other processes into a continuous flow.

1. 
   Where is it possible to use continuous threading? Continuous flow means that one product is produced at a time, with each finished product immediately moving from one process step to the next without any delay (and many other losses). Continuous flow is the most effective method production. In some cases, it is necessary to limit the length of the pure continuous flow because combining processes into a continuous flow also connects lead times and downtime. To start good approach there may be a combination of continuous flow and some kind of pull system or FIFO type systems. A FIFO (first in, first out) queue is a way to maintain flow between two disparate processes without a supermarket.

1. 
   Where will supermarket pull systems be needed to control the production of upstream processes? Supermarket pull system works according to the following principle. The consumer process goes to the supermarket and picks up what it needs, when it needs it. A selection kanban is a list of parts that tells an employee which parts need to be received and delivered. The vendor process produces to replenish what has been withdrawn. The production kanban signals the production of parts based on information from the supermarket.

The purpose of creating a pull system between two processes is to give the upstream process accurate manufacturing instructions, do not forecast downstream process needs and do not schedule upstream process loads.

1. 
   At what single point in the production chain (the pacemaker process) will the production schedule be drawn up? When using supermarket pull systems to coordinate the entire value stream, planning usually only needs to be done in one place. This place is called rhythm-setting process, because managing the work of this process determines the pace of work of the entire system of processes upstream. Choosing the right planning point determines which value stream elements will become part of the cycle time from customer order to finished goods. The movement of materials from the pacemaker process downstream to finished goods should be done as a flow (there should be no supermarkets or pull systems “downstream” of the pacemaker process). Therefore, the pacemaker process is most often the most continuous process in the entire door-to-door value stream. Typically, in a future state map, the pace-setting process is the production process driven by orders from external customers.

1. 
   How will production flows (product mix) be aligned in the pace-setting process? Leveling production means evenly distributing the production of various products over the entire time interval. For example, instead of assembling all type A products in the morning and all type B products in the afternoon, leveling means alternating the production of small batches of A and B. The more the production of different products is leveled in a pace-setting process, the greater the ability to fulfill various customer demands in a short cycle time order, although stocks of finished goods can be kept small. It also allows for smaller supermarkets upstream. The limiting factor in the leveling process is the time it takes to retool equipment to produce a new type of product. But this time can be significantly reduced with the help of SMED.
2. 
   What portions of finished products will be produced and shipped sequentially in the pace-setting process? Establishing a consistent or smooth production rate creates a predictable flow of product, which by its nature helps in solving problems and allows for quick corrective action. A good start would be to regularly reduce the running time of the pacemaker process (usually about 5-60 minutes) and progressively remove an appropriate number of finished items. This practice is called incremental withdrawal - pitch(pitch). The pitch is calculated taking into account the number of finished products in one package. Pitch is the product of takt time and the number of finished products moved in the pace-setting process. For example, if the takt time is 30 seconds and the packaging volume = 20 products, then the pitch is 10 minutes (30 seconds * 20 products = 10 minutes). In this case, this number becomes the main element (unit) when drawing up a production schedule for the release of products of this product family.

In this system, kanban shows not only how much product needs to be produced, but also how long it will take to produce it (based on takt time). Kanban is placed in the production smoothing box in the desired item sequence next to the product type. The employee then retrieves these Kanban cards and takes them to the pacemaker process - one at a time, according to the pitch.

1. 
   What process improvements will be needed to ensure that the value stream is aligned with the defined future state design requirements? It is quite difficult to directly see actions that do not create value, which are inevitable for various reasons now, but which need to be gotten rid of in the future (muda of the first kind), but they will be indirectly indicated by the large difference between the time of adding and not adding value. A picture of an explosion, indicating kaizen, is used to highlight areas where improvements to equipment and procedures will be required, such as reducing changeover time or reducing downtime. Such pictures show the way for further actions.

Step 7: Create a future state map
In lean manufacturing, you should try to organize work so that each process produces only what the next process needs, and when it needs it. We must try to connect all processes - from the final consumer to the raw materials - into a smooth flow that ensures order fulfillment in the shortest possible time, with highest quality and minimal costs.

