How to do a value stream map (VSM) of the customer orderingprocess for the X-opoly scenario?

X-Opoly, Inc., was founded by two first-year college students toproduce a knockoff real estate board game similar to the popularParker Brothers; game Monopoly®. Initially, the partners startedthe company just to produce a board game based on popular locallandmarks in their small college town, as a way to help pay fortheir college expenses. However, the game was a big success andbecause they enjoyed running their own business, they decided topursue the business full-time after graduation.

X-Opoly has grown rapidly over the last couple of years,designing and producing custom real estate trading games foruniversities, municipalities, chambers of commerce, and lately evensome businesses. Orders range from a couple of hundred games to anoccasional order for several thousand. This year X-Opoly expects tosell 50,000 units and projects that its sales will grow 25 percentannually for the next five years.

X-Opoly’s orders are either for a new game board that has notbeen produced before, or repeat orders for a game that waspreviously produced. If the order is for a new game, the clientfirst meets with a graphic designer from X-Opoly’s art departmentand the actual game board is designed. The design of the board cantake anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on howmuch the client has thought about the game before the meeting. Alldesign work is done on personal computers.

After the client approves the design, a copy of the computerfile containing the design is transferred electronically to theprinting department. Workers in the printing department load thefile onto their own personal computers and print out the boarddesign on special decals, 19.25 inches by 19.25 inches, usinghigh-quality color inkjet printers. The side of the decal that isprinted on is usually light gray, and the other side contains anadhesive that is covered by a removable backing.

The printing department is also responsible for printing theproperty cards, game cards, and money. The money is printed oncolored-paper using standard laser printers. Ten copies of aparticular denomination are printed on each 8.5-inch by 11-inchpiece of paper. The money is then moved to the cutting department,where it is cut into individual bills. The property cards and gamecards are produced similarly, the major difference being that theyare printed on material resembling posterboard.

In addition to cutting the money, game cards, and propertycards, the cutting department also cuts the cardboard that servesas the substrate for the actual game board. The game board consistsof two boards created by cutting a single 19-inch by 19.25-inchpiece of cardboard in half, yielding two boards each measuring19.25 inches by 9.5 inches. After being cut, game boards, money,and cards are stored in totes in a work-in-process area anddelivered to the appropriate station on the assembly line asneeded.

Because of its explosive growth, X-Opoly’s assembly line wasnever formally planned. It simply evolved into the 19 stationsshown in the following table.

Station	Task(s) Performed at Station	Time to Perform Task
1	Get box bottom and place plastic money tray in box bottom. Taketwo dice from bin and place in box bottom in area not taken up bytray	10 seconds
2	Count out 35 plastic houses and place in box bottom	35 seconds
3	Count out 15 plastic hotels and place in box bottom.	15 seconds
4	Take one game piece from each of eight bins and place them inbox bottom.	15 seconds
5	Take one property card from each of 28 bins. Place rubber bankaround property cards and place cards in box bottom.	40 seconds
6	Take one orange card from each of 15 bins. Place rubber bandaround cards and place cards in box bottom.	20 seconds
7	Take one yellow card from each of 15 bins. Take orange cardsfrom box and remove rubber band. Place yellow cards on top oforange cards. Place rubber band around yellow and orange cards andplace card in box bottom.	35 seconds

8	Count out 25 $500 bills and attach to cardboard strip withrubber band. Place money in box bottom.	30 seconds
9	Count out 25 $100 bills. Take $500 bills from box bottom andremove rubber band. Place $100 bills on top of $500 bills. Attachrubber band around money and place in box bottom.	40 seconds
10	Count out 25 $50 bills. Take $500 and $100 bills from box bottomand remove rubber band. Place $50 bills on top. Attach rubber bandaround money and place in box bottom.	40 seconds
11	Count out 50 $20 bills. Take money in box and remove rubberband. Place $20 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money andplace in box bottom.	55 seconds
12	Count out 40 $10 bills. Take money in box and remove rubberband. Place $10 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money andplace in box bottom.	45 seconds
13	Count 40 $5 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber band.Place $5 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place inbox bottom.	45 seconds
14	Count out 40 $1 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber bank.Place $1 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place inbox bottom.	45 seconds
15	Take money and remove rubber band. Shrink-wrap money and placeback in box bottom.	20 seconds
16	Take houses, hotels, dice, and game pieces and place in bag.Seal bag and place bag in box.	30 seconds
17	Place two cardboard game board halves in fixture so that theyare separated by ¼ in. Peel backing off of printed game boarddecal. Align decal over board halves and lower it down. Removeboard from fixture and flip it over. Attach solid blue backingdecal. Flip game board over again and fold blue backing over frontof game board, creating a ¼-in. border. Fold game board in half andplace in box covering money tray, game pieces, and cards.	90 seconds
18	Place game instructions in box. Place box top on box bottom.Shrink-wrap entire box.	30 seconds
19	Place completed box in carton.	10 seconds