BAHIR DARUNIVERSITY

ETHIOPIAN INSTIUTE OF TEXTILE AND FASHION

TECHNOLOGY (EITEX)

MSc Fashion Technology

Course: Garment Production Management

STUDY ON THE APPLICABILITY OF VALUE STREAM

MAPPING IN GARMENT INDUSTRY

PREPARED BY KIBROM G/HER

submitted to Dr. Chandra

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 ABSTRACT
Lean Manufacturing can be considered as a business strategy which originated and developed in
Japan. It tries to identify waste and eliminate it. Thus, it leads to improvement in productivity of
manufacturing and service organizations and quality of products leading to a competitive
advantage over others. especially apparel sector has attempted to implement this, but a little
research work is carried out in regarding its suitability. This review is an attempt to identify the
applicability of one of the most important Lean Manufacturing tool called “Value Stream
Mapping (VSM)” for the garment industry
The current mass production system in garment Industry is one kind of assembly line having
complicated workstation. This typical system creates high amount of non-value-added activity,
causes low productivity, longer production lead time, high rework and rejection, poor line
balancing, low flexibility of style changeover etc. Various research references concluded that
these kinds of problems were addressed by suitable implementation of lean manufacturing tools
like value stream mapping. In this research Value Stream Mapping (VSM) as a key lean tool It is
a pencil and paper tool that helps to see and understand the flow of material and information as a
product makes its way through the process.
The purpose of this paper review is to investigate and study on the applicability of VSM in
apparel manufacturing organizations.
The methodology used for implementing first Formation of a team, a Lean team/VSM team, then
selecting product family that are to be study and identifying the seven waste and trying to
minimize those waste and proposing future value stream mapping and continuous improvement
The findings revealed that VSM can be applied to mass production apparel industries to derive
positive results such as reducing wastes in inventory and defects. Further, VSM helped the
managers of the case company to visualize the different types of wastes generated in the
organization and future possibilities of eliminating or reducing them.

Key words
Lean Manufacturing (LM), VSM (Value stream map), CVSM (Current state value stream map),
FVSM (Future state value stream map), VA (Value added activity), NVA (Non-value-added
activity)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... i
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Objective of The Study .............................................................................................................................. 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE................................................................................................................................ 3
Lean Manufacturing .................................................................................................................................. 3
wastes in lean manufacturing ................................................................................................................... 3
Types of Lean Waste ................................................................................................................................. 3
Value Stream Mapping (VSM)....................................................................................................................... 4
Considerations for Waste Elimination ...................................................................................................... 4
Why VSM is important in process improvement? .................................................................................... 5
Different Literature Review on Different Company...................................................................................... 6
Case Study 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Case Study 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 7
Case Study 3 .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Value stream mapping icons and meaning ............................................................................................... 9
Methodology............................................................................................................................................... 10
How to Implement Value Stream Mapping in Garment Industry........................................................... 10
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Reference .................................................................................................................................................... 13

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 INTRODUCTION
In our day to day life the change of the world is very quick, at the same time the consumer
expectations are also high, so organizations should be striving and survive to adapt it quickly. A
firm should have to have a proven concept to reduce the lean wastes and the tools to do so, if the
company to remain competitive in the global market. One of the begs concept is to use lean tool.
Value stream mapping is a process designed to reduce lead time, to make product flow, and to
eliminate waste (nonvalue added operations or activities), all for the purpose of meeting
customer demand at the lowest cost, and with the highest quality. since it originated in the
Toyota production system (TPS), many researchers have discussed the application of value
stream mapping (VSM) in different industries. value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing
technique used to analyze and design the flow of material and information required to bring a
product or service to a consumer (rother & shook, 2003). value stream mapping is a powerful
tool that provides a visual view of work processes, improves work strategies and deepens an
understanding of eliminating waste and delivering value.
In the garment industry there are so many value added and non-value added activities
during the whole production flow from trim to shipment of the product. These non-value added
activities somehow or the other affect the whole process flow of the industry These activities
should either be eliminated or should be improved by implementation of innovative and
more user friendly processes. Then finally the best process should be taken and should be
standardized across all the units.
Waste is unnecessary for any kind of industry because it raises the manufacturing cost of
products. For the customer waste is anything that cannot create any value. By effective lean
production system, it becomes possible to decline the generation of wastes and increase the
productivity in any industries. So, it became very significant to identify lean wastes and its
effects on productivity and manufacturing cost of products. According to lean manufacturing
these wastes overproduction, more waiting time and bottlenecks, over transportation, excess
inventory, more processing (re-works), excess motion and defects. (Wilson, 2009) These lean
wastes could not contribute in adding value of different products.