Future state maps should reflect rules for creating lean manufacturing:

• 
  Organize flow according to takt time
• 
  Create a continuous flow wherever possible
• 
  When a continuous flow cannot be extended upstream, use "supermarkets" to control production
• 
  Try to inform the consumption schedule of as many as one production process
• 
  Align the production of different products
• 
  Level up production volume
• 
  Develop the ability to do “every part every day” (then every shift, every hour; or every package or pallet), executing processes upstream from the pacemaker process. In general, either batch volumes or FDCs are recorded in process parameter lists. KDK means “every detail every... (week/day/shift/hour/pitch/tact).” The FDC parameter shows how often the process is reconfigured to produce all variants of parts.

Article from the archives of the magazine "Logistic&System"

Vladimir Morskoy

Senior trainer-consultant at CBSD

Build a house without compiling architectural project and without drawing up the drawings, it is impossible. It is also impossible to change production processes in accordance with the Lean Production ideology without a map of the current and future state of production

In one of the previous issues (see “Logistics & System” No. 7/July 2005) we already told you about production, which is based on a pull system. According to the ideology of Lean Production (“lean production”), revolutionary methods are more destructive than creative. All changes must be systematic, take place in small steps and in several stages. But before making any progress and changes, it is necessary to understand, understand and paint a complete picture of what is happening at the enterprise, since any clarifications and transformations should concern the entire production, and not its individual processes. In practice, as a rule, one has to deal with point improvements in individual processes (for example, welding, assembly, painting, etc.), which does not allow for a complete transformation and transformation of an enterprise or an individual product. Moreover, often innovative ideas and the desire to “optimize here” only lead to an imbalance in production, since some individual process or production area begins to work much better, and adjacent areas or processes simply cannot keep up with it.

Value

It can be defined as a product or service provided to a customer in right time at a reasonable price. The value chain is the sequence of all types of activities that are required to invent, develop, manufacture and maintain a particular product, from concept to launch, from order to delivery and from raw materials to the final product in the hands of the customer. Any customer is almost always willing to pay for those actions that will add value to the product (for example, machining, casting, painting, assembly, drawing up operating instructions, etc.), since ignoring them reduces the value of the product in the eyes of the client, and this is already fraught with losses.

First order losses

These are losses that are almost impossible to get rid of, because the performance of the entire enterprise depends on the selected process or technological operation (for example, calculation wages). From the customer's point of view, this process does not add value to the product, but its removal from the overall cycle will certainly lead to a complete shutdown of the enterprise. Such processes or operations cannot be eliminated, they can only be optimized.

Second order losses

This block includes losses, upon detection of which it is necessary to immediately take measures to eliminate them. You need to know your enemies by sight, so we will list them.

Overproduction. As a rule, this is a serious consequence and a consequence of the way of thinking of managers, who prioritize the fullest utilization of equipment and available personnel. As a result, all this leads to:

• premature consumption of raw materials and supplies;
• suboptimal use of labor;
• purchase of additional equipment;
• increasing the usable area;
• increase in the percentage of deductions (for example, property tax);
• increase in reserves;
• increase in transport and administrative costs.

Masaki Imai, in his book Gemba Kaizen, points out that overproduction is the worst type of waste, which gives a false sense of security, helps to hide all sorts of problems and “clouds” information that could help implement positive changes in production.

Excess inventory. Raw materials and supplies, finished products, spare parts for repairing equipment and premises stored in a warehouse do not add value to the product. But for the vast majority of enterprises operating in the post-Soviet space, inventories are a protection against the uncertainty of external factors (demand and supply cycle). Of course, there is another, different type of reserves that serves as protection against internal factors- mismanagement, unskilled balance of work, poor quality of products, excessive time for equipment changeover, insufficient exchange of information between departments, etc. And if the stock from external factors is almost impossible to “train” and regulate, then optimization of safety stocks is simply prescribed ( There are methods for calculating the optimal safety stock under conditions of uncertainty). And the factors influencing the amount of reserves must be fought tirelessly until they are completely eliminated.

