Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management

Volume 2 Issue 2

Value Stream Mapping Process – Supply Chain Management

Tinku Joy1, Bibin George2

Assistant Professor
Department of MBA
Marian International Institute of Management1, 2
Corresponding author’s email id: tinku@miim.ac.in1, bibingeorge1992@gmail.com2

Abstract
This study is conducted with the aim to understand about the bottlenecks in the
supply chain management process in Synthite Industries which is located in
Kolenchery. It also aims at studying the functions of each department under
the supply chain and how it affects the current performance measure of the
company. In a production company supply chain is the most important part;
managing supply chain is also an essential part among the departmental
functions. It aids the organization in achieving its goals and objectives with
the primary focus on adding value for the customers. Because of large number
of inventory maintained by the firms, considerable amount of funds is required
to be committed to them. To avoid unnecessary investments in time and money,
proper management of the functions of the departments is carried out. One of
the most important aspects of the company is to maintain the customers with
right quality/ quantity products at right time (JIT), proper import/export
transportation, import/export warehousing, packaging etc.

Keywords: Just In Time (JIT), import/export transportation, import/export

warehousing, packaging.

INTRODUCTION support the functions of supply chain. New

The business world has given supply chain
much attention in these decades. It has
become so important that organizations
have begun to directly manage the supply
chain by appointing specific managers to
challenges now include a focus on supply
to determine the right time and place for
product delivery. International business
completion is not only between the
organizations, the supply chain of the

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Volume 2 Issue 2

companies is also having a major role in efficient and economical manner. Lean
the competitions. The quality of the Manufacturing focuses on efficiency,
product and service has become a crucial aiming to produce products and services
component. The customers or the end with Minimum or without Waste. This
users expect to receive quality product. method of understanding and visualizing
Therefore, the relationship among product the supply chain management is crucial
quality, delivery and supply chain practice among the managers to achieve
becomes a critical issue in managing quality products and services. In today’s
today's organizations with regard to world, if a company needs to compete with
customers or end users. There is a close others then the process and the procedures
relationship between Total Quality followed by the companies should change
Management (TQM) and the supply chain according to the trends, technological
regarding its philosophical, operational adaptations, removing the unwanted works
goals and perspectives. In the same line of and wastages, through which quality and
thought, Lean Manufacturing uses Value services can be improved. Therefore,
Stream Mapping as a necessary tool to observing and measuring the supply chain
eliminate Muda (waste) from at all times in today’s organizations is
organizations. In recent years, value becoming a critical as well as crucial
stream mapping (VSM) has emerged as activity. The purpose of this project is to
the preferred initial approach towards lean describe the implementation of a tool
thinking both inside the company and at called Supply Chain Value Stream
the supply chain levels. After the Mapping (SCVSM) in order to thoroughly
discovery of Toyotas superiority in quality understand competitive priorities in any
and there lead time management, many supply chain in organization.
companies turned towards the lean
philosophy for improving the process LEAN MANUFACTURING AND
which were followed. The goals of lean VALUE STREAM MAPPING
manufacturing are to reduce waste in This lean manufacturing has been
human effort and inventory, reaching the recognized for its effectiveness in
market on time, and managing productivity, continuous improvement,
manufacturing stocks that are highly product quality and timely delivery to
responsive to customer demand while customers, as well as for its wide
producing quality products in the most potentiality, through a variety of tools, to

