Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 18

Value Stream Map

Overview

A Value Stream Map (VSM) tool can map and analyze the events or activities that transform a product or service from the beginning, usually from the supplier to the customer. Some of these activities may be value-added, while others may not be. The purpose of value stream mapping is to identify and remove the "wastes" from value streams and design a new way of working to deliver the product or service to the customer in the shortest time, with the highest quality and lowest cost.

To add this tool to your workbook, click on Lean and then select Value Stream Map.

Input Options

Click on the Analysis Setup button to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
inputs
1
Num Columns: Specify the number of columns to display in your work area where you want to create the value stream map. Note that all extra columns are hidden (and not deleted). If you want more or fewer columns later, you can come back to this setting and change the number of columns. Do not manually delete any columns on the worksheet. If you have a large map with many symbols, you may want to use a more significant number of columns.
2
Column Width: Specify the width of each cell on the worksheet. This is only used for display purposes and will not affect your analysis results. When you add symbols to your worksheet, the width can scale your symbols to fit within each cell. If you don't use the Scale option, the width input is not used to create the value stream map. It only controls the display of the grid on the worksheet.
3
VSM Symbols: Specify the type of map you are interested in creating. Currently, three options are available: healthcare, manufacturing, and transactional. Changing this selection will change the symbols available on the task menu bar. Note that you can always change this setting later. For example, suppose you are creating a value stream map for a transactional process, but you need a symbol only found in the manufacturing process. You can change this setting to manufacturing and copy that symbol onto your map anytime.
4
Num Paths: Specify the number of paths you want to create on the value stream map. A path could be the entire path from end to end - from the supplier to the customer, or you can break up the portions of your map to have multiple paths. The software will calculate a summary set of metrics for each path, such as lead time, process cycle efficiency, etc. It will also create a lead-time ladder diagram for each path. You need at least one path on a value stream map, but you can add multiple paths based on your analysis needs. Similar to the earlier option, you can constantly update this setting later.
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Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without saving any changes.
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Create Button: Click on this button to save changes and update the worksheet layout.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save changes and update your analysis results.

Units

Click on the Units button on the right to open the Units menu. A sample screenshot of the Units menu is shown below.
inputs
1
Currency Units: Specify the currency units for this analysis. Any financial calculations reported during the analysis will use this currency unit.
2
Demand Units: Specify the units for demand rate. These units will be used to specify the customer's demand and calculate the TAKT times.
3
Cycle Time Units: Specify the units for the cycle time. These units will be used in the ladder diagram and any charts generated by the analysis. For example, on the cycle time-TAKT time chart.
4
Lead Time Units: Specify the units for the lead time. These units will specify the wait times or activity lead times. They will be used in the ladder diagram and on lead-time charts.
5
Weeks/Year: Specify how many work weeks are there in a given year. You may want to subtract holidays to estimate the number of work weeks yearly.
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Days/Week: Specify how many working days there are in a week. For example, if Sat-Sun is off, you can specify that each week has five working days.
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Shifts/Day: Specify how many shifts are usually there each day. Typically, it is one shift per day, but a factory could be operating equipment on all three shifts.
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Hours/Shift: Specify how many productive work hours are there in each shift. You may want to take away non-work hours like lunch, breaks, meetings, etc.
The VSM calculations use the information in this dialog box to convert units. For example, one day is equivalent to 8 hours in the above figure. The multiplication of all the numbers in the units section gives the total number of productive work hours in a year. For the example above, the number of work hours is 2080 per year. What is not specified in the units is the conversion from hours to minutes and minutes to seconds. It is assumed that 1 hour is 60 minutes and 1 minute is 60 seconds. These parameters are hard-coded into the system and cannot be changed by the user.

