International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.

01, Issue 02, pp 28-35

Development of VSM Implementation Procedure for

Prefabrication Shop through Case Study Approach
Saurabh Kerhalkar# K.N.Nandurkar#
Saurabh.kerhalkar@gmail.com
keshav_1965@gmail.com

Abstract—VSM is considered as a scientific tool of Lean  Value stream mapping

Manufacturing to have a complete understanding of  Just in time
processes involved in manufacturing stages to identify and
 Cellular manufacturing
eliminate non value added parameters called as ‘wastes’.
Value stream is the combination of all actions both value  Kanbans
added and non-value added required for conversion of raw  Total preventive maintenance
material into its final product stage and Value Stream  Total quality management
Mapping is the process of mapping all components and  Kaizen
subassemblies in Value Stream .This paper describes the use  5S
of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) at preparatory stage for
 Set up time reduction, Etc.
make to order products in a process equipment
manufacturing and turn key project industry which mainly
include fabrication of heat exchangers, pressure storage
No Type of Waste Description
tanks, condensers, distillation and evaporator columns along
with the fabrication of pipelines ,tubular structures and other
Employee standing
fabricated steel structures. Preparatory shop is a backbone of 1 Waiting Time
prefabrication unit in fabrication shop which plays a vital role about
in delivering the material in required cut profile and sizes to Producing Items before
in-house as well as outsourced fabricator. Value stream 2 Overproduction
needed
mapping for prefabrication shop is done by using case study
approach and further the actual case study is used to Making incorrect
3 Repair defect
generalize the VSM implementation procedure for product
prefabrication. Any wasted motion
Movement
4 by
Key Words: Value stream mapping, present state map, future Unnecessary
man / machine
state map, prefabrication, case study approach
Using more steps to
5 Processing More produce
product than necessary
Retaining unnecessary
I. INTRODUCTION Inventory Non-
6 inventory
The concept of Lean Manufacturing is a result of Productive
between process steps
cutting edge competition in the manufacturing field. Lean Moving material
is an indication to considerable major outputs from least Transport
7 Unnecessary or long
inputs. Also it focus on the market fact that to increase Unnecessary
distances
benefit a manufacturing firm cannot just decide increasing
selling price ,definitely firm has to work on reducing Table.1: Seven wastes in Lean Manufacturing
manufacturing cost at prime importance due to market
competition. Lean Manufacturing is a need of manufacturer II. HISTORY OF LEAN MANUFACTURING
as a scientific technique of continual improvement and To help increase company profits U.S. manufacturing
survival into market. Lean Manufacturing technique uses companies have always searched for efficient strategies
several scientific tools and implementation methodologies that will help improve their output, reduce costs and
depending on the manufacturing environment and establish a competitive position to increase their market
suitability of type of tool to that environment. Lean share. Early attempts can be traced to Eli Whitney and
manufacturing mainly deals in identifying and eliminating Henry Ford.
the losses mainly termed as “wastes” to minimise non Japanese manufacturers re-building after the
value added time and improving value added time in World War 2 had a difficult time. For one, they had a
manufacturing process cycle. limited amount of people, a limited amount of raw material
The seven wastes stated according to Lean and money. These problems, born out of necessity led to
Manufacturing are mentioned in Table.1 some of the Lean the development of lean manufacturing practices, which
Manufacturing tools are listed as follows: they called on just in time manufacturing.