Marriage. Obvious losses that drag on material and human resources. The Lean philosophy says that you should build a system in which any deviation from the norm will be immediately noticeable. Back in the 30s of the last century, Deming, working at AT&T and building the concept of “built-in” quality, wrote: “... the occurrence of defects during the process depends 95% on the quality of the process itself and only 5% on the human factor " The Toyota company came to the following conclusion: it is necessary to build the process in such a way that an employee, while performing an operation, cannot perform it incorrectly. This is not an easy task, and special multifunctional groups of specialists, consisting not only of engineers, but also of the workers themselves, are working on its solution. What they do is what the Japanese call poka yoke, or “fool protection.” Soviet Union the experience of the Toyota company was alien to the class, however, in the matter of not only felting, but also “protection from fools”, we still succeeded largely thanks to similar Japanese groups organized in the late 70s - early 80s at defense enterprises of the USSR . Currently, this practice is used in many Russian enterprises.

Another achievement of Toyota, which has been actively used in production for 50 years, is total control of product quality and preventing defective products from moving to the next section. Elimination of the defect is carried out at the place where it was detected on our own and with the help of special response teams (the same groups that develop “foolproofing”). Then the defect is analyzed, the causes of its occurrence are identified and measures are developed to prevent its recurrence. The most important thing in all this is responsibility for quality at all levels, from top to bottom, and this requires a complete change in the consciousness of the staff, the adoption of a philosophy of quality. This is exactly what is called TQM (Total Quality Management).

Unnecessary movements in the workplace. If an employee is searching the required document or goes to get a tool several meters from his workplace, this also does not add value to the product. The right way avoiding this is correct, that is rational organization work places.

Overprocessing. As surprising and pompous as this may sound, the basis of this type of loss is “banal” perfectionism, that is, the desire to make a product better than what the client ordered. For example, a production manager may override a customer's specification and set tighter tolerances on the machining of parts. And everything would be fine, but more precise processing increases the possibility of defects and requires another, usually expensive, tool, including for monitoring the operation, and more highly qualified performer. And after all, why pay more if the client asks for a completely specific product?! Quality assurance, like any production activity, has its cost. Exceeding a given cost is already a loss that inevitably arises from excessive processing. In addition, when analyzing production flows, operations are discovered that can be completely avoided without compromising the quality of the product.

Downtime(waiting time for products to arrive from the previous process). Faithful companions of imbalance between production areas, workplaces and workshops. But they can also arise due to equipment breakdowns and untimely supplies of raw materials. Efforts in this case should be directed toward maintaining balanced operation of the equipment and implementing preventive measures to prevent unscheduled equipment shutdown. The presence of highly productive equipment in certain areas of an enterprise is not always a good thing, since it is precisely this that most often leads to imbalance. Your production can be protected from downtime caused by suppliers by maintaining an optimized safety stock or switching to working with suppliers on a just-in-time basis.

Unnecessary transportation and movement. Without the word “redundant”, these operations are an essential part of the production process, however, from the point of view of the client, this part has nothing to do with the product value pie - the client does not care how far and in what ways the product moves. One of the key indicators of a value stream map is the length of the gate-to-gate flow - the shorter it is, the more obvious the reduction in total production time, inventory, floor space and losses from damage due to transportation.

Loss of creativity among employees. A very serious type of loss affecting general position companies. If a person does not care what he does, then one should not expect responsibility for the result from him, not to mention responsibility for the quality of the work he does.

So it turns out that if the pipe is filled to its full capacity at the inlet, then, having passed through a series of losses, the flow at the outlet is reduced by more than half (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Value chain

Value Map

To help identify steps and activities that do not add value, and to objectively depict the state of production processes, a map of the current state of production (see Figure 2) can help. The graphic image will allow you to critically evaluate the growth of value at each stage and identify those activities that do not bring value to the product. This is an important tool that allows you to:

• see not only a single action (for example, welding, assembly or painting), but the entire flow of manufacturing a product as a whole;
• detect not only losses, but also their sources in the value stream;
• make decisions related to flow clear and accessible for discussion, otherwise decisions and actions on the shop floor will be carried out in the same way as before, that is, not at all or somehow;
• show the connection between information and material flows (no other tool can do this).

