Value Stream Mapping

In General the part is not technically waiting until it is physically received as inventory. If this shipment is already considered inventory and is simply a transfer of inventory, then the whole time would be counted. The reason I say this is if a shipment arrives late in the afternoon and does not get Physically Received until the next day, obviously a long wait time, but the actual act of receiving may only be a few minutes.
Chad Taylor

If you refer to the “Current State Map” section of Learning to See, in the example the authors show inventory triangles between each process step and preceeding the first process step in the example.  (Look at page 33 for the final sample)
I would recommend you use that to account for the parts awaiting “their turn for Recieving”.  In this fashion, the parts awaiting recieving are not apart of the recieving cycle time.  However the time duration for a part to make it through recieving from when it arrives “at the dock” is dependent upon the Recieving process step’s cycle time.  I.E: If recieving’s cycle time is 5 minutes and the “inventory” prior to recieving is 1,000 parts then their is 5,000 minutes of inventory (or ~3.5 days of inventory assuming continuous 24 hr operations).  Meaning that after arriving at the dock, that part will take ~3.5 days before it is actually recieved into the plant.
Hope that this suggestion helps some.

The whole point of VSM is to help identify areas of waste or where value is not being added.  The parts waiting on the dock is a time where no value is being added.  This is certainly a time to be measured.  The benifit for knowing this time is to determine if this is an area where you need to make improvement.  Parts waiting on the dock are parts that could be used in a value adding process.

Total cycle time is the total elapsed time, exluding non-business hours. For example, the business closes at 5h00PM and reopens at 8h00AM. If the part arrives at 4h00PM and is physically received at 9h00AM the next morning, cycle time is 2 hours.

I agree with Chad’s logic but you have to also consider the question from the customer perspective.  Why are you doing this project in the first place?  In my experience, it is probably because the “customer” is waiting too long for whatever it is that is coming through the receiving door.  They don’t care if it is sitting on the dock or in process, they just want the part or product.  If this is so, you have to set your process limits accordingly, otherwise you might miss the boat.
Good luck,
Patch

All, Take a quick look at this.  As both Ron and I were trying to explain, it hope this picture helps eliminate confusion…
That first inventory triangle, that is your “stuff at the loading dock” awaiting their turn to be received.  The first process block, that is your Receiving Process step (with all information ONLY pertaining to the process of receiving an item).  The time-line portion below the first inventory triangle is how you will account for all of the WAITING time that the items must endure prior to actually being received.
I hope that this helps.
Good luck…

Hi Mike,
Been a while.  We should get back in touch.
514.873.7414

Patch,
I will give you a call. I am headed for Mexico this afternoon and will try you in between flights.
Good to see you are still around.
Regards