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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35
Japanese manufacturing leaders like the Toyota
Motor Company's Eiji Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno, and Shingeo
Shingo developed a smart disciplined and process focused
production system now known as the Toyota Production
System (TPS), or lean production. Which incorporated The
Ford production, Statistical Process Control and other
techniques into a system that minimized the expenditure of
resources that added no value to the product?
In 1990 James Womack wrote a book called
"The Machine That Changed the World". Womack's book
was a straightforward account of the history of automobile
manufacturing combined with a study of Japanese,
American, and European automotive assembly plants. The
"lean manufacturing" theory was made popular in
American factories in large part by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology study of the
process from mass production toward production as written
and described in Womack's book. A new phrase was
coined, as to which is now commonly referred to as "Lean
Manufacturing”. To implement the lean manufacturing
various tools are used like, Just in Time (JIT), TPM,
Cellular manufacturing, TQM, SMED, Value stream
mapping etc.
III. VALUE STREAM MAPPING
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is basically a pencil
paper tool but nowadays few ready drawing templates or
special softwares are also used to draw it. It is a drafted
representation which gives an idea of entire process flow of
product right from its raw material stage to final dispatch
state. It also helps to map the material and information flow
throughout the process. The map uses various symbols for
interpretation of process and product state. Value Stream
Mapping steps are given as follows:
 Framing current state map (CVSM)
 Analysing the process for improvement
 Application of improvement Lean tools
 Future State Map (FVSM)
IV. COMPANY AND PROCESS BACKGROUND
The study was conducted at one of the fabrication plant of
ABC Industries Limited which is a leading project and
service industry in Bio- fuel and Green-fuel sector.
Company deals in delivering the sugar factory, distillery,
brewery and bio-fuel plants right from concept to
commissioning level to its clients across 52 countries. The
company has world class design, testing, research and
development facilities for continual improvement of both
chemical processes and manufacturing of plant structures,
pipelines and process equipments. Manufacturing of
process equipment mainly includes cutting of plates and
coils in profiles, rolling, bending and pressing of cut shapes,
machining flanges, tube sheet and baffles and finally
welding of all these parts. The specific implementation of
VSM was conducted in preparatory shop (prefabrication)
Copyright 2012 ijarset.org
of mentioned plant and improvements in current map were
achieved through use of Kaizen.
As some of the information is confidential, name of the
company is kept confidential and hence said as ABC.
A. Prefabrication /Preparatory Shop
Preparatory shop serves as prefabrication shop which
gives assistance and support to central production planning
of fabrication. It avails secondary storage of plates, coils
and off cuts and delivers scrap back to stores with proper
material storage, retrieval and record. Preparatory shop
deals in cutting of coils and plates and delivering for
fabrication and simultaneous posting of cut part weight
against the particular job code and project code. Cut parts
mainly include dish end blanks, reinforcement pads, nozzle
openings, shell layout, shell segment, pipe shell segment,
flange blocks, tubesheet blocks, baffle plates, leg supports,
trunnion pads, base plates, structure plates, tray segments,
stiffener rings.
B. Objectives of improvement at preparatory shop
 Reduction in plate cutting cycle times
 Better material handling
 Better use of floor space for storage
 Timely delivery of cut parts to fabrication
shops
V. CURRENT STATE MAP FOR PREPARATORY SHOP
All data for the current state map were collected
according to the approach recommended by Rother and
Shook, 2009. Data collection for the material flow started
at the stores department, and worked forward all the way to
the dispatch point to fabrication shops for further
fabrication and to stores for outside vendor fabrication,
gathering snapshot data such as inventory levels before
each process, process cycle times (CT), number of workers,
and Lead time(Time),Set up time(ST),Lost time (LT)
however the set up time was included in lead times itself
Fig. 1 shows the current state map that was constructed; the
small boxes in the map represent the process and the
number inside the box is the number of workers at each
process. Also, each process has a data box below, which
contains the process CT, the number of shifts taken into
account was in hourly basis of total cycle time. It should be
noted that this data was collected whilst walking the shop
floor and talking to the foreman and operators at each
workstation. The processing and set-up times are all based
on the average of historical data. After collecting all the
information and material flows, they are connected as
indicated by arrows in the map, representing how each
workstation receives its schedule from business planning.
The process starts with the material supply and
monitored completely by fabrication and preparatory
planning. The next step is of preparing nesting for CNC
plasma cutting machine, it includes feeding of plate sizes
and profile drawings with simulation for cutting. Further
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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35
the off cuts are retrieved as per the profiles and material, if
the off cut of required size and MOC is retrieved then the
full plate is saved but at the same time it has to be
identified with the old stamp transfer in case of original
plate markings missing by manufacturer. Further the off cut
or plate is approved by QC check and later the actual
profile cutting starts, after completion of cutting the
identification marks are punched on the parts on the CNC
bed itself for an evidence of actual cutting for QC and
external QC inspector. After this process the parts are
segregated as per job code and vendor code and further sent
to vendor for fabrication, off cuts are retained and the scrap
from cut plates is returned to store. All activities are
recorded in SAP with plate weight and cut profile weight
from nesting records.
The time line expected is with the 2 full plate
cutting with the cycle time of delivering cut parts to
fabricator with a time of 36 Hrs and the shift considered are
3 shifts. The study was conducted on the Tray stiffener ring
(TSR) cutting from the 20mm thick SA240type304L plate
of standard size 1500 X 6000 x 20 thk, CNC bed occupies
2 plates at the same time and 2 plates are considered as 1
lot for TSR category. Fig. 1 shows the framed current state
map for the described process with total cycle time of 36
hrs and actual processing time of 17.5 hrs.
VI. FUTURE STATE MAP FOR PREPARATORY SHOP
Figure 1: Preparatory shop Current State Map
Copyright 2012 ijarset.org
The future state map was created by suggesting the
kaizen improvements in the current state map with same
process flow as earlier in the current state map also the
Table 2 gives the interim recommendations suggested in
the current state map, the only process change included
was the deciding new location for the off cut storage as the
OC01, also its location was customized in the SAP MM
module for entry purpose and record purpose.
Further various lean tools were also applied at future state
map such as Kanbans were implemented for daily
consumables required for CNC machine and the MRP was
made even more effective for the material issue. Quick pick
up of the cut parts from preparatory premises, it helped in
maintaining the free floor space and isolation of process
from other tasks of material delivery. Deciding the new
location for off cut storage resulted in extra space inside
shop for material movement by handling equipments such
as forklift and mobile trucks. Symbols include Kaizen burst
symbol with shaggy burst sign, circular arrow indicates
pull system and the triple rectangular block is the sign for
supermarket here considered as new off cut storage area
and cut part storage area. Also numerous benefits were
achieved from value stream mapping improvement such as
space saving better housekeeping, better storage area, clear
process flow and the involvement of labor at all levels of
improvement. The cycle time and value added time
changes achieved in the future state maps are compared in
Table 3.
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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35

