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18 SMT Magazine • October 2015 high-value model that runs through the SMT line and complete backend processes. This im- provement project was specifically initiated by the sponsor to achieve operational excellence targets and be more competitive. During the VSM workshop, the team identi- fied nine opportunities for improvement (OFI) and classified them according to productivity, quality and delivery aspect of operations (see Table 1). Prioritization matrix is also established to guide the team on which OFI to prioritize. The matrix provides a means for ranking projects based on criteria that are determined to be important. This enables the team to see clearly which projects are the most important to focus on first based on effort and benefit. Among the improvement activities done during this VSM is the process improvement in the screen print process in SMT where cycle time was improved by 17% by changing the di- rection of auto stencil cleaning. This resulted in a 15% increase in SMT line capacity. In the backend process, changing the solder wire type used in the auto soldering process re- sulted in an 86% quality improvement. Layout analysis in both SMT and the backend process helped reduce unnecessary travel and motion that resulted in an 18% improvement in travel distance. Table 2 shows the improvement activities done based on the ranking. In summary, through this VSM the team was able to successfully achieve 23% productivity improvement, 18% process yield improvement and 14% improvement on the line balance in- dex through cycle time and line balancing im- provements. The change in layout reduced the total travel distance from 66 meters to 54 me- ters. All of the activities and improvements caused significant impact financially both for the company and for the customer. More im- portantly, the customer appreciated the efforts and the impact of the project on the business. Also known as an end-to-end system map, the VSM considers not only the activity of the product, but also the management and information systems that support the basic process. Maps are important and indispensable tools for travelers, geographers or anyone embarking on a journey. Just like a map, the VSM is an in- dispensable tool and technique for both OEMs and EMS companies in achieving lean manu- facturing. It gives the big picture point of view, exposes sources of wastes (not just the wastes), shows linkage between information flow and material flow, and forms the blueprint to iden- tify areas of improvement. SMt VALue StreAM MAPPInG: oPerAtIonALIzInG LeAn MAnuFActurInG FeATure Table 2. erwin Patrocinio is the manu- facturing engineering manager in charge of lean manufacturing implementation for philippine operations of integrated Micro-electronics inc. (iMi).