Improving Process Of Quotation Creation Through Value Stream Mapping And Simulation

Nowadays many companies are applying the lean philosophy and value stream mapping (VSM) tool to eliminate and reduce losses and show possible places for further implementation of the lean concept. Since the system change takes place as a consequence, it is very useful to confirm the future system design performance before the actual implementation. This paper presents an application of VSM and computer simulation in a company for manufacturing and distribution of heating, cooling and neutral equipment for catering and trade industry. To improve the quotation creation process, the product configuration system is introduced. The performance of the new system design was confirmed using the discrete event simulation. Simulation results show several performance improvements. Conducted simulation experiments emphasize the better performance of new system design in terms of the accepted quotations, resource utilization, delivery time, work in process, non-value-added time and number of required operators.