PurposeThis research develops value stream mapping (VSM) for L'Oreal's artwork process, to eliminate waste, reduce lead time and identify stages that can be automated, which makes the process less prone to human error and more responsive to fulfilling business-to-business customer requirements. In addition, amendments frequently occur slowing down the artwork process. In this context, VSM is applied to L'Oreal's artwork process to reduce lead time, human error and missed deadlines.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data from L'Oreal's artwork tracker from 2018–2019, which is manually tracked by the launch team. The service level agreement and task time data have been collected from 12 employees representing the launch, factory and marketing teams working on the artwork process. Qualitative feedback was also obtained from nine employees to validate the VSM for L'Oreal's artwork process.FindingsVSM identified stages that can be streamlined and automated in L'Oreal's artwork process, which makes the process more efficient and responsive to changing scope of the artworks. 50% of the stages have been eliminated from the manual artwork process, resulting in a reduced lead time of 10.5 days and a reduction of 28% spent on the process. This allows the artwork process to be more agile to the requirements of business-to-business customers. The proposed VSM shows a 73% increase in value-added time for a renovation and a 75% increase in value-added time for new product developments.Originality/valueVSM has been specifically designed, developed and analyzed for L'Oreal's artwork process, in order to make the process more efficient and responsive to business-to-business customer’s requirements.

This research develops value stream mapping (VSM) for L'Oreal's artwork process, to eliminate waste, reduce lead-time, and identify stages that should be automated, which makes the process less prone to human error and more responsive to fulfilling B2B (B2B) customer requirements. Additionally, amendments frequently occur slowing down the artwork process. In this context, VSM is applied to L'Oreal's artwork process to reduce lead-time, human error, and missed deadlines. This practitioner note uses data from L'Oreal's artwork tracker from 2018 to 2019, which is manually tracked by the launch team. The service level agreement and task time data has been collected from 12 employees representing the launch, factory, and marketing teams working on the artwork process. Qualitative feedback was also obtained from nine employees to validate the VSM for L'Oreal's artwork process. VSM identified stages that should be streamlined and automated in L'Oreal's artwork process, which makes the process more efficient and responsive to the changing scope of the artworks. Fifty percent of the stages have been eliminated from the manual artwork process, resulting in a reduced lead-time of 10.5 days and a reduction of 28% time spent on the process. This allows the artwork process to be more agile to the requirements of B2B customers. Moreover, the proposed VSM shows a 73% increase in value added time for a renovation and a 75% increase in value added time for new product developments (NPD). VSM has been used within many functions in a business, such as operations and supply chain management, however, its application within marketing has not been extensively explored. This practitioner note attempts to fill this gap by applying VSM to L'Oreal's artwork process (AP). Moreover, this research extends the understanding of the concept and application of VSM within the context of lean in a marketing process. VSM has successfully identified the inefficiencies in the artwork process and highlighted the stages in the process that should be removed or automated thereby, making the process responsive and agile to meet the changing requirements of B2B customers. VSM has been successfully applied to L'Oreal's artwork process that resulted in a significant reduction in the total number of stages in the proposed process by eliminating non-value added activities. Efficiency gained through the application of VSM will lead to increased B2B customer satisfaction, reduced lead-time, and reduction in human errors and missed deadlines. VSM has been specifically designed, developed, and analyzed for L'Oreal's artwork process, in order to make the process more efficient and responsive to B2B customers' requirements.