Figure 2. Value creation process

Being in fact a drawing, the basis for the implementation of lean production, the map helps to plan the movement of the entire flow - it is this fact that is very often overlooked, dooming attempts to implement Lean Production to failure. A map is much more useful than many quantitative tools and charts that simply count non-value-added steps, lead times, product travel distances, inventory levels, etc. - it is a qualitative tool that details how work needs to be organized workshop and a separate section so that there is a continuous flow.

Creating a continuous flow is a long-term and, as a rule, expensive project, because it requires not only effort and human resources, but also financial investments in new equipment. And taking into account the fact that even moving equipment in workshops requires time and material costs, you can forget about low costs and stinginess. Therefore, it may take more than one year to eliminate losses in any one production area. And before launching a project of this magnitude, you need to determine why this project should be successful and what can be achieved as a result of the changes. The starting point should be the current state map.

Value stream map

Creating a value stream map is one of the most important tools for building a Lean organization. This process is divided into two stages.

Building a map of the current state:

• analysis of existing processes in the value stream
• identifying sources of losses.

Building a map of the future state (what we want to get):

• creating a plan to eliminate sources of losses;
• appointment of a project manager to implement changes in this stream;
• definition key indicators project implementation work;
• determining the timing of the project.

A value stream map is like a photograph of what is happening in an enterprise in reality, and not in our imagination. Often, when constructing a map of the current state, very gross violations technology, and the execution time of certain operations differs significantly from that described in the documents (technical process). The flow map allows you to see the entire flow as a whole from a bird's eye view.

Data recorded when constructing a flow map:

• name of equipment or process;
• execution time of an operation or process (actual time, not the time specified in the currently existing documentation);
• equipment reliability (equipment operating time without breakdowns,%);
• the number of operators or employees performing a particular operation or servicing a process;
• availability of stocks in the warehouse of raw materials for a given flow (in days), quantity of finished products (in days), quantity of inter-operational and inter-shop stocks of unfinished products in a given flow (in days);
• the procedure and timing of placing orders with suppliers for this flow;
• shipping procedure and terms for generating orders from customers for this type products or groups of products;
• Takt time is the time during which a unit of product must be manufactured. Calculated based on the client’s needs (per day or per shift). Example: the total time of a working day or shift, divided by the number of finished products that must be shipped to the customer during the same period;
• cycle time, that is, the time it takes to complete one operation (must be less than or equal to the takt time);
• the procedure for planning production at the enterprise, as well as the level of detail of these plans and the procedure for passing these documents.

The main objective of this work is to evaluate the flow efficiency. Flow efficiency is calculated as the total time of operations that add value to the product from the customer's point of view, divided by the total time the product passes through the entire flow and multiplied by 100%. At Russian enterprises, this figure is less than 2%, so there is still a lot of work to be done.

The current state map is perhaps the most effective tool to analyze the work of any enterprise, including the service sector, banking, healthcare, and even more so production. It clearly allows you to see the main sources of losses and develop a plan to eliminate them or significantly reduce them.

Information about the company

As an example, take TWI Industries, which manufactures a range of tractor components. We will consider only one group of products - steering levers (rods), produced in various configurations. The customers of this family of products are both tractor manufacturers and various repair organizations.

Due to the variety of configurations, customer requirements vary from order to order. The production cycle for completing an order takes 27 days. The length of production and work in progress on orders already received force the company to announce a lead time of 60 days. But the company's customers cannot accurately indicate the amount of demand earlier than two weeks before the shipment of the order. Constant adjustments lead to the fact that all orders entering the shops are always urgent. The production control department transmits customer orders in the sequence in which they arrive, but in the workshops they are grouped into batches in accordance with the configuration of parts in order to reduce, if possible, the time for equipment changeover, which also leads to haste and emergency situations.

Product Information

The steering arm is a metal rod with stamped ends welded on each side. The company produces steering arms in different sizes, two diameters, with three types of tips (there can be different tips on each side of the steering arm). Thus, the company produces 240 variants of steering arms. Steel rods for production are supplied by Michigan Steel Co. (production time is 16 weeks, shipping is made 23 times a month). The tip blanks come from Indiana Castings (production time is 12 weeks, shipping is twice a month).