FVSM
Type of waste CVSM Cause Effect (recommendations
and Kaizen changes)

Unnecessary Movement of worker Layout, location and Leads to labor Proper tracks defined ,developed
human motion between processes procedural issues fatigue and Kaizen layouts and standard
less efficiency procedures (SOP) developed

Conveyance Using material Layout, location and Lesser value Vertical racks, proper allotment of
of material handling logistics added time cranes and pallets developed,
equipments fabricator involved in planning of
material pick up from shop

Over- Excess quantity of Wrong prediction of Storage Just In Time methodology used
production same demand and problems from contractors order point of
cut parts forecasted scheduling ,planning view
for rework inefficiency

Inventory Shop floor work in Flexibility in job Excess storage, Just In Time methodology used
process priorities, fabrication less floor space, from contractors order point of
inventory with extra planning, design inefficient shop view and Kanbans for daily
stock changes consumable items

Over processing Information flow Too much data Time Only SAP entries and material
entry ,record consuming issue and return formats developed
keeping, approval delivery even
procedures, the parts are
physically cut

Rework Only found in False punching, QC Storage , Training given to operator for job
tagging and stamp transfers retrieval and coding and material identification
number punching, identification and stamp transfer
QC stamp problems

Space Issue to be taken at Excess ordering, Material Vacant area available outside shop
priority advance planning, storage and allotted as off cut storage area
improper shelving, retrieval (OC01) which gave open space for
Flexible material problems, material handling inside shop. Also
flow problem in vertical racks and trailers provided
material for off cut storage.
handling
Waiting Between processes Waiting for QC Reduction of Alternate nesting options ,
and approval, third party shop efficiency calculation and study of QC plan,
handling equipment inspector, drawing and delay in Improvement of master plan
and corrections, nesting cutting and ,scheduling and BOM entries
material retrieval time delay. delivery

Table.2: Identification of wastes and elimination by kaizen recommendations

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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35

Figure 2: Preparatory shop Future State Map

VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Parameter Current Future % Improvement
State Map State Map
(CVSM) (FVSM)

Inventory cut
per day(Tones) 2.3 2.9 25

Free floor space

(meter square) 530/1380 760/1380 15
shop area=1380

Value added time

(VAT)Hrs 17.5 16.5

Lost time
Hrs 18.5 12

Total cycle time

(CT)Hrs 36 28.5

VAT/Cycle time
(%) 48 58 10

Table.3: Results and improvement from VSM and Kaizen

Table 3 gives an interpretation of values for cutting of floor space, reduction in process cycle times after
plates for stiffener rings both for current state map and identification and removal of wastes with respect to value
future state map and the percentage improvement gain in added times separately for current and future state maps.
daily cutting inventory also the increase in available free The shop floor area has increased due to creation of new

