Value Stream Analysis of Online Deliveries at Ecommerce Department in a Logistic Company

Abstract: Lean production is one of the proven approaches for identifying and eliminating the activities that do not add value to the customers and delivering and provide the best possible quality service to customers. Implementation of lean is deemed to be feasible in any organization regardless of its size or industry background. For initiating lean in an organization there are many tools, techniques and approaches that are available. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is one such tool that is touted as cost-effective and easy to be implemented. This thesis proposes to conduct Value Stream Analysis (VSA) at at e-commerce (online) department at the case company to understand their material and information flows by analyzing the current state and develop implementable solutions to improve the overall productivity of the online deliveries. The tasks to perform are: · To map the current state value stream. · To identify wastages and propose solutions to eliminate them. · To provide productivity improvement proposals. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study for data collection and data analysis. This project, which is designed as a longitudinal case study that pri-marily focuses on gathering accurate, real-time data related to the product family, and on drawing a visual representation of the current materials and information flow. VSM has been implemented and the data were analysed. The results obtained from this study concludes that, VSM is an appropriate technique to initiate lean ways of work in larger firms that lacks sufficient knowledge and experience on lean. In addition to it, produc-tivity improvement proposals provided in this study are considered to be key factors in initiating lean transformation in an organization from a technical point of view while, management support and acceptance of change is necessary from an organizational point of view. This thesis will be useful to researchers, professionals and others con-cerned subject to understand the significance of value stream mapping in larger e-com-merce logistic firms.