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 Objective of The Study
The main aim of this paper review is to study on the applicability of value stream mapping in
garment industry By examine the present level of applying lean manufacturing in apparel
manufacturing industries in order to identify and propose potential avenues for improving
present level of lean manufacturing. Also to eliminating waste in the processes and helping the
companies to achieve a shorter lead time, lower cost, highest quality and to achieve a
competitive advantage.

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 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Lean Manufacturing
What Is Lean
Lean Manufacturing can be defined as "A systematic approach to identifying and eliminating
waste through continuous improvement by flowing the product at the demand of the customer."
Taiichi Ohno once said that “Lean Manufacturing is all about looking at the time line from the
moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are
reducing that time line by removing the non – value added wastes” (Ohno, 1988).

wastes in lean manufacturing

When thinking about wastes, there are three types of activities that should be defined within
organizations (Ana 2008):
a) Value adding activity: those activities that, in the eyes of the final customer, make a
product or service more valuable. A value adding activity is simple to define; industries
can ask themselves if they as a customer would be happy to pay for it.
b) Necessary non-value adding activity: those activities that, in the eyes of the final
customer, do not make a product or service more valuable but are necessary, in the event
the existing supply process is radically changed. Such waste is more difficult to remove
in the short term and should be a target for longer term or radical change.
c) Non-value adding activity: those activities which, in the eyes of the final customer, do not
make a product or service more valuable and are not necessary even under present
circumstances. These activities are clearly ‘wastes’ and should therefore be the target of
immediate or, at least, short term removal.

Types of Lean Waste

The waste can be categorized into seven types which is commonly referred to as the “Seven
wastes” “TIMWOOD”. Taiichi Ohno suggests that these account for up to 95% of all costs in
non – Lean Manufacturing environments. These wastes are:
1. Overproduction Producing too much or too soon, resulting from poor flow of information
2. Defects Frequent errors, product quality problems, or poor delivery performance
3. Unnecessary inventory Excessive storage and delay of information or products, resulting
in excess inventory

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 4. Inappropriate processing Going about the work process using the wrong set of tools,
procedures or systems, often when a simpler approach may be more effective
5. Excessive motion Excessive movement of people, information or goods, resulting in
wasted time, effort and cost
6. Waiting Long periods of inactivity for people, information or goods
7. Unnecessary motion Poor workplace organization, resulting in poor ergonomics, for
example excessive bending or stretching and frequently lost items
VALUE STREAM MAPPING (VSM)
A Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a tool of lean manufacturing that helps to understand the
flow of material and information as products make their way through the value stream. The value
stream includes the value adding and non-value adding activities that are required to bring a
product from raw material through delivery to the customer. In other words, Value Stream
Mapping is an outline of a product's manufacturing life cycle that identifies each step throughout
the production process. It represents a visual information of material flow for a particular product
family (Rother and Shook, 1999).
A value stream, as the name implies, flows to some specific end. This end is a set of
requirements, as expressed by the customers of the value stream. When the value stream fails to
meet the requirements, it is intended to serve, it must be improved. Customers have three simple
requirements – price, quality and delivery. In today’s market, competitive price and quality are
basic requirements for staying in business. On time delivery at a cost that allows for profitability
is therefore the key to competitiveness. (Rother and Shook, 1999).

Considerations for Waste Elimination

Value stream mapping is a process designed to reduce lead time, to make product flow, and to
eliminate waste (nonvalue added operations or activities), all for meeting customer demand at the
lowest cost, and with the highest quality. Lean thinking relies on recognizing the “seven wastes”
– over-production, over-processing, inventory, motion, scrap, waiting, and transportation. Target
maps reveal which of these wastes can be eliminated now, and where. With simulation, it is easy
to avoid the traditional problem of eliminating waste at an operation where there is no net gain.
That is because the revised system’s performance can be compared to the current state, to see the
impact of the proposed change. The key to producing useful target maps is to look for low-cost
improvements that encourage flow, reduce inventory, and test the organization’s ability to

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manage in a lean environment. The challenge of developing the attitudes, systems and
communication necessary for a true pull system operating at customer takt should not be
underestimated. A high inventory system hides a multitude of problems, which will slowly be
exposed as batch sizes and WIP are reduced. The level of organization and standardization
required for one-piece flow are rarely found in companies with traditional production planning
and traditional management (Anders 2008).

Why VSM is important in process improvement?

