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Value Stream Mapping as a Basis for Waste Removal in the Agri-Food Industry

Almqvist, Ebba LU and Mellberg, Mathilda LU (2021) MIOM05 20211
Production Management
Abstract
Background: The case company is a Swedish family-owned business, operating in the
agri-food industry. Their philosophy is to develop, produce, and sell
frozen products from the vegetable kingdom with a focus to be organic
and convenient. The company has realized that the production layout and
the material flow cause a lot of waste and have great potential for
improvements regarding efficiency in production and related processes.
Value stream mapping (VSM) will be used to identify and reduce waste
at the company. In addition, there is a gap in knowledge when it comes
to the use of VSM in agri-food production. Therefore, a comparison of
the use of VSM in the agri-food industry to a previously (well) studied
industry will be made.
... (More)
Background: The case company is a Swedish family-owned business, operating in the
agri-food industry. Their philosophy is to develop, produce, and sell
frozen products from the vegetable kingdom with a focus to be organic
and convenient. The company has realized that the production layout and
the material flow cause a lot of waste and have great potential for
improvements regarding efficiency in production and related processes.
Value stream mapping (VSM) will be used to identify and reduce waste
at the company. In addition, there is a gap in knowledge when it comes
to the use of VSM in agri-food production. Therefore, a comparison of
the use of VSM in the agri-food industry to a previously (well) studied
industry will be made.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the current production set-up
and the related processes at the case company using VSM, to test its
applicability in the agri-food industry and how it differs from a
previously well studied industry.
Research questions: RQI What waste can be identified by VSM and how does that affect the business?
RQ2 How can the identified waste be reduced?
RQ3 How does the use of VSM in the agri-food industry differ from a
previously (well) studied industry?
Method: A combination of an inductive and deductive approach was chosen in
this study, and a descriptive and explanatory strategy was used. Further,
it was chosen to do a single case study. A combination of primary,
secondary data, qualitative and quantitative data was used.
Conclusions: The study showed several types of waste affecting the business: waiting, transportation, unnecessary inventory, and defects. The authors were
able to find root causes of the identified waste and based on this, several
suggestions that could potentially reduce the identified waste were
presented. The use of VSM in the agri-food industry was found a good
tool to identify and potentially eliminate waste. However, some
differences between the use of VSM in the agri-food industry and a
previously (well) studied industry were found. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Almqvist, Ebba LU and Mellberg, Mathilda LU
supervisor
organization
course
MIOM05 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Value Stream Mapping, Lean manufacturing, Agri-food industry
report number
21/5675
language
English
id
9063316
date added to LUP
2021-10-13 16:56:15
date last changed
2021-10-13 16:56:15
@misc{9063316,
  abstract     = {{Background: The case company is a Swedish family-owned business, operating in the
agri-food industry. Their philosophy is to develop, produce, and sell
frozen products from the vegetable kingdom with a focus to be organic
and convenient. The company has realized that the production layout and
the material flow cause a lot of waste and have great potential for
improvements regarding efficiency in production and related processes.
Value stream mapping (VSM) will be used to identify and reduce waste
at the company. In addition, there is a gap in knowledge when it comes
to the use of VSM in agri-food production. Therefore, a comparison of
the use of VSM in the agri-food industry to a previously (well) studied
industry will be made.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the current production set-up
and the related processes at the case company using VSM, to test its
applicability in the agri-food industry and how it differs from a
previously well studied industry.
Research questions: RQI What waste can be identified by VSM and how does that affect the business?
RQ2 How can the identified waste be reduced?
RQ3 How does the use of VSM in the agri-food industry differ from a
previously (well) studied industry?
Method: A combination of an inductive and deductive approach was chosen in
this study, and a descriptive and explanatory strategy was used. Further,
it was chosen to do a single case study. A combination of primary,
secondary data, qualitative and quantitative data was used.
Conclusions: The study showed several types of waste affecting the business: waiting, transportation, unnecessary inventory, and defects. The authors were
able to find root causes of the identified waste and based on this, several
suggestions that could potentially reduce the identified waste were
presented. The use of VSM in the agri-food industry was found a good
tool to identify and potentially eliminate waste. However, some
differences between the use of VSM in the agri-food industry and a
previously (well) studied industry were found.}},
  author       = {{Almqvist, Ebba and Mellberg, Mathilda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Value Stream Mapping as a Basis for Waste Removal in the Agri-Food Industry}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}