Sustainable value stream mapping (Sus-VSM) in different manufacturing system configurations: application case studies

Achieving sustainability in manufacturing requires a holistic view spanning product design, manufacturing processes, manufacturing systems, and the entire supply chain. Such an approach must be taken to ensure the economic, environmental and societal goals of sustainability are achieved. Value stream mapping (VSM) is an important technique used in Lean manufacturing to identify and visualize waste. However, conventional VSM does not directly consider the environmental or societal performance of production lines. Sustainable VSM (Sus-VSM) is a proposed extension of conventional VSM that incorporates metrics for sustainability. The ability to visually assess manufacturing sustainability through VSM increases its usefulness as a tool to identify potential areas of improvement. This paper will examine in detail three case studies to demonstrate the breadth of applicability of the Sus-VSM tool. The findings from the case studies will be used to further examine the aptness and limitations of the tool in assessing and visualizing sustainability performance in different manufacturing system configurations. Potential avenues to overcome the noted issues are discussed for each case. The presented discussions act to validate the proposed methodology, highlighting its flexibility for use in many manufacturing contexts.