Menu Bar

When the tool is opened, the main menu at the top may change to a task-specific menu, as shown below. If this menu does not open, click on the F4 button or the small arrow at the bottom right portion of your menu group to open this menu bar. vsm task menu The task menu bar with healthcare VSM symbols is shown below. vsm task menu The task menu bar with transactional VSM symbols is shown below. vsm task menu

Create Value Stream Map

Value Stream Mapping is a paper and pencil exercise. You should get your cross-functional team together and use empty wall space to create the value stream map using white sheets, sticky notes, and sketch pens. This will provide the greatest means to best interact with your team members and allow every person on the team to view and contribute to creating the map. The use of sticky notes ensures that the map that is being developed can be easily changed and updated as the team discussions progress. Once you are happy with the map created on the wallpaper, document the map in an electronic format. Of course, you can take a picture of the map on the wall and include it in your presentation. However, this does not allow you to automate some of the calculations or perform what-if analysis to try different changes to your map. Hence, it is recommended that you recreate the map using computer software. The features and capabilities of Sigma Magic software are ideal for creating this value stream map.

To create the value stream map, transcribe the map you created on the wall using the symbols provided within the Sigma Magic software. Several symbols are displayed on the task menu bar. To add a symbol to your worksheet, you can click on the symbol and then move your mouse to position this symbol. Left-click on the mouse button to place the symbol on the worksheet. Two helper functions are listed along with the symbols. The Center button will place the symbol in the center of your work cell, and the Scale button will scale the symbol so that it fits within the work cell. You may choose to scale some icons, while for others, you may choose to use the original size of the symbol. You can toggle these two options by clicking on the checkbox. These take effect the next time you add the symbols to your worksheet. They do not affect any symbols you have already added to your worksheet. If you don't like any symbols added earlier, you can always delete them and re-add the symbols again. Repeat this process until you add all the symbols to your worksheet and recreate the map you have on your wallpaper on the computer.

Note that these symbols are standard Excel shapes, and you can feel free to change size and color or apply any other properties to these shapes as desired. Before you add the symbols to your worksheet, roughly count the number of symbols you have on your map, and the number of columns on your input options should be nearly twice the number of symbols you have on your map in the longest row. Select the cell's width to accommodate the map in a reasonable viewing area and quickly view or print this map later. Several different types of symbols are available on the task menu bar. The most common ones are listed below:

SymbolDescription
customerCustomer symbol: Ideally, you need to have at least one customer symbol on each value stream map. The customer symbol specifies the required demand for the value stream. This information is required to calculate the TAKT time for this analysis. Usually, the customer symbol is placed on the right-hand side of the value stream map, but it can also be placed at the top of the left side. In some cases, the customer icon may also appear within the process steps.
supplierSupplier symbol: The supplier symbol shows the supplier or suppliers who provide material to our process. It is also possible that there may be no suppliers for a given value stream map. In some cases, there may be one supplier or multiple suppliers. You may also only show the key suppliers on your value stream map. Typically, transactional processes may not have a supplier symbol.
 processProcess symbol: The process symbol is used to denote activities or process steps. These steps transform the product or service to what the customer expects. Ideally, these steps are all value-adding, but in most cases, a major component of the process activities is non-value-added. Different types of process symbols are available to add to your worksheet, such as shared, U-cell, and external processes. cross-dock processes, etc. For a transactional value-stream, there may be other process types such as merge process, split process, decision process, etc.
inventoryInventory symbol: The inventory symbol is used to denote places in the process where the material is stored or places where the material is waiting for a process. Different inventory symbols are available to add to your worksheet, depending on whether you are working on a manufacturing or transactional value stream map. The inventory quantity is used to calculate the wait time for the product using either the TAKT time or the critical bottleneck speed of the process.
push-arrowMaterial Flow symbol: The material flow symbol is used to denote the direction and type of movement of material between different steps of the process. Depending on the flow type, different types of inventory symbols are available to add to your worksheet. The flow symbol could be a push arrow or a pull symbol, using different types of Kanban signals, First In, First Out, sequential pull, etc.
electronic-infoInformation Flow symbol: The information flow symbol is used to denote the direction and type of movement of information between different steps of the process. Depending on the flow type, different types of information flow symbols are available to add to your worksheet. The flow symbol could be a manual information flow, electronic information flow, etc. The information flow is usually shown from the top to bottom on a value stream map, but it could also flow in other directions depending on the map type.
truckTransportation symbol: The transportation symbol is used to denote the type of transportation used for material between different steps of the process. Different transportation symbols can be added to your worksheet, such as truck, plane, train, boat, etc. The transportation symbol is typically used between the supplier and the process steps and between the company and its customers; however, depending on the process, it could also be used to show the movement of material within the company.
 operatorOperator symbol: The operator symbol is used to denote the number and nature of resources deployed within the value stream map. The term operator is generic and can be interchangeably used as a staff resource for transactional processes. One operator can be assigned to each process or activity step or share the same operator across multiple process steps. Using operators on a value stream map is not mandatory, but adding this information can provide additional insights into the mapped process.