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
identify waste/non-value process within
value chains. Value Stream Mapping is
one of these tools which helps identify
activities that do not add value. By
observing how the flows of information
and materials are related, it helps to
visualize how the production system works
from the time a customer initiates an order
until it is delivered. The advantage is that
it maps both the flow of the product or
service as well as the flow of information
that triggers the flow of the product or
service.
Value Stream Mapping allows the display
of the activities that take place throughout
the production process, the time each of
them takes, both those that add value as
well as those that add no value for the
client but are essential from
perspective of the company are also
considered for preparing the charts that
helps the organization to improve its
perspective towards the improvement.
Thus, it permits the identification of
potential causes of waste as well as
process improvements, while recognizing
that not all identified processes that add no
value can be eliminated from the processes
but can be viewed from a bird eye
perspective towards improving the non-
value process so that in one way or the
other it can add value to the company. By
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Volume 2 Issue 2
means of maps of the value chain,
information is gathered and analyzed,
identifying opportunities for improvement,
selecting those to be considered in the
design and implementation of the future
value chain maps. Later, the results are
reviewed and the outputs of the new map
are determined for the changes which are
to be implemented. The importance of
Value Stream Mapping lies in the fact that
it becomes a living reference to create,
redesign or improve business processes for
the whole enterprise. The identification of
non-value added activities is the first step
in identifying waste in the production
system. In this sense, Value Stream
Mapping includes in its design, though it is
not limited to, customers, suppliers,
production control, inventory, processes,
the modes of production and transportation
equipment. All of these allow determining
the scheme of the most appropriate process
output, the optimal batch size, and
eliminating redundant steps and assigning
appropriate personnel to carry out the
processes.
Value Stream Mapping is in one of the
lean tool came into existence after the
success of Toyota Production System
(TPS) in Japan. It was developed by the
Toyota Company between 1960 and 1970.
VSM is a powerful lean tool for
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Volume 2 Issue 2

identifying and eliminating the waste. Objectives of study

Before giving the definition of VSM it is There are four objectives that need to be
important to understand what Value and achieved in this project:
Value Stream is. Focus on value in the a) To collect the data and analyze the
context of what the customer/end- user is current production flow.
prepared to pay for. To carry out this
activity the company needs to understand b) To create the current state mapping by
the procedures that can be done in the using the VSM method.
company such that the throughput can be
increased. The outcome of this activity is a c) To analyze the current state mapping
clear understanding of flow of work. These for creating future state mapping
requirements may not be feasible
immediately, but it provides a true
d) To propose the improvement plan.
representation of flow. The production
flow from raw material into the arms of
the customers the design flow from
concept to launch. Value Stream Mapping
(VSM) is visualization and streamlines
work processes using the tools and
techniques of Lean Manufacturing. VSM
help to identify demonstrate and decrease
waste/activities in the processes. Waste
being any activity that does not add value
Figure: 1 VSM according to Rother and
to the final product. VSM can serve as a
Shook (1996)
blue print for Lean Manufacturing.

