Information stream mapping: Mapping, analysing and improving the efficiency of information streams in manufacturing value streams

Inaccurate, incomplete and late information limits the capability and efficiency of production systems. In this paper, a structured approach is proposed for analysing and improving information streams to mitigate this problem. The improvement of information streams is especially demanding as production environments increase in complexity, for example due to higher product variety, more complex products, and accordingly, more sophisticated manufacturing processes. A novel method is introduced that enables an analysis similar to value stream mapping, but particularly for information streams in a production environment. The proposed approach improves information streams by mapping and analysing the characteristics of them. Therefore, five performance indicators are developed to comparably assess the current state of information streams. The approach was tested and validated on a shop floor of a producer of sanitary products. The validation shows that the proposed information stream mapping method could efficiently highlight improvement potentials of information streams on the shop floor and thus the ability of the method to improve the overall productivity. In a first application it is shown that the taken measures are expected to reduce the lead time from five days to four hours. In a second application, the personal cost of a tool exchange is reduced by 8%.