Using the symbols from the task menu, you should be able to create a pictorial representation of your value stream map on the worksheet. You can make a separate tab within the worksheet for the current and future state maps. Once you have created the map, ensure you have correctly transcribed the map from the wall to the computer. An example value stream map that you may have made is shown below. outputs

Add Data

The next step in the process is to add data to your value stream map. Adding data to the value stream map helps us evaluate the performance of the process and draw some quantitative conclusions from the value stream map. You can add data to several symbols on your value stream map. To add data to a symbol, click the Data button on the task menu bar and select the symbol you want to add the data for.

Customer Data

When you click on Add Data and then a customer icon, the following dialog box screenshot is displayed. customer data
1
Customer ID: You can specify an ID for the customer, especially if multiple customers are on your map. It is recommended that the customer IDs be unique. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Customer Name: You can specify a name for the customer and choose to display this field on the worksheet. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Demand: You need to specify the required demand for the product for this customer. This is a mandatory field for this symbol. Select the correct units for your data, such as Items/Hour, Items/Day, etc. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
4
Lead Time: If your customer expects a lead time to deliver the product or the service after placing the order, you can specify the expected lead time here. Make sure to select the right units for your data. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
5
Notes: Any other information you want to share with this customer, such as their expectations, specifications, etc., can be noted here. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.

Supplier Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then a supplier icon. supplier data
1
Supplier ID: You can specify an ID for the supplier, especially if multiple suppliers are on your map. It is recommended that the supplier's IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
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Supplier Name: You can specify a name for the supplier. It is recommended that supplier names be unique. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Lead Time: You need to specify the activity lead time, which indicates when the customer must fulfill the order after placing an order with the supplier. This is a mandatory field for this symbol. Select the correct units for your data, such as Items/Hour, Items/Day, etc. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet. In the image above, the lead-time data and capacity numbers have been entered, but only the checkbox for the lead time has been selected, so only this information will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Capacity: If the supplier has any capacity constraints, you can specify the maximum demand this supplier can fulfill. This is an optional field. Make sure to select the right units for your data. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Notes: Any other information you want to share for this supplier, such as their specifications, MOQ, etc., can be noted here. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.