So, the clients’ requirements boil down to the following: they want to receive 24 thousand pieces of goods per month, but the minimum order quantity must be extremely low - from 25 to 200 pieces, on average - 50 pieces, and the finished products must be packaged in boxes made of corrugated cardboard, five steering arms per box and delivered several times a day by truck. In turn, TWI, taking into account the frequent change in customer wishes, requires them to place orders 560 days before the date of shipment of finished products. However, this does not prevent customers from adjusting the order quantity two weeks before the shipping date.

Production processes

TWI's steering arm manufacturing processes include cutting the metal bar, welding on the end caps, deburring (cleaning up the weld marks on the wall), painting by an external subcontractor and assembling the end caps. Forged ferrule bushings are also produced by TWI. Finished steering arms are assembled into kits and shipped to customers daily.

Changing the lever length requires a 15-minute changeover of equipment for cutting, welding and stripping operations. Changing the diameter of the rod requires an hour of equipment changeover, which is largely due to the criterion of quality control. Changing between the three types of forged tips requires a two-hour changeover in the machine stamping operation.

Work time

20 days a month. All production units work in two shifts, the duration of which is eight hours and, if necessary, overtime is provided. Each shift has two 15-minute breaks during which manual processing is not performed. Lunch time is not paid.

Production control department

The control department receives customer orders within 60 days, prepares a work order for each customer and transfers them to production. Places orders with suppliers for rods and tips six weeks prior to expected receipt of order. Communicates a list of priorities daily to production managers, who sequence the execution of manufacturing orders in accordance with this list. Two weeks before shipment, the department receives clarifications from customers on order volumes and indicates the need to expedite the execution of these orders. The delivery schedule is issued to the finished products shipment department daily.

Process and Operation Information

The “cutting” operation is performed manually by one operator with a special saw (for various TWI products). Cycle time – 15 seconds. Changeover time is 15 minutes when measuring length and an hour when measuring diameter. Reliability – 100%. Observed inventories are 20 days before slicing, five days after slicing.

Operation "Welding I". The first processed tip is welded to the rod. The process is carried out automatically, with the operator performing external loading and unloading. Cycle time: operator – 10 seconds, machine – 30 seconds. Changeover time is 15 minutes when changing length and an hour when changing diameter. Reliability – 90%. Observed inventories are for three days after the transaction.

Operation "welding II". A second processed tip is welded to the rod. The process is performed automatically. All indicators coincide with those of the “welding I” operation, with the exception of reliability – it is slightly lower and equal to 80%.

Deburring operation. The process is performed automatically. The operator performs external loading and unloading. Cycle time: operator – 10 seconds, machine – 30 seconds. Changeover time is 15 minutes when changing length and an hour when changing diameter. Reliability – 100%. Observed inventory is for five days after deburring.

Operation "painting" produced by an external subcontractor. Painting time is two days. Every day a truck delivers unpainted levers and brings back painted ones. Inventory observed is two days' worth at the subcontractor's and six days' worth after painting.

Operation "assembly". The process is performed manually by six operators. The total time per unit of production is 195 seconds. Changeover time is 10 minutes when changing the type of tip. Reliability – 100%. Observed inventory is four days' worth in the finished goods warehouse.

Operation “mechanical processing of tips”. The process is performed automatically by one operator. Cycle time – 30 seconds. Changeover time is two hours. Reliability – 100%. Observed inventories - 20 days before treatment, four days after treatment.

Operation "shipping department". Picks up finished products from the warehouse and completes orders for delivery to the customer.

So, the data has been collected. Using this data, we draw up a map of the current state (see Appendix 1).

Future State Map

The goal of a lean manufacturing system is to create a sequence of unit operations: done - pass on. The graphically displayed state of production then needs to be analyzed and steps to change the process must be developed, always coordinating them with the company’s strategy. How important this is is clear from the example of Parker fountain pens. This is an elite product, expensive, and a gift. One of the managers decided to seriously increase production so that Parker was present in all office supply stores. As a result, the pens stopped selling altogether, since they were positioned as an elite, not everyday product, and the company's image was seriously damaged.

