big picture of the whole chain and not just individual elements of the supply chain, and VSM is a tool to manage the change process (Rother & Shook, 2003). Furthermore, VSM:‘’Makes decisions more visible, allowing previous discussion of possible changes and improvements and forms the basis for an action plan‘’ (Dal Forno, Pereira, Forcellini, & Kipper, 2014, p.780). Hence, the method will be useful to understand and interpret the current channel design and create the future state, that will form the basis for possible changes, improvements and actions towards an OC design. The main steps in VSM are twofold, firstly the current state of operations is mapped, consequently, a future state map will be created.
Current state map
The current state map is designed to identify weaknesses of the current state, while one stepwise walks along the process (Abdulmalek & Rajgopal, 2007). The current state map is an illustration of the current design of processes, in order to find problems in the associated processes. The current state map is mainly based on information from the people that ‘work on the floor’ or perform daily activities regarding the illustrated processes. Process-level kaizen, as opposed by Rother and Shook (2003), is useful as approach within the current state since it eliminates waste on shop floor level through a focus on people and process flow.
Future state map
Subsequently to the current state map, the second step in VSM is the creation of the future state map. The result of this map is a visualization of the desired design of the system, after inefficiencies (waste) have been removed (Abdulmalek & Rajgopal, 2007), and adjustments towards value stream improvement are made (Rother & Shook, 2003). The future state is developed by questioning the efficiency of the system (Abdulmalek & Rajgopal, 2007). Additionally, questioning other issues in the system, such as the channel design, returns options, and information visibility might be useful as well.
Summarizing, VSM is regarded as a valuable tool to understand the current position of processes and find possibilities to make improvements in those processes (Dal Forno, Pereira, Forcellini, & Kipper, 2014). Making use of a lean method and find possibilities to make improvements
