The value stream of lean production technology and prospects for its dehumanization (on the example of TechnoNICOL)
The article aims to study the value stream. The research's methodological basis is lean production technology. The research's object is a TechnoNICOL industrial company with many years of experience in successfully implementing lean production technology. The article states that such an essential lean production technology tool as a value stream map mainly focuses on physical and distribution activities. In this regard, it is proposed to complement the map with other functional industrial enterprise levels, namely economic, technological, and design levels, which also create value. These levels have differences in the ratio of routine and innovative activities, determining a company's ability to adapt quickly to market conditions. It is emphasized that the sources of lean production technology's efficiency are primarily the minimization of labor costs, inventories, and equipment universalization. This, in turn, requires the maximum alignment of the product manufacturing process and demand for it. Total digitalization facilitates these goals, having the potential to completely displace humans from the production process, leaving them only the technological and design functions. This will result in production dehumanization and its transformation into a closed technosphere. Besides, another ramification of this process will be the elimination of entrepreneurial activity as we understand it now and its transformation into administrative activity. The conducted research's results can be useful for updating the value stream map and predicting the long-term results of lean production technology implementation.