2.2 Lean product ion and value stream mappi ng
in war ehouse management
Lean production was origi nated from Toyota with the name
“ Toyo ta Product ion Sy stem (TPS) ” or “ just-in-ti me (JIT) ” ,
or “ pull-sys tem. ” On the basis of continuous imp rovement
and the philosophy of doing more with less, lean production
focuse s on waste identificati on and elimin ation by allo wing
only the minimum amount of processing time, l ot size,
product ion resour ces, material, invento ry, and cost.
In recent years, value stream mapping (VSM) has emerged
as the preferred way to implement lean production by map-ping a productive process and identifying waste for improve-ment. VSM is a simple but powerful tool using pencil and
paper as well as a predefined set of standardized icons [14,
15]. VSM can be used to identify the waste and then eliminate
th e was te , so th at th e e ffic ie n cy a nd p ro du c tiv ity c an b e
improved. In addition, Singh et al. [16] a ls o i nd ic at ed t ha t
vast literature on value stream mapping and its growing ad-aptation in developed and developing countries indicated the
interest shown in this area by researchers and practitioners.
A particula r product or product family needs to be first
identifi ed as the target for improvem ent. A curren t state map
is then drawn that is a snapsh ot captur ing how thin gs are
curren tly being done. This is accom plished while walking
along the a ct ual p rocess a nd identifying t he waste a nd
wea kne sse s a lon g th e r ou tine. Waste s a r e t he n a na lyze d
and elimin ated by rationalizat ion and/or the applicati on of
RFID. Final ly, a future stat e map is developed as a picture of
how the system shoul d b e done after remo ving the waste
and inefficiency. Future stat e map be comes the basis for
makin g the necess ary changes to the system.
Br intrup et al. [ 17 ] identified how RFID can serve as a
vehicl e to reduce TPS seven wastes of manufactur ing and
outlined a new value- driven opportunit y analys is toolset to
achiev e leaner manufactur ing. The toolset ident ified where
RFID can bring value through autom ated data collection , the
con form anc e of d ata de pend encies , and imp rovem e nts in
visibil ity. Gopakuma r et al. [ 18 ] used a discrete event sim-ulation meth od to model the curren t syst em’s functioni ng
and to identify operat ional inefficiencies which wer e quan-tified through a d etai led VSM ex ercise at a large food
distrib ution center. This arti cle presen ted that the simulation
model can help visuali ze t he benefits th at would accrue
throu gh the u se of lean principle s to reduce the nonval ue
added time in war ehouse operat ions.