Significance of the Study

Problem statement
This project specifically focused on the
This exercise is aimed at evaluating the
analysis of the functional performance of
efficacy of the current performance
the supply chain management activities of
measures used for evaluating functional
the company. The project study will be
performance and arriving at a set of
carried out at the Synthite Industries Pvt
specific performance measures enabling
Ltd, Kolenchery. In this company the
organizational growth.
supply chain operations is focused based
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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
on their sub-departmental functions and
selected for the analysis.
The main objective of the project is to
combine all the activities of the supply
chain so as to analyze the current
performance measure of the each area.
Then all the information like process,
value added and non-value added activities
will be gathered. From all these activities
the current performance is evaluated,
analyzed to make the future activities
which will help in the organizational
growth.
Profile
The famous spice author Rosengarten
describes a spice as a product which
enriches or alters the quality of a thing, for
example altering the taste of a food to give
it zest or pungency; a piquant or lasting
flavoring; or a relish. The term ‘spice’ is
thus used to cover the use of spices, herbs
and certain aromatic vegetables to impart
odor and flavor to foods. A spice a dried
seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetable
substances primarily used for flavoring,
coloring or preserving food. The value of
the spice trade is particularly dependent on
pepper prices as pepper remains the main
spice in international trade. The global
spice trade is expected to increase with the
growing consumer demand in importing
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countries for more exotic, ethnic tastes in
food. A spice may have other uses,
including medicinal, cosmetics or perfume
production, or as a vegetable. For example,
turmeric roots are consumed as a vegetable
and garlic as an antibiotic. India primarily
exports pepper, chilli, turmeric, ginger,
cardamom, coriander, cumin, fennel,
fenugreek, celery, nutmeg and mace,
garlic, tamarind and vanilla. Processed
spices such as spice oils and oleoresins,
mint products, curry powder, spice
powders blends and seasonings and also
exported. The export of processed spices
such as curry powder, mint products and
spice oils and oleoresins accounted for
more than 44.2 per cent of total exports.
The story of Indian Spices goes back to
7000 years into the past. It started
centuries ago when Greece and Rome
discovered that sailing ships were carrying
Indian spices, perfumes and textiles to
Mesopotamia, Arabia and Egypt. In 1492
A.D, even Vasco Da Gama and Columbus
were also searching for a new route to the
spice lands of Asia. Afterwards, the Dutch
rule encouraged the trade of spice in India.
International Scenario
The spice industry has been witnessing
phenomenal growth rates in the
international sectors .The changing
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
scenario of World Trade will now demand
Globalization of Market and open
Economy. The global spice and culinary
herb industry comprises of many plants
having diverse end use including culinary,
medicinal etc., The industry also consists
of spice derivatives like essential oils,
oleoresin, spice oils etc.
According to international trade estimate
about 85% of spices and culinary herbs are
traded in dried form. There is no doubt that
these new developments will provide
unlimited export opportunities, to
producing country like India, which gifted
with the varying soil and climatic
condition Spice extracts were developed to
meet the new demand of the Food
Processing Industry. Compares to whole
spice they have more consistency in flavor,
much longer shelf, easier storage and
handling and not affected by bacterial
contamination. The Food Industry across
the globe in turning more and more to
spice oils and oleoresins to create newer
varieties of food. New flavor systems are
being developed to introduce new products
in the market and create competitive
advantages have vast natural resources.
The world production and processing
centers of spices and culinary herbs remain
concentrated in Europe and in a number of
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Asian countries. Canada is fast emerging
as one of the leading players in the
international spice and herb industry.
There are certain countries acting as
leading producers and traders of some
particular spices and culinary herbs. For
example, India is popularly known for
being a source of cloves, Indonesia has
supplied the global market with cinnamon
and China has been the leading provider of
ginger.
National Scenario
India is famous for its spices that are
widely used in industries like
pharmaceuticals, perfumery, toiletry and
cosmetics. Indian spices are one of the
major suppliers of pepper to a large
number of countries. The Indian spice
industry is booming with substantial
increase in exports over the past few years.
India accounts for nearly 45% and 30% of
volume and value in the world spice trade.
India has traditionally been known for its
spice and culinary herb production. It is
one of the largest spice producing and
consuming country. Its strategic location,
climatic conditions, advanced production
processes and availability of cheap labor
makes it advantageous for the producers to
ensure large scale production of quality
spices and herbs.
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
The Indian spice market has shown
remarkable growth in spices and culinary
herbs exports. Indian spices manufacturers
are making substantial effort to improve
the quality of spices backed up by
technological advancement in order to tap
international market. The booming global
spice market also poses good opportunities
for the Indian spice industry to provide
quality spices at competitive prices. India
faces stiff competition from China,
Malaysia and Pakistan in terms of pricing
of the products. Manufactures should
therefore ensure consistency in supply,
product quality, pricing and marketing
strategy to increase the share in exports.
India is also leading in the field of spice
derivative, meeting almost 70% of the total
demand of spices oil and oleoresins.
Producers are incorporating latest methods
and technologies to ensure higher quality
of spices and herbs.
State Scenario
Kerala is a land of spices considering the
large variety of spice grown in the state.
Today there are as many as 26 Indian
spices that are greatly in demand in
different countries. Little wonder than that