On the map of the current state, we highlight areas where losses can already be reduced. Where this is impossible to do, we install supermarkets - warehouses with strictly regulated stock. Then we draw up an action plan, assign responsibility and set deadlines.

Everything must be specific. For example, if we decide to start building a flow at any production site, where possible, then each action in this direction should be regulated in time, defined and allocated necessary funds, a person responsible for this action has been assigned.

So, TWI's shops are inundated with orders that were being put into production too quickly. They were shuffled and reshuffled to optimize equipment changeovers and fulfill the most urgent customer orders. Since the first welding operation takes only 30 minutes per batch, and then it is processed FIFO through to shipment, the lead time for a customer order can be reduced by three days. Changeover times for welding and deburring operations need to be reduced to five minutes or less so that different steering arm configurations can be produced closer to customer order sequence.

Customer requirements for tractor steering arm configurations vary and replenishment times are long, so it is not practical to stock ready-made arms like a supermarket at the very end of the value chain. It is necessary to schedule work from the bottom up the chain up to the first operation where the difference in configuration appears (in this case, the first weld), and then use the FIFO principle. At this scheduling point, by wasting 30 minutes in 30-minute scheduling increments, overproduction and “pushing” through the FIFO stream can be avoided.

Figure 5. Symbols for appendices 1 and 2

The company can develop a continuous flow between welding and deburring operations. One operator will service these processes, load and transfer parts from one automatic machine another. TWI will need to arrange weld/stripping cycle times faster than the 45 second takt time - to approximately 39 seconds - to allow for 12 relays per shift. Since retooling is not required when assembling finished products, the cycle can be close to the takt time, which will allow assembly to be carried out by five operators.

In this case, the 30-minute step duration is based on the average order quantity being 50 units and five minutes of changeover time between orders for welding/grinding. With a customer order volume of 600 units per shift and a cycle time of 39 seconds, there is an hour left for 12 changeovers between batches. To organize the step, the production management department will consolidate small orders and break large orders into batches of 50 units. The production control department must also balance the product mix to reduce supermarket-type inventory in the upstream cutting and stamping operations. Thus, TWI will not fulfill orders in the order in which they are received, but very close to it.

Based on the comments made, TWI customers can place their orders two weeks in advance. Making cut rods and stamping tips can operate a supermarket-style pulling system. Likewise, uncut rods and tip blanks can be ordered as they are used up and raw materials are stocked, supermarket-style. This eliminates the need for production control, where customer orders would trigger immediate orders of raw materials from suppliers. Taking into account the analysis done, changes on the future state map can be reflected as shown in Appendix 2.

The map shows how much inter-operational inventories, information flows, jobs, time to fulfill orders have been reduced, and at the same time productivity has increased

Seminar - training Mapping value streams (hereinafter - Training) allows you to learn:

• quickly, simply and clearly depict the status of current
  enterprise processes, material and information flows
• evaluate basic process parameters
• identify and analyze existing hidden losses in the system
• identify and analyze system limitations (“bottlenecks”)
• develop a value stream map of the future (target) state of the system
• determine the types of Lean manufacturing tools,
  necessary to achieve a particular goal(s)

The training is conducted in a practical OJT (On the Job Training) format. The essence of this format is learning while doing real work.

During the preparation for the Training, the actual process of the customer's company is determined, which requires any improvements. The boundaries of the process, goals and indicators for increasing its efficiency are determined. On the example of working with this process, the main practical training on mapping value streams during the Training will be built.

An important part of preparing for the value stream mapping process is setting process improvement goals. If the goals of process improvement are set clearly and specifically, have measurable indicators of the current and future (target) state of the process, then this significantly increases the efficiency of mapping, since, in fact, the main goal of mapping value streams is to build such a map of the future state value stream, which would allow achieving the established goals. Properly set goals allow mapping participants to focus on the right aspects of the process and the system in which this process is included.

In this regard, after becoming familiar with the mapping methodology, before starting to build a map of the current state of the selected process, the training participants, together with the trainer, clarify and agree in the group on the goals for its improvement.

After this, the Charter is created educational project, which describes the current symptoms of problems or existing opportunities in the process, goals and measurable indicators for process improvement, boundaries and others important parameters project.

