A lean manufacturing procedure using Value Stream Mapping and the Analytic Hierarchy Process

We present a novel lean manufacturing procedure relying on the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The procedure is iterative and hierarchical. Starting from a detailed description of the manufacturing process by the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the VSM graphical approach allows the identification of non-value adding activities, and the AHP technique leads to a ranking of such system anomalies. The further application of the VSM tool produces an overall picture of the desired manufacturing system, and the UML framework allows to describe in detail the updated system activities. An application of the procedure to a real case study shows its effectiveness.