India is the single largest source of spices
in the world. Spices have had a historic
importance as far as Kerala is concerned.
From the ancient times Kerala had trade
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Volume 2 Issue 2
relations with Persia, ancient Europe,
ancient Singapore and other Eastern
countries. Kerala attracted foreigners only
because of its abundant resources of
spices. Pepper or ‘Black Gold’ as it is
otherwise known is the sole reason why
the Europeans were particular in building
the Suez Canal so that they could reach the
coast of Kerala with very less amount of
time. Kerala plays a major role in the
production and export of spices from
India. Human substance pattern in Kerala
were shaped primarily by its physical,
climatic and ecological characteristics. The
greatest natural endowment of this humid
–tropic region was the existence of a high
degree of biodiversity.
The agricultural settlements of Kerala
which evolved nearly 2000 years ago have
depended on this bio diversity as their
prime resource. Kerala is renowned the
world over for being the major producer
and exporter of pepper, better known as
the ‘king of spices”. The most popular
among the spices are pepper, cardamom,
turmeric, chilies and ginger. Pepper,
known as the king of spices is perhaps the
world’s oldest known spice and is
cultivated in over 158000 hectares in
Kerala, which account for 96% of the total
production in the country. There are a lot
of opportunities for investors in the spice
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
sectors and spices Board, the caretaker of
the sectors in India.
India is one of the prime exporters of
pepper, chilies, turmeric, seed spices and
spice derivatives to the rest of the world
.USA Japan and Sri Lanka import these
Indian spices in large volumes. Indian
Government is providing financial
assistance to farmers, growers and spice
producers and has also taken certain steps
to ensure the availability of better quality
spices, more hygienically processed spices
in order to boost exports ,Indian spice
Board also provide financial and technical
assistance to farmer. India is one of the
major Asian production and trading center
of spices, its derivatives and also culinary
herbs. India’s spice exports account for
about 39% of the total exports in terms of
volume and around 28% in terms of
exports value. India meets almost 65% of
the global demand for derivatives like
spice oils and oleoresins.
Synthite Industries Ltd is an Indian
oleoresin extraction firm, supplying
ingredients to the major food, fragrance
and flavor houses. The company was
established in 1972 with 20 employees by
manufacturing oleoresin pepper. It was
founded by Mr. Jacob, who started the
company after working in civil
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Volume 2 Issue 2
construction for two decades. Synthite
contributes over 35 per cent of the total
production of oleoresins with six
manufacturing units in India.
By 2008, it has grown to 450 crores and
1200 employees, with a 2012 goal of 1,000
crores. The company achieved this goal,
with a total of 2,000 employees, and set a
2020 goal of 3,000 crores. As of 2013, it
sells products in Asia and North America
and is planning on expanding business to
the Middle East and Africa. The company
only began selling directly to consumers in
its native India. Some of its major clients
include Nestle, Bacardi and Pepsi. The
company is currently run by the founder's
son, Dr. Viju Jacob. A diversified
conglomerate, Synthite has six business
verticals namely, Bio Ingredients, Spice,
Farm Tech, Hospitality, Realty and Wind
energy. The group activities include
Riviera Suites, an apartment hotel first of
its kind in Kerala and Ramada Resort
Cochin, a boutique resort on the banks of
Lake Kumbalam. The company produces
oleoresin spices, essential oils, food colors,
and sprayed products. It also has products
that are organic and fair-trade. The
company also has investments in realty
and hospitality. The company opened its
first foreign plant in China in 2012 and
planned a new facility in Indonesia.
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Synthite has won National Awards for
outstanding export performance during the
years 1976-77, 1977-78, 1978-79, 1983-84
and 1990-91 from the President of India,
and export awards and rolling trophies of
Spices Board regularly from 1976
onwards. Synthite Industries Limited was
accorded ISO 9001 certification with
HACCP in August 1994 - the first food
company in India to obtain the same. In
the year 2005, Synthite Lab received
NABL accreditation. Its facility is now
certified with ISO 22000, ISO 14001,
OHSAS 18001 & PAS 99.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Supply chain managers in organizations
are able to reduce the uncertainty they face
as individual firms through supply chain
integration, which is by way of
collaboration between firms across the
supply chain (Mason-Jones & Towill,
1998). Supply chain integration benefits
include, among other things; cycle time
reduction, inventory cost reduction and
greater responsiveness to customer
demand (Lin, 2013). One of the main
tools for identifying areas with room for
improvement in Lean production is VSM
that seeks to represent discrete business
processes. “They argue that the first step is
to create a ‘current state map’ in order to
understand the existing processes clearly
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Volume 2 Issue 2
and have a wider view of the system rather
than focusing solely on one process and
changing that without considering the flow
on effects” (Montgomery et al., 2011).
“A value stream is the sequence of
activities required to design, produce, and
deliver a good or service to a customer,
and it includes the dual flows of
information and material.” More broadly, a
value stream is the sequence of activities
required to design, produce and deliver a
good or service to a customer and it
includes the dual flows of information and
material. Most value streams are highly
cross functional (Martin and Osterling,
2013). There are different types of value
stream. The main type is one that a good
or service is requested by and finally
delivered to an end customer. It mainly
concentrates on delivering of value to the
customer. “Material and information
flows” is the initial method which was
followed by the Toyota Motor corporation.
Pictorial representations with process
maps are ways to communicate with
different parties in an organization. In this
way, value stream maps can provide a
whole view of how work are done through
the entire systems.
In the book Value Stream Mapping: How
to Visualize Work Flow and Align People
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Volume 2 Issue 2