Process Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then a supplier icon. process data
1
Process ID: You can specify an ID for the process step, especially if multiple process steps are on your map. It is recommended that the process IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Process Name: You can specify a name for the process step and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking on the checkbox next to this field. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
3
VA Time: The activity's processing time or cycle time is broken up into two components - VA Time (Value Added time) and NVA Time (Non-Value Added time). VA Time is the time that is considered value-adding from the customer's perspective. For some processes, the entire cycle time can be regarded as value-adding, in which case you would specify the NVA Time as 0. Conversely, we can have the whole time spent by the active as NVA time and have the VA time set to 0. We can split the total cycle time into two components for processes in between. You need to specify at least one of these two times. This is a mandatory field for this symbol. Select the correct units for your data, such as Minutes, Hours, etc. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
4
NVA Time: The activity's processing time or cycle time is broken up into two components - VA Time (Value Added time) and NVA Time (Non-Value Added time). NVA Time is the time that is considered not to add any value from the customer's perspective. For example, time spent on rework could be regarded as non-value-added time. For some processes, the entire cycle time can be considered value-adding, in which case you would specify the NVA Time as 0. Conversely, we can have the whole time spent by the active as NVA time and have the VA time set to 0. We can split the total cycle time into two components for processes in between. You need to specify at least one of these two times. This is a mandatory field for this symbol. Select the correct units for your data, such as Minutes, Hours, etc. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
5
Quantity/Cycle: In some processes that are executed in batches, the method may work on several parts at the same time. For example, for a heat-treatment process with a batch size of 10, the oven may heat-treat 10 of these products simultaneously. In this case, we specify the quantity/cycle to be 10. For most transactional processes, the quantity/cycle is usually 1. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
6
Available Time: The available time for all processes uses the default value specified in the Input Options. However, you can override the default setting for specific processes. For example, most of the processes in a company may run for one shift, but a particular process that feeds several pieces of equipment may run for multiple shifts. In this case, we can override the default setting by specifying the available time for each process separately. Another example of having a different available time is when a process runs over time. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
7
Demand Share: If a process is connected sequentially from the supplier to the customer, usually the entire demand for the customer is handled by each process so that the demand share would be 100%. However, if there are parallel processes, each piece of equipment can have a demand share of less than 100%. Another example of using the demand share is when we have a split operation, and part of the demand is sent to another processor if there is a decision operation (say, for re-work). Part of the work is sent to a separate work center. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
8
Equipment: The default value for the number of pieces of equipment is one in most cases. However, when multiple pieces of equipment operate together, such as in a machine bank where four similar pieces of equipment are all involved in the same operation, you can specify the number of machines here. Each piece of equipment equally shares the workload. You can choose to display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to it.
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OEE: You can specify the OEE for the equipment here. The OEE values are used to simulate losses that you would encounter in a piece of equipment. The OEE metric considers three types of losses: availability loss (due to downtime, setup, etc), performance loss (due to running the equipment at a lower speed), and quality loss (due to rework or scrap). If you have an overall OEE number for a piece of equipment, you can enter it here to be considered in the calculations. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
10
Notes: Any other information you want to share for this process, such as safety, quality, performance, etc., can be noted here. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
12
Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the example above, we have set the VA Time to 15 seconds and the NVA Time to 45 seconds. Hence, the total cycle time for this process is 60 seconds. The quantity of output per cycle is 1. Thus, this process creates one output every minute with a value-added percentage of 25% (15/60).

Inventory Data

When you click on Add Data and then an inventory icon, the following dialog box screenshot is displayed. inventory data
1
Inventory ID: You can specify an ID for the inventory location, especially if there are multiple locations for inventory within your map. It is recommended that the inventory IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Inventory Name: You can specify a name for the inventory location and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking on the checkbox next to this field.
3
Quantity: You need to specify the typical amount of inventory at this inventory location. This information calculates the waiting time for a product or service. This is a mandatory field for this symbol. If the inventory quantity is a variable, you can choose to represent the most likely or worst-case scenario here, depending on your requirements. You can also come back later, make changes to this quantity, and conduct what-if studies to see how changing this inventory level will impact your overall process performance. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
4
Lead Time: In addition to the waiting due to the amount of inventory at this location, there may be additional waiting time at this step. For example, to process an order, transportation, etc., you can indicate these additional wait times in this field. The total wait time calculated by the system is due to inventory quantity and lead time. You can display this value on your worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
5
Notes: Any other information you want to share for this inventory, such as inspection or handling requirements, can be noted here. If you select the checkbox next to this field, this data field will be displayed on the worksheet.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the image above, the inventory quantity is shown as 20 units. This value and the process TAKT time will be used to calculate the wait time at this location. Since the checkbox next to the inventory quantity is selected, this information will be displayed on the worksheet.