Value stream have the immense importance when it comes to on time delivery leading to
customer satisfaction. Normally, textile or garment units work with department specific
approach. This means that every department does its jobs and wants to achieve targets irrelevant
of the problems which the subsequent departments face.
Suppose cutting department does cutting of all fabrics allotted to it as per plan and passes the cut
panels/bundles to sewing department but sewing department has not achieved its target of the
previous job assigned to it. Here arises confusion and mess. Sewing department must have faced
various problems due to which it did not achieve target but cutting department simply pushes off
the cut panels to this department without thinking Where to stock these fresh panels? How to
complete the previous job? What about the pieces that go missing in this mess? But the
implementation of VSM creates a situation, an atmosphere for smooth work flow from one
department to another department. The preceding and successive jobs will be planned such a way
that there should not be any stoppages, no mess at all.
The pictorial chart shown above gives us an idea of its working. It details us about Information
Flow and Material Flow such that no bottlenecks exist in the processes.
The main advantage of VSM is it leaves a positive impact on the entire business set-up. This is
possible because it makes it possible for all the departments to optimize functionally and serve
the customer accordingly.
Lean in principle is, identification of non-value adding steps and eliminating them in all
possibility. In the process it strives for value addition by reducing defects and wastes. There are 8
types of wastes that are already detailed in the introduction part itself.
VSM is a powerful Lean tool, combines material flow and information flow on a map. In this the
processes are mapped such that the whole Lean team visualizes and understands the processes
and the sequential material/work flow.

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 DIFFERENT LITERATURE REVIEW ON DIFFERENT COMPANY
Case Study 1
These case study is conducted on the Bangladesh RMG industry in two organizations by
Masudul, Mohammad, Abdur and Mohdn, 2013). This research paper is based on case study
approach. This case study research has been carried out in a selected garments industry. Several
lean tools such as Value Stream Mapping, Cellular Manufacturing and Kanban are used in
sewing, cutting and finishing section to identify the existing wastes.
Case study methodology has been applied to collect and analyze data by direct observation.
Wastes are identified by using value stream mapping.
Root-cause analysis is developed to identify key causes behind wastes. Then Cellular
Manufacturing and Kanban have applied to reduce wastes and improve productivity. Cellular
Manufacturing refers to a manufacturing system wherein the equipment and work-stations are
arranged in an efficient sequence that allows continuous and smooth movement of inventories
and materials to produce from start to finish in a single process flow, while incurring minimal
transport or waiting time, or any delay for the matter. In this research raw material Kanban has
been used.
Raw material Kanban method is a calculation that determines the optimal amount of raw material
goods to be placed in a buffer. It assures there is always just enough material on hand to make
what is needed. This research extracts the common scenario of the garments sector of
Bangladesh by depicting the existing pictures of the value stream.
The improvement overall performance and wastes of existing system and proposed system they
find that there is huge scope to improve
for Case- A, workforce is reduced 47.05%., Required space is reduced 63.26 %, Over
transportation is reduced 54.58 %., Inventory is reduced 97.64 %. In which raw material
inventory is reduced 100 %, a WIP is reduced 98.54 %. , Lead time is reduced 95.35 %.,
Efficiency is improved 58.86 %.,Labor productivity is improved 62 %.
For Case- B, workforce is reduced 47.05%, Required space is reduced 63.26 %, Over
transportation is reduced 38.97 %., Inventory is reduced 97.64 %. In which raw material
inventory is reduced 100 %, WIP is reduced 98.54 %. Lead time is reduced 95.35%. Efficient-cy
is improved 58.86 %, Labor productivity is improved 62 % (Masudul, Mohammad, Abdur and
Mohdn, 2013).

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 Case Study 2
This paper addresses the scope of value stream mapping (VSM) application in a selected
garments factory of Bangladesh (Mostafizur and Chowdury 2015).The main objective of the
research paper was to identify various wastes occurs in the production system. Additionally, it
tries to find out some areas for improvement and propose some improvement strategies. In this
concern this case study has been conducted focusing cutting, finishing and on a particular
production line of sewing section in a selected garments factory. During the investigation,
attention has been concentrated how non- value adding activity hampers daily production rate
and how to improve the productivity. Value adding, non-value adding (necessary and
unnecessary) processes and different types of wastes have been identified by drawing the current
state map for cutting, sewing and finishing sections.
The methodology of this research work was a case study research. This case study is conducted
in selected a garments industry located in Dhaka. The study gives an idea about the existing
scenario of the different section of the garments industry. The information and data collected
were sorted and arranged so that further study and analysis could be performed. Quantitative data
were analyzed by using tables and graphs. Various types of information were given as a profile.
Some analysis has been shown by Pareto Diagram and Cause Effect Diagram. After completion
of the data processing, the analysis has been performed.
The result has significantly been improved over the current state map. By using VSM on the
company they improve.
Through this thesis work,
 Value added activity has been increased from 0.62% - 1.1%
 Waiting time has been reduced from 283.58 min. to 115.26 min.
 Productivity has been increased 31.94 %
 Lead time has been decreased 7.74 days to 4.42 days
 Bottleneck point has been reduced from 0.72 min. to 0.49 min. (Mostafizur and
Chowdury 2015).

