Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated approach for assessing the sustainability of production and simplifying the improvement tasks in complex manufacturing processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed approach has been investigated the integration of value stream mapping (VSM), analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). VSM is used as a basic structure for assessing and improving the sustainability of the manufacturing process. AHP is used for weighting the sustainability indicators and TOPSIS for prioritizing the operations of a manufacturing process regarding the improvement side.
Findings
The results carried out from this study help the managers’ staff in organizing the improvement phase in the complex manufacturing processes through computing the importance degree of each indicator and determining the most influential operations on the production.
Research limitations/implications
The major limitations of this paper are that one case study was considered. In addition, to an average set of sustainability indicators that have been treated.
Originality/value
The novelty of this research is expressed by the development of an extended VSM in complex manufacturing processes. In addition, the proposed approach contributes with a new improvement strategy through integrating the multi-criteria decision approaches with VSM method to solve the complexity of the improvement process from sustainability viewpoints.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate an integrated approach that aims at enhancing the application process of value stream mapping (VSM) method. It also proposes an extended VSM called Economic and Environmental VSM(E-EVSM). The proposed approach highlights the improvement of economic and environmental performances.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed approach has studied the integration of VSM, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) to improve the economic and environmental performances of manufacturing processes. The VSM method is used for data collection and manufacturing process assessment, whereas fuzzy DEMATEL is used to analyse the current state map. Finally, fuzzy QFD is used to organize the improvement phase of VSM method.
Findings
The clear findings of this research prove the effectiveness of VSM method on the environmental and economic performances of manufacturing processes. In addition, the proposed approach will show the advantages of fuzzy DEMATEL and fuzzy QFD approaches in improving the application of the VSM method.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of this study includes the lack of consideration of other dimensions such as social, technological and managerial. In addition, the proposed approach studied an average set of environmental and economic indicators.
Originality/value
The novelty of the proposed approach is proved by the development of an extended VSM method (E-EVSM). Also, the proposed approach contributes by a new methodology for analysing and improving the current state map of manufacturing processes.
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