Info Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then an Info icon. info data
1
Info ID: You can specify an ID for the information flow, especially if multiple information flows are within your value stream map. It is recommended that the info IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Info Name: You can specify a name for the information flow and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking on the checkbox next to this field.
3
Data Type: You can specify the type of data being passed from one point in the process to another. The different types of data are forecast, item, information, order, schedule, etc. This information is not used in the calculations but can be used to display additional information on the worksheet. You can display this quantity on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field
4
Frequency: In addition to the data type, you can specify how frequently information is passed between these two points. The frequency can be hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
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Notes: Any other information you want to share for this exchange, such as contact person, etc., can be noted here. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
7
Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the image above, the information exchanged is the customer's weekly order. The notes can indicate, for example, that this order is received every Friday.

Transport Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then a Transport Data icon. transport data
1
Transport ID: You can specify an ID for the transport flow, especially if multiple information flows are within your value stream map. It is recommended that the transport IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Transport Name: You can specify a name for the transport and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking on the checkbox next to this field.
3
Lead Time: You can specify the lead time for this transport. This is the time it takes to move the material from the point of shipment to reaching the destination site. This may include loading/unloading, transit, customs clearance, etc. This information is added to the overall wait times on a path to arrive at the total lead time. You can display this quantity on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field
4
Frequency: Specify how often are transports being arranged between the two points on your map. The frequency could be hourly, daily, weekly, etc. You can display this value on your worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
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Notes: Any other information you want to share for this exchange, such as days of the week when the transportation will occur, can be noted here. You can display this information on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this item.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the image above, once an order is placed, the transport takes 15 days, but since there are multiple trucks along the route, the transportation arrives two times a week on Wednesday and Friday.

Staff Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then a staff icon. staff data
1
Staff ID: You can specify an ID for the staff, especially if multiple resources are within your value stream map. It is recommended that the staff IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Staff Name: You can specify a name for the staff and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking on the checkbox next to this field.
3
Number: You need to specify the number of staff at this resource. This information will be used to perform resource loading and balancing. This number could be an integer or a fraction in case resources have other assignments that are not captured on the value stream map. You can display this quantity on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
4
Available Time: Specify the number of hours that this resource is available to work. If overtime is involved, you will need to increase the available hours to account for overtime. If you have insufficient resources to do the job, you can either increase the number of staff persons assigned to this role or increase the overtime hours. You can display this information on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this item.
5
Efficiency: Specify the efficiency of this resource group. The efficiency numbers calculate the effective time this group requires to perform their tasks and activities. The efficiency number should range between 0 and 100. You can display this information on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this item.
6
Rate: Specify the hourly rate for this resource. This number will perform any cost-related calculations for this value stream map. You can display this information on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this item.
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Notes: Any other information you want to share for this resource, such as hourly/part-time workforce, can be noted here. You can display this information on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this item.
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Assignments: You can assign the resource group to one or more process/activity centers to perform the various activities. At this time, each resource group can be assigned up to 5 different processes. The process assignments need to specify how much they spent on each process. This information is used to compute their workload balancing calculations.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
10
Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the image above, one resource is assigned to the stamping process. The activity time for each item is not specified here and is set as "Auto." This will use the VA and NVA times from the process step to determine the time for the operator. If you don't want to use the machine times, you can override that by specifying your values for the operator times.