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 Case Study 3
In this case study done In Bangladesh RMG sector by (K. M. Mostafizur Rahman Sobuj,
2Chowdury M L Rahman, 2015 ),. This paper addresses the scope of value stream mapping
(VSM) application in a selected garments factory of Bangladesh. The core idea behind the thesis
work was to examine the existing condition of production system where there is no application
of VSM technique and to analyze the scope of VSM technique application in the studied
production line. The main objective of the research paper is to identify various wastes occurs in
the production system. Additionally, it tries to find out some areas for improvement and propose
some improvement strategies. In this concern this case study has been conducted focusing
cutting, finishing and on a production line of sewing section in a selected garments factory.
During the investigation, attention has been concentrated how non- value adding activity
hampers daily production rate and how to improve the productivity. Value adding, non-value
adding (necessary and unnecessary) processes and different types of wastes have been identified
by drawing the current state map for cutting, sewing and finishing sections. The study focuses on
removing the big losses namely, breakdown losses, quality loss, small stops, startup rejects to
improve the effectiveness of the production line. Some strategies are proposed for reducing these
losses and improving the overall productivity. It is found that the non-value adding time has
contributed significantly intotal production lead time. Finally, a future state map has been
proposed to the management that will be benefited for productivity improvement of the existing
production system as well as to reduce the non-value adding time
Factor Current state map Future state map

Inventory 7 Days 4 Days

Waiting time 283.58 Minutes 115.26 Minutes

Transportation 34.91 Minutes 17.64 Minutes

Non-value-added time 7.56 Days 4.24 Days

Total lead time 7.74 Days 4.42 Days

Super market None 2

Production information Production planning & control Industrial engineering dept.

Manpower 71 64

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 Value stream mapping icons and meaning
VALUE STREAM MAPPING PROCESS ICONS
Customer/Supplier Icon: represents the Supplier when in the upper left, customer
when in the upper right, the usual end for material
Dedicated Process flow Icon: a process, operation, machine or department, through
which material flows. It represents one department with a continuous, internal fixed
flow
Data Box Icon: it goes under other icons that have significant
information/data required for analyzing and observing the system.
inventory Icons: show inventory between two processes
Timeline shows value added times (Cycle Times) and non-value added (wait) times.
Use this to calculate Lead Time and Total Cycle TimeLine Time.
VALUE STREAM MAPPING MATERIAL ICONS
Shipments Icon: represents movement of raw materials from suppliers to the
Receiving dock/s of the factory. Or, the movement of finished goods from the
Shipping dock/s of the factory to the customer
Push Arrow Icon: represents the “pushing” of material from one process to the next
process
Supermarket Icon: an inventory “supermarket” (Kanban stock point).

Material Pull Icon: supermarkets connect to downstream processes with this "Pull"
icon that indicates physical removal.
VALUE STREAM MAPPING INFORMATION ICONS
Production Control Icon: This box represents a central production scheduling or
control department, person or operation
Manual Info Icon: A straight, thin arrow shows general flow of information from
memos, reports, or conversation. Frequency and other notes may be relevant.
Electronic Info Icon: This wiggle arrow represents electronic flow such as
electronic data interchange (EDI), the Internet, Intranets, LANs (local area network),
WANs (wide area network). You may indicate the frequency of information/data
interchange, the type of media used ex. fax, phone, etc. and the type of data
exchanged.
Go See Icon : gathering of information through visual means
Kaizen Burst These icons are used to highlight improvement needs and plan kaizen
workshops at specific processes that are critical to achieving the FSVSM
Kanban signals A location where Kanban signals reside for pickup. Often used
with two-card systems to exchange withdrawal and production Kanban.

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 METHODOLOGY
How to Implement Value Stream Mapping in Garment Industry

There are five stages of implementing the VSM technique.

