The research for this article was built upon the discussion concerning sustainable value stream mapping (Sus-VSM), which had recently emerged towards advancing sustainable manufacturing systems. Research on this sustainable-oriented lean tool has been confined to only a handful of studies only. Specifically, the lack of a continuous improvement process, where subsequent value stream developmental maps can be established to continue the cycle, is highlighted as a notable shortfall of this application. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a methodological approach, based on the DMAIC improvement cycle, to systematically implement and conduct Sus-VSM studies. The proposed methodology is practically validated with an industrial case to support this narrow body of knowledge. The research findings revealed that a DMAIC-based approach can be effectively applied to systematize the Sus-VSM towards sustainable manufacturing. The paper also provides a guiding reference for operations managers who wish to undertake similar improvement projects and make their manufacturing operations more sustainable, and, hopefully, inspire other researchers and practitioners to broaden the study of this under-researched field, which is now receiving growing interest in various industries.
Green Lean Six Sigma has been recently clarified to improve the environmental sustainability performance of operations, but it seems glaringly scarce and in need of cutting-edge studies to integrate the concepts of green, lean, and Six Sigma into one unified application. This paper is accordingly aimed at constituting the application of Green Lean Six Sigma as a cleaner production. In doing so, a Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC)-based approach that is one of Six Sigma's well-known methods was proposed to systematize a Green Lean tool-environmental value stream mapping. Thus, this paper as one of the preliminary studies aligns environmental value stream mapping with DMAIC through presenting the proposed methodological approach, which relies on the five DMAIC phases-Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control-and considers green wastes in each phase simultaneously. To support the narrow body of knowledge, this proposed approach was validated via the action research-oriented case study implemented in the substrate manufacturing system that seeks to develop the environmental sustainability of its production processes and subsequently its general competitiveness. The findings indicated the effectiveness of a DMAIC-based approach in systematizing environmental value stream mapping and improving its efficacy to achieve environmental sustainability. The case analysis revealed that the application can significantly lessen the consumption of chemicals and energy in the system by 28% and 21%, respectively.
The extended application of value stream mapping has more recently been clarified to fulfill the triple bottom line requirements in the manufacturing systems. Thus, there is a glaring lack of literature on this sustainable-oriented lean tool, among these minute studies, the research attention has mainly been given to the environmental issues, largely neglecting the societal aspects. To complement and support this narrow body of knowledge, this article is aimed at developing a social value stream mapping methodology, which we refer to as Socio-VSM, for visualizing and assessing the societal sustainability performance in the context of manufacturing. In doing so, it identified and incorporated crucial societal metrics into the proposed approach, which was made based on the conventional value stream mapping method. For validation purposes, a case study entailing a hard disc drive substrate manufacturing industry was applied for the documentation and reporting of results derived from the implementation of the proposed methodology and for testing and making conclusions about its effectiveness. It makes the valuable theoretical and practical contributions to narrow the gap on this long-neglected scope.INDEX TERMS Social value stream mapping, (Socio-VSM), societal metrics, lean manufacturing, sustainability.
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