for Organizational Transformation (2013), understand a holistic view and where

Martin and Osterling summarized the they fit in an organization.
benefits of value stream mapping as the
following. It is summarized as follows:
 Value stream mapping helps in
1) The visual unification tool can help in identifying waste.
visualizing non-visible work, such as
information exchanges. Visualizing  By providing a full-cycle view, value
non-visible work is a key step in stream mapping deepens the
understanding how work gets done. understanding of processes required in
delivering value.
2) Value stream maps can create
connections to the customer, which  Value stream mapping shows the
helps an organization focus more on information flow through the
the customer’s perspective and deliver processes.
more value to the customer.

 Value stream maps offer a direction for

3) Value stream maps can provide a improvement.
holistic system view by connecting
disparate parts into a more  The quantitative nature of value stream
collaborative organization, with the mapping makes improvement
objective of providing higher value to quantifiable.
customers.

To sum up, value stream maps provide a

4) Value stream mapping can help in visual, full-cycle macro view of how work
visualizing and simplifying the work progresses from a customer request to the
process at a macro level, which may final fulfillment of that request. The
help in making strategic improvement mapping process deepens the
decisions better and faster. understanding of work systems that deliver
value to customers and reflect the work
5) Value stream maps are effective means flow from a customer’s perspective. As a
to orient newcomers by helping them result, the process of value stream
mapping provides effective ways to

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Volume 2 Issue 2

establish strategic directions for better 1) Non-value adding;

decision making and work design.
The mapping tools have been developed so
that value streams can focus on
eliminating the most applicable waste to
the specific industry (Hines & Rich, 1997).
The Plan-Do-Study-Adjust (PDSA) cycle
is one of several scientific methods for
problem solving, making improvements
and designing work of all types (Martin &
Osterling, 2013). There are three types of
operations that are undertaken (Monden,
2011):
2) Necessary but non-value adding; and
3) Value-adding.
The first is pure waste with unnecessary
actions that should be completely
eliminated. The second one involves
actions that are necessary but might be
wasteful. Value adding operations are the
process that converting raw materials into
finished products through the use of
manual labor.

Figure: Granularity of work

Figure: Cycles of continuous improvement

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
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One of the main goals of study is to create Method of data collection

a future state VSM that illustrated the ideal The first step was to define the activities
material and information flow for the carried out within the enterprise and their
supply chain management activities of the interrelations, it was identified not only
company. With the creation and those related to the core operations of the
implementation of VSM, the performance supply chain activities but also the
of the department could be increased. The strategic and support ones by means of a
VSM is a systemic tool that allows seeing process map.
the set of all processes that add value, not
only helps to identify the waste but the Through the course of this Study the
origin. It is a great analysis tool, provides following objectives was completed:
the basis to plan the implementation of
lean manufacturing and helps to design  Collected data
how it should behave the entire production  Created a current state VSM
flow.  Analyzed the current state VSM
 Identified non-value added activities
RESEARCH DESIGN that reduced the performance.
Exploratory research is conducted for a  Created short term and long term
problem that has not been studied more future state maps
clearly, intended to establish priorities,
develop operational definitions and In order to accomplish these objectives the
improve the final research design. following strategies were applied:
Exploratory research helps determine the  Obtained information from various
best research design, data-collection employees
method and selection of subjects.
 Activity list was prepared.
Descriptive research is a study designed to
 Observed processes during different
depict the participants in an accurate way.
activities, on different days to
More simply put, descriptive research is all
understand the process of the
about describing people who take part in
departments.
the study.
 We used Microsoft Visio software to
create current and future state VSMs.