Kaizen Data

The following dialog box screenshot is displayed when you click on Add Data and then a Kaizen burst icon. kaizen data
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Kaizen ID: You can specify an ID for the Kaizen improvement idea, especially if multiple improvement ideas are on your value stream map. It is recommended that the Kaizen IDs be unique. You can display this field on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
2
Kaizen Name: You can specify a name or a short description of the Kaizen idea and choose to display this field on the worksheet by clicking the checkbox next to this field.
3
Benefits: You can rate the Kaizen idea in terms of the benefits expected from implementing it. You can rate the concept on a scale of 0 to 10. 0 means no improvement, and 10 means very large improvement. Any comments on the benefits rating can be included next to the rating scale. Note that the benefits rating is mandatory, and this information will be used to plot the Kaizen idea on a benefit-effort matrix. You can display this information on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
4
Effort: You can rate the Kaizen idea in terms of the effort involved in implementing it. You can rate the effort on a scale of 0-10. 0 means no effort (effortless to implement), and 10 means considerable effort to implement the idea. Any comments on the effort rating can be included next to the rating scale. Note that the effort rating is mandatory, and this information will be used to plot the Kaizen idea on a benefit-effort matrix. You can display this information on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
5
Financials: Specify any quantified financial benefits from this idea here. The currency used on this form is specified on the Analysis Setup button. This is not a mandatory field. Including this value here can help you quantify the financial benefits you expect from implementing all the Kaizen ideas. You can display this value on your worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field
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Risk Severity: You can rate the severity of any risk for this Kaizen idea on a scale of 0-10 with notes next to the rating scale. This is an optional field.
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Risk Occurrence: You can rate the occurrence of the risk for this Kaizen idea on a scale of 0-10 with notes next to the rating scale. This is an optional field. The product of risk severity and risk occurrence gives you the overall risk of this Kaizen idea. This information could be used to plot the Kaizen ideas on the benefit-effort matrix.
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Notes: You can include any other notes for the Kaizen idea here, such as priority rating, etc., and choose to display them on the worksheet by selecting the checkbox next to this field.
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Help Button: Click on this button to view the help file for this topic.
10
Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without changing any settings.
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OK Button: Click on this button to save your changes and exit.
In the image above, the Kaizen idea is captured and rated on the benefit-effort scale. Once all the data has been entered, your value stream map is complete from a display perspective. An example of a value stream map with added data is shown below. You can change the option settings to show or hide this data on the value stream map using the Format button. outputs2

Add Paths

After you have created the value stream map and added the data for all the different elements, the next step is to define the paths on the value stream map. A path is a sequence of activities or process steps for which you are interested in determining the metrics, such as total lead time or process time. For example, you may have a path from your supplier to your customer. This will help us determine the overall lead time for this path and calculate the associated metrics for this path. Or you may have a path from the customer order to delivery. For this path, you can calculate, for example, how long it takes to deliver an order to your customer. If there is a parallel set of activities on your value stream map, you can define separate paths for each set of activities to derive the metrics for that path. Another example could be a rework path - how long does it take for those activities that include rework? Or define a separate path for those sets of activities that do not have any rework.

You don't need to add any new symbols to define the path on your value stream, but you need to select those symbols on the path. The total number of paths you can determine on the value stream map is 20. You can specify the number of paths you want to define by clicking on Analysis Setup on the task menu pane and then selecting the number of paths. Once you define the total number of paths, you can specify the individual paths using the path editor. Click Path on the task menu bar to open the path editor. A dialog box such as the one shown below is opened. path editor First, click the Define Path button on the main menu bar to define and/or edit your path. In this example, we are working with Path #1. Specify a name for this path. In our case, we are creating a path from the supplier to the customer - let's call this the End2End Process. Click the Add button to add an element or shape to the end of your current path. To select the shape, click on the shape you want to add to the current path. Make sure to consider inventory and transport symbols in your path. Any elements not included on the path will not be used for any calculations for that path. For example, if a value stream map contains an inventory symbol before a process step (say OP10) and you don't include the inventory symbol in your path, then any waiting time associated with this inventory will not be included in the path calculations. When defining the path, click on a shape to add that shape to the path. Note that you can only select shapes created by Sigma Magic software. Each of these shapes will have the prefix "SM_". To add more shapes to the end of your path, click on Add again and select a new shape to add. Keep clicking on the shapes in sequence to add them to the path. Do note that loops are not allowed in the paths.

