Value stream mapping within the scope of lean manufacturing techniques and an application example

The Lean manufacturing system allows a harmonious communication between management, employees and suppliers to improve quality, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. Lean practices have been used in manufacturing systems. It focused on driving all waste out of the production process. Today, service systems have started to improve fast by the effect of computer technology and information age. The first step of transitioning to lean manufacturing system in a business is the analysis of "value stream", which consists of activities that do/do not add value to the product. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is considered the leading value stream modeling. VSM is a mapping method used for modeling the flow of materials and information in production and design. Value stream mapping helps to see and understand the flow of material and information that occurs throughout the product's past value stream. Waste prevention is focused. Rather than deal with the details in the processes, it makes it easier to see the whole by following the path that the stream and product follow. Value Stream Mapping analyzes the flow of value-adding and non-value-adding activities while responding to the customer's request and queries the value stream in the processes. Provides a visual communication between management and employees regarding the flow of materials and information. It reveals bottlenecks in the flow of value. In the first part of the thesis, firstly the concepts of lean thinking and wastage are emphasized. Then the lean production system and its history are mentioned. lean production techniques; 5S, Kaizen, Kanban, Just in Time, SMED, Poka-Yoke, Jidoka, and TPM are described. In the second part of the thesis, the Value Stream Mapping Technique is discussed and explained in detail. In the third part of the thesis, an application example is presented. Production flow is described from the customer demand to the raw material with using the VSM technique in the heating products factory. Current state maps are drawn. Lost times in production, the wastage sources and the problems affecting the production and productivity were identified with current state maps. Future state maps are drawn and accordingly Kaizen improvement studies are performed to avoid wastage and fix detected problems.