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Tools and Techniques of analysis
Lean Manufacturing tools are mainly 5S,
VSM, Standardized work, load leveling,
Kaizen, Kanban, Visual workplace, Poka-
yoke etc. In this project work VSM is the
tool which is used for the analysis.
Using ideas and techniques such as Value
Stream Mapping (VSM) or simple Flow
charting or spaghetti diagrams are very
powerful ways to identify and highlight
the wasteful steps in different processes.
This technique helps to create future state
maps and create action plans to simplify
the works and drive improvements.
Mapping shows all the tasks undertaken in
the process, from purchase of raw
materials and ending with the delivery of
the goods to the customer.
This analysis shows the identification of
all the waste and orientation of further
action in order to eliminate them.
1) Select your sponsor and set
expectations - appoint someone who is
responsible to make decisions, arbitrate
solutions, and plan the project.
2) Select your team- ensures that each
area or stakeholder of the process is
represented e.g. Sales, Purchasing, and
Warehouse etc.
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3) Select process to be mapped - can be
used in Manufacturing, Logistics,
Supply Chain and 27 some Service
orientated Organizations.
4) Collect data and produce current
state map- process times, inventory or
materials information, customer (or
demand) 28 requirements.
5) Critique Current state - challenge the
current thinking, encourage your team
to make suggestions, look for areas of
waste.
6) Map Future State - compile a future
state map based on the current state
map and the critiques
7) Create Action Plan and deploy -
taking the Future State map consider
an action plan that could be
implemented to change the current
process to the future state.
8) Measure benefits - check to ensure
that the benefits expected have been
obtained – review each change made
and analyze benefits.
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Figure: Lean Implementation methodology for VSM

Scope & Limitation of the study

The purpose of this study is to make an in-depth study of the Supply Chain Management
practices followed and reported by the Synthite Industries Ltd in Kolenchery. For this
purpose, the duration of 2 months was initiated.

The research work focused on the processes followed by each department under the supply
chain management team. How the operational activities under this department was linked to
other departments. Activities done by each employee was observed to understand the process.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

Figure: Process flow chart of SCM

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
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DIAGRAMMATIC List of processes

REPRESENTATION OF DATA 1. Mixing & Blending
Creation of Current State Map 2. Warehousing
For the preparation of the current state 3. P&F process
map, the data was provided by each 4. Export logistics
employee of the sub-department. But for 5. Domestic logistics
some other areas, it was difficult to track 6. Import logistics
down the activities. The departmental 7. External warehousing
activities started with enquiry regarding 8. Customer Service (Post-dispatch)
the product.
From the process flow-chart the
There were 8 sub areas which come under departmental activities where identified
the SCM department of Synthite. The and grouped into 8 sub departments. From
project was done by taking a sample of each sub areas the employees provided
nearly 120 employees related to all these there daily working routine for the
sub areas. preparation of the current state flow chart.

Figure: Current state Map

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
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Creation of Future State Map
After the analysis of the current state map
some processes in the mixing & blending
was found to be wasteful activity for the
company. Similarly the working of Export
& Domestic Logistics found to be similar
in there process. So these activities were
suggested to perform by same person
instead of more than one person doing
same activity for different purposes. The
below shown is the figure for the future
state map of SCM of the company.
Analysis of Data
After the creation of current state map with
the process done by each employees of the
department we could find out there are
some areas from which some activities
could be removed and some areas where
some activities could be linked together.
The process done by the mixing &
blending as well as the export & import
logistics areas where analyzed thoroughly.
We were able to find to out some activities
still following after the implementation of
SAP system in the company.
The below shown are the flow-chart of the
mixing & blending area. Here the process
starts after the creation of Process Order.
When it comes to the sub activity
Product filling, there is an activity to check
for if packing not entered or wrong
packing. Actually product filling is done
only after the completing the entries in the
system. So any how that process of
rechecking is a waste according to the
company.

