A Strategically Systematic Approach to Acquire Improvement Project Prospects in a Medical Device Company

Abstract

Abstract - Numerous companies begin their manufacturing improvement journey lacking an overall game plan. This results in a not strategized and structured improvement implementation with results less than optimal and if the results are good, it’s because the company is decent at firefighting. The use of Value Stream Mapping as a standard tool to identify and plan improvements will set the roots for a strong improvement project prospects system. Value Stream Mapping can provide a one page representation of all processes that occur from order placement through order receipt by the customer. This snapshot helps an organization, in this case, a medical device company, to identify non value adding activities in a current process and the opportunities for improvement. Key Terms - DMAIC, Information and Material Flow, Lean, Value Stream Mapping.