Step 1 Formation of a team, a Lean team/VSM team
Step 2 Selecting Product Family: Identify what product or family of products to be mapped.
The first step in VSM is selecting the product family. A family is a group of products that pass
through similar processing steps and over common equipment in processes
Step 3 Draw the current stage of the processes (current VSM): The second step in VSM
process is drawing the current state map. Drawing material flow on the current state map should
always start with the process that is most linked to the customers, which in most cases is the
shipping department, and then working ones way up to the upstream processes While walking
the flow, several types of information can be collected, such as Cycle time or processing time,
Changeover time, Number of operators and shifts, Electronic information, Inventory levels,
Queue or waiting times, Production batch sizes, Product line,
Step 4 Identify where the improvements can be done to eliminate waste. VSM team comes to
this stage where it derives an ideal state for organization to arrive at the proposed future state. It
is an implementation plan that includes all departments like Research & development, Finance,

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customer services etc., along with the main processes related to direct production. In the event it
is required to practice Kaizen, to continuously achieve waste elimination and implement
streamlined processes. Conducting Kaizen Events-Kaizen in Japanese means “continuous
improvement” Kaizen focuses on improving individual loops or departments like R & D,
purchase etc by involving the process owners in its efforts.
Here the problem is written down, detailed and described and is then analyzed as to why it
occurred. Arrive at the root cause of the problem by repeatedly focusing on the problem and
problem alone.
Then finally rectification process is developed and sustaining it is prioritized. Hence VSM is a
very powerful tool in value addition encouraging GO-See to satisfy customer in real sense.
Step 5 Draw and implement the future VSM The final step in VSM is to create the future state
map, which is a picture of how the system should look after the inefficiencies have been
removed. Creating a future state map is done by answering a set of questions on issues related to
efficiency, and on technical implementation related to the use of lean tools. This map then
becomes the basis for making the necessary changes to the system

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 CONCLUSION
The goal of lean manufacturing is to become highly responsive to customer demand while
producing quality products in the most efficient and economical manner by reducing various
waste in human effort, inventory, time to market and manufacturing space for this purpose, it is
required to see the complete visual flow in value chain, to eliminate the wastes and to canalize
all activities to create value for customers. Waste is defined as anything that does not add value
to the customer and it could be defined as anything the customer is unwilling to pay for. At this
point, value stream mapping technique is used to implement lean transformation and to improve
it continually. VSM applications provides increased competitiveness by making enterprises
become simpler.
Value stream mapping should be repeated periodically to achieve better system performance
with continuous improvement view.
Finally there are different software that provide automate value stream mapping and we can use
them by customizing to our industry means apparel industry

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 REFERENCE

1. Ana, R. (2008), “Implementing Lean Manufacturing”: The Annals Of “Dunarea De

Jos” In Machine Bui Lding, Pp: 2 – 10
2. Anders Nielsen ( 2008 ) ;Gardiner Nielsen Associates Inc.” Getting Started With Value
Stream Mapping”
3. Farhatun Nabi & Rezwan Mahmud ( December - 2014 ) “ Elimination Of Non-
Value Added Activities In Sewing Section Of An Apparel Industry Through Value
Stream Mapping Analysis” International Journal Of Engineering Research &
Technology (Ijert) Issn: 2278 - 0181 Ijertv3is120881
4. K. M. Mostafizur Rahman Sobuj, 2cho Wdury M L Rahman (March April, 2015)
International Journal Of Engineering Research And General Science Volume 3, Issue
2, Issn 2091 - 2730“Study And Analysis Of The Scope Of Value Stream Mapping
(Vsm) Technique Application In A Selected Garments Factory Of Bangladesh”
5. K. M. Mostafizur Rahman Sobuj, 2Chowdury M L Rahman, (2015) study and analysis
of the scope of value stream mapping (vsm) technique application in a selected garments
factory of Bangladesh International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science
Volume 3, Issue 2, March-April, 2015 ISSN 2091-2730
6. Masudul Haque Talukder1, Mohammad Ali Afzal1, Md.Abdur Rahim, Mohd.Rifat Khan
(November - 2013) ; International Journal Of Scientific & Engineering Research,
Volume 4, Issue 11, 1844 Issn 2229 - 5518 “ Waste Reduction And Productivity
Improvement Thr Ough Lean Tools”
7. Ohno, T. (1988). Toyota Production System, Productivity Press, New York, Pp. Ix
Paneruesh Applicability Of Value Stream Mapping (Vsm) In The Apparel Industry
In Sri Lanka Silva, S.K.P.N. / International Journal Of Lea N Thinking Volume 3, Issue
8. Rother M. And Shook J. ( 1999. ) Learning To See: Value Stream Mapping To Add
Value And Eliminate Muda, The Lean Enterprise Institute, Brookline, Ma,
9. Wilson, L. (2009). How To Implement Lean Manufacturing? New York: Mcgraw-
Hill Professional Publishing. P. 29 - 214.

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