To add a shape to a selection other than the end of the current path, you must use the Insert button. To use this button, first select the location where you want to insert a new shape within an existing path. Note that any shape you select from the worksheet will be added after your selected point. This button is highlighted only if you first select the location from your list where you would like to insert your shape. Once you use your mouse to select the shape to add, the new shape will be inserted into your path at the selected location. Once the new path has been updated, the new path will be displayed on the screen. Note that if you don't select the insertion point or shape properly or cancel the selection, no shape will not be added to your current path.

To delete a shape from your current path, click on the Delete button and then select the item from your list you would like to delete. This will remove the shape from your path list. Note that if you don't select a shape on your current path, then no shape is deleted from your current path. Once deleted, the new path will be updated and displayed on the worksheet.

Click the Delete All button to delete all shapes from your current path. This will remove all the shapes from your current path. Use this button with caution since there is no confirmation button, and once you click on Delete All, there is no undo button. You will have to reselect your entire path again.

Below is an example of a path highlighted on the worksheet. Note that paths for different segments are shown in different colors. In the figure below, a single path has been defined from the supplier to the customer. Note that the first shape includes a circle with the path number written inside. This path is shown in blue. path editor3

Verify Inputs

Once you have defined the data and the required paths for analysis, verifying that you have created the maps correctly and entered all the required data is a good idea. To do this, click the Verify button on the task menu bar. This will check the following aspects:
  • Are all the required data fields been specified? If any required data has not been selected, that symbol is highlighted in red on the worksheet. An example of the missing data on shapes is shown below. path editor4
  • Have all the paths been defined? If there are missing or incorrect paths, these are noted on the worksheet.
To fix this issue, click on all symbols that have missing data and specify the required data. The required data fields for each symbol are shown by the asterisk (*) sign next to the field name. If the inputs have been defined correctly, you will get a dialog box like the one below. path editor5

Create Ladder Diagram

Once the value stream map has been created, the data for each symbol specified, and the paths that you want to calculate the metrics for having been defined, you can make the ladder diagram for the lead-time by clicking on the Ladder button. This will use your provided inputs, solve the required equations to determine the overall cycle times and lead times, and create the ladder diagram below the value stream map. The software will plot one ladder diagram for each path. An example of the value stream map with the ladder diagram is shown below. path editor5 The figure above shows that the wait times are listed in days, and the cycle times are listed in minutes. If you want to change the display units, you need to change the units in the Analysis Setup dialog box by clicking the Analysis Setup button on the task menu bar.

Display Settings and Format Data

Sometimes, you want to format your data or look at your value stream map differently. You can use the Display button and the Format button to reformat your map. You can click on the Display button to show or hide the data on the worksheet or the paths on the worksheet. An example screenshot of the display dialog box is shown below. You can toggle these settings at any time. Select the appropriate checkboxes and click the OK button to effect the changes. You may leave these settings on during the initial stages of building the value stream map and toggle them off after the map has been finalized. display settings Click on the Format button to view the shapes on your worksheet. Sometimes, the worksheet may have stray or duplicate shapes, which you can delete using this dialog box. You can also highlight or unhighlight portions of the map using this dialog box. The left-hand list box lists all the shapes displayed on the worksheet. At the bottom of the list box are three buttons: Single will enable you to select one shape at a time, Multiple will let you pick multiple shapes, and All will select all the shapes listed here. Usually, Sigma Magic shapes will have a subscript SM_ before the shape name. You can highlight the shape to view the shape on the worksheet. Any shapes that you don't need can be deleted. If you want to move all the shapes on the screen, you can select all the shapes in the list box by clicking on the All button at the bottom and then clicking on Select button. This will select all the shapes available for you. You can then move these shapes as a group to a new location or choose to copy these shapes to another application. A sample dialog box is shown below. format map

Charts

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button. Charts
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Pick Charts: Select the charts you would like to display when you generate analysis outputs.
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Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your title, you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
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Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your subtitle, specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
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X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the x-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
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Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the y-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
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X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
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Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum y-axis is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
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Horizontal Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15, two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15, respectively. Note that this input is optional.
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Vertical Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5, two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5, respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
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Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
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Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
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Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.