During this work, 2 main tasks are solved in parallel:
1) a process model of the system is built;

2) in accordance with the specified process improvement goals, existing and possible losses in the system are recorded. They are marked on the map with “red hedgehogs”.

After building a map of the current state of the flow, an analysis of the root causes of the detected problems is carried out (Root Cause Analisys, RCA). Depending on the goals set and the current situation, they are used various instruments RCA. Ishikawa diagram, Pareto diagram, Spaghetti diagram, cyclogram, performance analysis, bottleneck analysis, time trap analysis, “5 Why?”, Shewhart charts, functional - cost analysis and etc.

After identifying, assessing and structuring the root causes of problems, participants move on to finding and developing solutions.

When solving detected problems, participants receive practical experience applying some of the following Lean Manufacturing tools:

• Takt time
• Embedding Quality (Jidoka)
• Error Protection (Poka-Yoke)
• Visual Management
• Zoning
• Flow equalization (Heijunka)
• Pull System
• Supermarkets
• Quick changeover system (SMED)
• Universal productive service equipment (TPM)
• Andon Dashboard & Ligths
• Autonomous teams
• Cell method

Taking into account the use of some of the above tools, a value stream map of the future (target) state of the process is constructed.

Based on this map and the developed draft solutions, a list of activities is created to achieve the target state of the process and a plan for implementing improvements is created.

There is one optimization technique in the Lean production system that I really like, and which I now want to introduce you to. It's called Value stream mapping, which doesn't translate well into Russian. The best official translation I have found is Value Stream Map, although mapping is not a map in this context, but rather a “mapping”.

But this is not the point; in the future I will call this method VSM (from Value stream mapping) for brevity.

VSM is a technique that was originally invented in Toyota's Lean system to analyze the flow of materials and information. Toyota used this method to maximize the speed of the product creation process from the moment something is requested to the moment it is delivered to the consumer.

Like almost everything else from Toyota's Lean manufacturing, VSM has taken root in other industries, including the software development industry. In fact, VSM can be used to optimize any process and can be used anywhere from programming to waste management.

The basic idea of ​​VSM is very simple. You need to highlight the final product you create. And also the first step you take to create a product. After that, you draw a diagram of how you move from the first activity to the creation of the final product. The squares in such a diagram are stages or events, and the lines between them are the connections between the stages.

Each stage takes some time, but the transfer of data or materials between stages also takes time, so you need to note the time spent on both stages and transitions. After such a diagram is drawn, this is the finished Value stream mapping. It will immediately show where you are wasting time in the process of creating a product and how much time you spend working and how much time waiting. The main goal of creating VSM is to minimize latency during the development process. This can be done quite simply by analyzing the resulting VSM circuit.

It’s difficult to describe this in words, but it’s easy to understand with an example, so I’ll write an example from life.

We once talked with one Agile consultant and he told a story, after which I fell in love with VSM and began to use them. And this is what he said.

Once a company engaged in the development of small computer games, invited him to implement Agile development methods in their company. The company needed this in order to bring games to the market faster, since, although they made a lot of games, they were always late for the market, releasing games after their competitors.

This consultant actively got down to business, introduced Agile in the development department, taught programmers and testers to work faster and better, introduced automated testing, and so on.

It took a lot of time, effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but what happened in the end?

As a result, he was able to speed up the development of games by this company by a third and On average, a game spent in development now from 3 months, but 2. Just an amazing achievement, right?

But no. The company still lagged behind the competition, because more than a year passed from the moment of inventing the concept of the game to its release!

Only then did the consultant realize that he had optimized something completely wrong.

He took a piece of paper and drew a VSM for the initial situation. It turned out that when someone generated an idea new game in this company, then it ended up in the repository of ideas (wiki or network folder, it doesn’t matter). A person spent an average of 1 day writing and developing an idea.

Once every 3 months, a special committee met, which spent the whole day discussing the ideas from the repository, rejecting the most unviable and choosing those that might work. There were many ideas, and the main people in the company discussed them, so this was done infrequently and for a long time.