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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35
off cut storage area while the increase in inventory cut per
day is a result of reduction in cycle time.
Value Stream mapping appears to be successful with
10% increase in Value Added Time after Kaizen
implementation for improvement in current state map. Also
interim recommendations play an important role in
bringing improvement at as is conditions of prefabrication
shop. However cycle time reduction and increase in value
added times along with increased floor space area, faster
off cut identification and retrieval are significant
achievement from this. Also the timely delivery of cut parts
has improved and even more be improved with success in
kaizen audits in future. Process mapping with lean tools
has resulted in smoother and better functioning of
prefabrication shop during this study.
VIII. CASE STUDY APPROACH
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual
unit (e.g., a person, group, or event) stressing
developmental factors in relation to context. The case study
is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case
studies may be descriptive or explanatory. Case study
approach is considered to be an important tool in research
and development methodologies.
As the Lean implementation projects have to deal with
enormous flexibilities of resources, product demands and
available manufacturing capacities and infrastructure as
well as time limits bound with management interest. Also
many times the benefits from lean manufacturing tools in
Value mapping and value improvement cannot be
quantified in accurate ratio of value added time. As cases
of Lean implementation is different from each other in
several aspects even being same in product ranges and
business aspects. Hence case study approach is found
beneficial in developing and implementing VSM for
prefabrication shop. Case study method has helped in
finding similar bottlenecks and remedy for their
improvement in referred case studies. Also case study
helped in studying basics of VSM and implemented
procedures and benefits achieved.
A. Case study in relation to this paper
The said company in this paper is well interested in
continual improvement program and have achieved
improvement in productivity through various LM tools
such as 5S , Kaizen, etc. in several stages. The task was to
correlate this stages and benefits achieved in terms of VSM
and hence the case study approach was used. The results
achieved in FVSM were found similar as of the Kaizen
improvements. Therefore we can use the actual case study
in generalization of the VSM implementation for
prefabrication shops. However it may not be the accurate
procedure to follow which with as each case may have
different operating parameters and demands but the
developed points may become helpful and trustworthy in
Copyright 2012 ijarset.org
determining rough requirements and brief idea of steps and
stages for VSM implementation at prefabrication.
B. Facts about case study approach
Bent Flyvbjerg has wonderfully explained the
importance of case study approach, misconception and
their correction in five points which are stated as follows:
1) Predictive theories and universals cannot be found in the
study of human affairs. Concrete, context-dependent
knowledge is, therefore, more valuable than the vain search
for predictive theories and universals.
2) One can often generalize on the basis of a single case,
and the case study may be central to scientific development
via generalization
3) The case study is useful for both generating and testing
of hypotheses but is not limited to these research activities
alone.
4) The case study contains no greater bias toward
verification of the researcher’s preconceived notions than
other methods of inquiry. On the contrary, experience
indicates that the case study contains a greater bias toward
falsification of preconceived notions than toward
verification.
5) It is correct that summarizing case studies is often
difficult, especially as concerns case process. It must be
again emphasized that despite the difficulty or
undesirability in summarizing case studies, the case study
method in general can certainly contribute to the
cumulative development of knowledge.
C. Steps used in case study approach
1) Selection of cases
2) Generation of doubts ,queries and questionnaire to
study particular topic
3) Finding answers of the questionnaire
4) Comparison of achieved information and finding the
best way suggested from all cases.
5) Comparison of available resources and benefits
achieved
6) Study of interim recommendations for
improvements
7) Study of existing case and utilization of key points
of improvements from prior case study
8) Compilation of improvement points from case study
and newly invented ideas.
9) Development of procedure from case study and
actual existing case
D. Case studies used
The case studies used are mainly of research paper types
which are mentioned in the reference section of this paper.
Also some of the implementation reports were studied
along with the industrial presentations. Some of the experts
and consultants were also asked for their views.
Table 4 gives the detailed description of cases used some
of them are not mentioned in reference as they are
confidential live case studies.
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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35

