Value stream mapping application in lean production in olive oil company

The primary goal of businesses since their establishment has been to provide their customers with the right product and service at the right time. In today's competitive conditions, where competition is at its peak, the significant increase in the number of businesses compared to the past has made this competition even more challenging. Businesses aim to not only be at the top in this competition but also to maintain their position continuously. Various strategies guide businesses in this regard. In addition to traditional strategies, modern production strategies are used to provide fast and accurate service according to customers' demands. One of these strategies, lean production, is preferred by many businesses today. Lean production is a philosophy that was developed by Taiichi Ohno in the 1950s at Toyota, which defines non-value-added activities as waste and eliminates them entirely to enhance the value delivered to the customer. Value stream mapping, one of the fundamental techniques of lean production methodology, is a technique that clearly illustrates and defines both value-added and non-value-added activities in the process. In this study, the results of implementing value stream mapping technique in line with lean production principles were evaluated in an olive oil company. The first chapter of the study presents the origin and benefits of lean production, while the second chapter provides a literature review on Value Stream Mapping technique. The third and final chapter examines the current data in a business, analyzes the current situation of the company based on these data and the process. After this analysis, non-value-added activities in the business were identified, and the necessary techniques of lean production, including value stream mapping, were implemented. An analysis was conducted by considering the before and after conditions of the business, and the identified improvements were presented.