Truck shipment
A delivery by truck: raw materials coming in from a supplier, or finished goods going out to a customer. The icon is a truck seen from the side.
How to read it
The UW-Stout study says the shipment icon stands for the movement of raw materials from suppliers to the factory’s receiving docks, or of finished goods from its shipping docks to customers, by external transport. The EPA toolkit’s key labels it truck shipment. On a map it sits between a factory icon and the plant.
Also searched as: shipment icon vsm, truck icon vsm, truck shipment symbol, value stream map truck shipment.
Variations
Some maps show a milk run, which the Lean Enterprise Institute describes as one vehicle making pick-ups and drop-offs at several facilities in turn.
Look-alikes
The Push arrow carries material between processes inside the plant.
Read next
- Next in Value stream mapping symbolsWithdrawal kanbanA signal to move parts from a supermarket to the process that uses them. The icon is a kanban card, a rectangle with one corner cut off.
- The same shape in US state flagsFlag of KentuckyKentucky’s flag is navy blue with the state seal in the centre: two men embracing, ringed by the motto “United we stand, divided we fall”, inside a wreath of goldenrod with “Commonwealth of Kentucky” above. The Kentucky Historical Society says the two men are symbolic, a frontiersman for the state’s frontier settlers and a statesman for Kentuckians who served in government, and not Daniel Boone and Henry Clay.
More value stream mapping symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Value Stream Mapping at XYZ Company, Madhubala Rauniyar, MS research paper, May 2007, Appendix A: Value Stream Process symbols, University of Wisconsin-Stout (MINDS@UW), Appendix A, Shipments; External Shipment
- Lean and Environment Toolkit, Version 1.0, Chapter 3 and Appendix A (Common Icons Used in Value Stream Maps), US Environmental Protection Agency, Appendix A, Common Icons Used in Value Stream Maps
- Milk Run, Lexicon term, Lean Enterprise Institute, Definition
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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