Sr. Type of Description of Key information

Subtype
No. case study case study achieved

Information VSM at Estonian Engineering Measures & comparison

1 Deviant case
oriented Industry of CVSM & FVSM
Lean principles in construction Processing times &
2 Random Stratified
equipment company lean implementation
Information Advantages &
3 critical Value network mapping
oriented disadvantages of VSM
VSM in CNC parts Literature survey, Cause &
4 Random Stratified
manufacturing effect of changes on FVSM
VSM for make to order steps of VSM & problems
5 Key case closer
products in job shop sector in job shop environment
Information VSM & kaizen in shaft kaizen improvements in
6 Deviant case
oriented manufacturing shaft manufacturing

7 Key case closest Making prefabrication lean Prefabrication improvement

VSM via simulation in Simulation ,VSM benefits,

8 Key case Paradigmatic
process sector analysis
Information VSM at HVAC
9 Deviant case simple value stream maps
oriented manufacturing
SIPOC diagram, Process flow,
10 Key case Stratified VSM at fabrication shop Interim recommendations
for improvement
SIPOC diagram, Process flow,
11 Random Stratified VSM at Machine shop Interim recommendations
for improvement
Project report on improvements for
12 Random Stratified VSM for Lean waste elimination
implementation
Table 4 Selected case studies for VSM at prefabrication

7) Elimination of wastes by implementing Lean

IX. DEVELOPED PROCEDURE FOR VSM IMPLEMENTATION
manufacturing tools and through interim
After studying the various cases as per the relevance recommendations for improvement.
with the existing case of prefabrication the basic procedural 8) Framing of future state map and analyzing the
steps for VSM implementation can be enlisted and change in value added ratio compared to current
explained as follows: state map.
1) Formation and identification of product family i.e. 9) Implementation of changes after commitment to
type of plate, coil and shape of profile to be cut. management and management approval.
2) Visualization of product as well as process flow 10) Checklist of points before actual implementation
right from the material issue to the cut part of changes are as follows:
delivery  Changes being proposed
3) Data collection for data boxes such as tact time,  Changes to be implemented first
cycle time at individual process workstations,
 Changes helping in achieving VSM objectives
number of workers ,number of shifts, set up
 Activity/events to be carried out for improvement
time ,change over times , value added time and lost
for e.g. kaizen, 5S, etc.
time, etc.
 Responsible staff person , management coordinator
4) Merging of similar routings and product families
to remove barrier and bring changes
to avoid repetition and cress cross flows in
transport.  Data collection and support systems and Engineers
5) Plotting of current state map using available  Inputs and recommendations from staff, clients for
information and workstations like figure 1. improvements
6) Identifying the wastes in the prefabrication process  Technological enhancements for capacity
as stated in Table 2. improvements for e.g. increasing length of CNC

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 International Journal of Advance Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.01, Issue 02, pp 28-35
 Plasma cutting bed for more plate loading on bed at
same time.
 Continual time study and product tracking system
for continual waste identification and elimination.
X. CONCLUSIONS [1]
The value stream mapping of existing
prefabrication unit appears to be successful with 10%
increase in value added ratio. The values of kaizen [2]
improvements are also similar as that of the VSM plotted
and the future map achieved after kaizen improvements at
company level. The case study approach was used for
proposing VSM at prefabrication unit and indirectly the [3]
same method has helped in development of VSM
implementation procedure at prefabrication unit by
generalizing the procedure used at the actual existing case
study. [4]
Case study approach is useful before going for
lean tool implementation. It has helped in finding the
necessary changes in framing the current state map and
solutions for improvement in future state map as
similarities in referred case studies.
[5]
XI. FUTURE SCOPE
The above study is restricted to a specific product group
and specific parameters in aspect of cutting and delivering
cut parts to the fabricator. However prefabrication unit is [6]
considered as most flexible shop in such industries due to
extreme manufacturing flexibility and product list out of
BOM e.g. fixture plates, support plates, etc. Developing
methodology to manage these flexibilities in shop orders
with proper material accounting and information flow will [7]
be a great help to fabrication industries.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank the company that helped me in
studying their prefabrication and preparatory shop and
allowed me to collect valuable information by observing [8]
their practices. Thanks are also due to all the faculties of
Department of Production Engineering, KKWIEER- Nasik [9]
for their valuable guidance and consistent motivation for
this work. I also thank to the team of Kaizen Institute India
Ltd. for guiding me in this work.
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