Value Stream Mapping is a method of visually mapping a product's production path (materials and information) from "door to door". VSM can serve as a starting point to help management, engineers, production associates, schedulers, suppliers, and customers recognize waste and identify its causes. The process includes physically mapping your "current state" while also focusing on where you want to be, or your "future state" blueprint, which can serve as the foundation for other Lean improvement strategies. |
A value stream is all the actions (both value added and non-value added) currently required to bring a product through the main flows essential to every product:
the production flow from raw material into the arms of the customer
the design flow from concept to launch
Taking a value stream perspective means working on the big picture, not just individual processes, and improving the whole, not just optimizing the parts.
Value Stream Mapping is a pencil and paper tool that helps you to see and understand the flow of material and information as a product makes its way through the value stream. The meaning is simple: Follow a product's production path from customer to supplier, and carefully draw a visual representation of every process in the material and information flow. Then ask a set of key questions and draw a "future state" map of how value should flow. |
Within the production flow, the movement of material through the factory is the flow that usually comes to mind. But there is another flow - of information - that tells each process what to make or do next. You must map both of these flows.
Value Stream Mapping can be a communication tool, a business planning tool, and a tool to manage your change process. The first step is drawing the current state, which is done by gathering information on the shop floor. This provides the information needed to map a future state. The final step is to prepare and begin actively using an implementation plan that describes, on one page, how you plan to achieve the future state.
More and more organizations with successful shop-floor lean efforts are also applying Value Stream Mapping methods and lean principles to administrative areas. Value Stream Mapping provides a simple, yet thorough methodology that relies on relevant data analysis and display. It links reporting requirements, metrics, people, and lean tools to sustain improvement and promote process learning. It gives managers and employees the same tool and language to communicate.
WHY VALUE STREAM MAPPING IS A GOOD PLACE TO START YOUR LEAN JOURNEY
- it helps you visualize more than just the single-process level, i.e. assembly, welding, etc.
- it helps you see more than waste it helps you see the sources of waste in your value stream
- it provides a common language for talking about manufacturing processes
- it makes decisions about the flow apparent, so you can discuss them
- it ties together lean concepts and techniques helps you avoid "cherry picking"
- it forms the basis of an implementation plan
- it shows the linkage between the information flow and the material flow
- it is much more useful than quantitative tools and layout diagrams that produce a tally of non-value added steps, lead time, distance traveled, the amount of inventory, and so on.
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