The selected ideas were then marked as good and passed on to the business planning department. The queue of ideas in that department was long, they were reluctant to reject applications and were engaged in other things in parallel. They had little time pressure, so ideas waited an average of 3 months for evaluation. When an idea got to the business department, the department dealt with it on average in 4 days and could reject the idea or recognize it as profitable and expedient.

The ideas approved by the business department then went to the game's pre-production department, which prepared the graphics design and developed the full script for the game. This department also did several pre-productions at the same time and also had several approved ideas in the queue. So it took about a month to develop the design, and about 2 months to wait.

Finally, after the design and script of the game were ready, it went to the development department itself, whose work was optimized by this consultant. In this department, the game was made according to the finished script for 3 months before his arrival. He managed to reduce this period to 2 months. But at the same time, the department was developing several games at the same time, so on average, a designed game spent another 2 months waiting for it to begin development.

Finally, the developed game went to the release department, which prepared it for release and released it within a few days.

What problems can we see from this VSM?

We see that from the moment the idea was conceived to the delivery of the finished product (game) to the client, it took about 14 months. At the same time, the real work was completed in 4 months and 6 days, and the rest of the time was waiting.

As a result, the company always lagged behind its competitors, who released games faster and caught market conditions better.

And the consultant realized that he had spent a lot of time and money and reduced this period by only a month!

He was responsible enough to come with this paper to the director of the company, explain to him about VSM and show that they were wrong from the very beginning.

The director wasn't stupid, so right there they sketched out a new VSM that would allow them to get games to market 8 months faster!

What has been optimized in the new process?

The main thing that was decided was to have as few projects as possible in simultaneous development. And due to this, reduce the time for developing new projects.

It was decided not to accumulate ideas in storage for a long time, but to meet every 2 weeks and discuss them. In the end it will be necessary to discuss fewer ideas, it will take less time and the output will be fewer approved ideas (1-2). This means that the very next day the business feasibility study department can start working with this idea. Since this department does not have to work on several ideas in parallel, its work also speeds up. We also did the business development of new games ourselves priority in this department, so that other matters did not distract them from this.

The further process was considered already well optimized with the help of Agile implementation and was left unchanged (only the delays decreased, because fewer games was in the execution queue).

As a result, this process allowed us to reduce the time for game development to 6 months. The actual work took no longer 4 months, but a little more than three (the Agile consultant didn’t eat his bread in vain).

It would seem that they could stop there, but a few days later they came up with an even better idea.

As can be seen from the new VSM, they decided not to accumulate anything anywhere at all (after all, inventory is waste in Lean production). They met every week to discuss new ideas and did not have more than 4-5 games in development at the same time. They also combined the design and development department and divided the people into 3 teams. Each team had designers, artists, testers and programmers - all necessary people to develop and create a game (this is the so-called development method with feature teams).

This allowed us to reduce the time spent on game design and development from 4 months to 2.5! And the entire chain from submitting an idea to releasing a new game now took about 3.5 months!

At the same time, there is no magic here - the number of games released by the company over the year has grown slightly. If earlier the development department made 4-5 games at a time, now it created only 3 games at a time, but 2 times faster. And the main thing that the company gained from the change was not the number of games released per year, but the ability to release new games much faster, the ability to quickly respond to market changes.

And this is the whole idea of ​​Lean - throughput the system may remain the same, but the speed of reaction to changes must constantly increase - this is the only way to work in a rapidly changing market.

The example I discussed in this article relates more to the management side of the development process. But the same thing can be done in the daily work of any specialist - from programmers to artists.

All you need to know is the chain from the first action to the final result. Well, you will also need a strong desire to remove delays and expectations from your work.

For example, a programmer can optimize the time from a change in code to receiving a finished installer with a product containing this change. Or even before receiving an installer that has passed all the tests in test automation, if you have one.

Or the programmer can constantly think and optimize the time from receiving a User Story (task) to receiving a version of the finished product with this feature.

A freelance artist can optimize the time from receiving a task from a customer to receiving money for the work completed.

It’s a pity that VSM is mainly used by managers and sometimes managers, but is undeservedly ignored by technical specialists - I tried to fill this gap with this article.