Compute Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs on the main menu bar or Graphs on the task menu bar to create the analysis outputs. This will analyze all the data you have entered and generate the relevant graphs for your analysis. The following graphs could be generated for your analysis.

Cycle Time - TAKT Time Chart

The software could compute a cycle time - TAKT time chart. A sample screenshot of the chart is shown below. This chart will plot the cycle times at the various process steps along the specified path and compare this with the TAKT times required for this process based on customer demand. chart1 In the chart above, all the cycle times are less than the required TAKT time; hence, the process can meet the customer requirements.

Lead-Time Chart

The second chart that could be generated is the Lead-Time Chart for each path. This chart shows the overall lead time of all the steps included in the path. If this lead time is less than the customer's expected lead time, then the process is capable of meeting customer expectations. An example lead-time chart is shown below. chart2 From the chart above, we can see that this process is impossible. The customer expects a lead time of 5 days, and this process takes 25 days from the supplier to the customer.

Resource Utilization Chart

The third chart that could be generated is the Resource Utilization chart. This shows all the resources and how much time they spend on different process steps. This number is compared to the available hours in a day. If the resource times are less than the available hours, then the resource will be able to meet the requirements; otherwise, you may need to take some actions to ensure the resources meet the requirements. An example of resource utilization is shown in the figure below. chart3 The chart above shows that the resource has more than sufficient capacity to meet the requirements.

Kaizen Improvements Chart

The fourth chart that could be generated is the Kaizen Improvements chart. This shows all the Kaizen ideas captured on the value stream map plotted on a benefit-effort matrix. This plot can be used to prioritize and select the Kaizen ideas. You would want to choose ideas with low effort but high benefit first. Next, you need to consider and decide within your management team how you want to handle the Kaizen ideas with high effort and benefits. It would be best if you implemented next to the ideas that have low effort and low benefits as part of your continuous improvement initiatives. The Kaizen ideas that fall in the last quadrant on high effort with low benefits could be discarded. An example of the Kaizen improvement ideas matrix is shown in the figure below. chart4

Notes

Here are a few notes regarding this analysis:
  • If you need more icons to include on your VSM, you can create and add them outside Sigma Magic software. However, these icons would not be linked to Sigma Magic software to add data or analyze the paths. Contact the help desk for your company's most commonly used VSM icons, and we can add them to the Sigma Magic software.
  • Sigma Magic uses the data entered into the data box icon to calculate the metrics. It does not matter where the boxes are located or if the databoxes are being displayed on the screen. It adds the values you report in these data boxes to calculate the total cycle time, wait time, lead time, and process cycle efficiency.
  • If you cannot create the ladder diagram, only the summary table is being shown for a path; this could be because the icons on your worksheet are not arranged from left to right. Re-arrange your icons to create the ladder diagram. The ladder diagram is only created from left to right.
  • VSM data can only be added to standard icons such as process steps, transport, inventory, customers, suppliers, etc. Note that not all shapes have data associated with them.
  • All the data, shapes, and graphs need consistent units, so if you define the units for lead times within the settings page as days, the default lead time for all shapes will be days. However, you can feel free to change the units for individual symbols. Also, if you originally set the units to days and later change the setting to another value, the system automatically converts you. The ladder diagram and the graphs will only be displayed in the units specified on the settings page.

Examples

The following examples are in the software's Examples folder.
  • Create a VSM for a production process that goes through sub-assembly, assembly, and shipment operations within your company and is then delivered to the customer. (VSM 1.xlsx)



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