Figure: Future State Map

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
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Figure: Mixing & blending

Figure: Export/Domestic logistic

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 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Similarly the activities done by the export
& domestic logistics where also drawn
using the flow-chart to identify the
wasteful activities in those areas. From the
flow chart it was easily understandable
about the domestic logistic process such as
PGI, vehicle arrangement, loading &
dispatch are same activities which are
done in the export logistics. Export &
Domestic logistics are handled by different
employees of the organization. So it was
suggested to move forward by joining
these two activities by same departments.
Right now the company is having two
departments to handle the process of
export & domestic logistics. After
analyzing the process done in these
departments, the suggestion came was to
join both the departments and its activities
such that the efficiency of the SCM can be
increased.
Interpretation of Data
After the implementation of SAP in the
company many activities are made easy to
be tracked, but still in some areas where
human involvement is more was difficult
to be tracked and analyzed. For that the
VSM was done in the company. After the
process of VSM some activities of the
company was identified as wasteful as
well as non-valued. These activities where
still followed in the day to day process of
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Volume 2 Issue 2
the company. By finding out the key areas
where these waste or non-valued items
was a difficult task.
After the drawing the current state map of
the activities it was easy to find out the
areas where the analysis is to be done.
From that view point the data was
collected from the department employee.
After providing there data the flow chart of
each department were drawn for the
process of analyzing the wasteful activities
or the activities which is not at all
providing any value to the efficiency of the
SCM process. After the implementation
SAP in the organization, every process is
done by proper documentation. But some
areas are still not in the reach of SAP such
as the production and logistics areas. In
these areas the employee involvement is
more than the software. It was a difficult
task to identify the areas under the SCM
and its sub process areas as well as their
activities. Synthite is a multinational
company which contains around 82
branches in the world. So the task of
getting the data and preparation of flow
chart lead to the process of identifying the
areas which reduces the efficiency of the
organization in there day to day process.
By suggesting these changes, the
organization can increase its efficiency by
5% in there day to day activities. This
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
change can bring around 15% of increase
in the efficiency in the SCM department of
the company.
Findings
• VSM made it easy to draw the
Current state map of the SCM of the
company.
• Tracking down all the activities of
the supply chain management department.
• Understand the uncertainties and
risks which reduced the efficiency of day
to day working of the company.
• Identify the areas which do not
provide any value to the company.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The detailed recommendations have been
given in future state map and now they are
being listed below.
 Standardized Working: every job
must be documented and all the work
elements are defined and documented.
Standard operating procedures be
developed and followed.
 Adoption of SAP ERP application:
This adoption can help overcome
scheduling problems and will eliminate
situations where documentation
processes take too much time. This
type of application can also act as a
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Volume 2 Issue 2
database management application
which is very necessary. An accurate
record is what acts as information in a
decision making process.
 Future State Map: If implemented
properly, these steps will result into a
better, adaptive, agile, productive and
profitable company
CONCLUSION
This research provides an overview of
value stream mapping, different value
stream mapping tools, and the application
of value stream mapping in a production
company. The value stream mapping case
study of the research study process puts
the learning into practice in future
applications. Through this application, I
have recognized the advantage of value
stream mapping over other tools and
gained a deeper understanding of the
powerful lean tool. Visualizing the non-
visible information flow helps in targeting
the waste embedded in my working
process that needs to be improved. As a
result, the improved value stream maps
can be guidelines for my future studies.
The value stream mapping of a research
study is a mapping of information flow in
the work process, however it is limited to a
simple and micro level. The study has
been limited to only one area in the
 Journal of Logistics, Supply Chain and Retail Management
Volume 2 Issue 2

company. It has wide range of application
in reducing the wastages in the activities of
the departments which eventually lead to
the reduced performance. Value Stream
Mapping is a valuable tool in lean
manufacturing which increases the
efficiency of the department as well as to
the company.
improving quality: John Wiley &
Sons New York, USA.
V. Martin, K., & Osterling, M. (2013).
Value stream mapping: how to
visualize work and align leadership
for organizational transformation.
New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Volume 2 Issue 2

X. Rother, M. & Shook, J. (1999),

"Learning to See: Value Stream
Mapping to Add Value and
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