Elaborate data collection will soon be handled by software

This could soon belong to the past: The value stream analysis has been performed manually for over 40 years. In the future, software could assist with this. © University of Stuttgart IFF/Fraunhofer IPA, Photo: Rainer Bez, Heike Quosdorf

Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA are digitizing the value stream analysis together with the Stuttgart-based software provider iFAKT. This aims to make this proven optimization method feasible in the future with significantly less effort and almost in real time.

The value stream analysis has been conducted in the same way for over 40 years: an external service provider or an internal planning engineer surveys all production stations with a notepad and stopwatch, interviews employees, and measures how long each work step takes. From these notes, a comprehensive overview is manually created, representing each individual production process on an A3 sheet. Only when the current state of production is known in detail does it become clear where processes can be optimized.

The collection of data and creation of the overall overview could soon take much less time. In the future, software is expected to automatically and almost in real time query and clearly display all production data from the Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP system) and other available data sources. Manufacturing companies, which have so far mostly conducted a value stream analysis only once a year at most, could thus respond more quickly to changes in the production system. Because this system often changes multiple times throughout the year: new products are manufactured, processed with different raw materials than before, and perhaps additional machines are acquired.

Software could also apply design rules in the future

“But initially, it remains the task of a professional production planner to interpret the value stream analysis and apply the eight common design rules to it,” says Markus Böhm from the Department of Factory Planning and Production Management at Fraunhofer IPA. In the long term, the optimization of production processes could also be automated by software.

The research project “Real-time Value Stream Analysis for Sustainable Production Optimization” (ECOWERT) is planned for one year and runs until August 31, 2022. The Ministry of Economics, Labor, and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg is funding the project with nearly half a million euros from the funding program Invest BW.