Process Mapping & Value Stream Mapping (VSM):

A LEAN Manufacturing Tool

Aim of Programme

A Value Stream Map is a graphical representation of how all the steps in any process line up to produce a product or service, as well as the flow of information that triggers the process into action. In the product world, the process may be about something physical, like making a car, creating a design, or authoring a report. In the service world, the process may be calling a help desk, buying pre-prepared food for dinner, or obtaining a driver’s license.

A Value Stream Map plots the course from the input of raw materials through to the delivery of the finished goods or services to the customer. The customer identified at the end of a Value Stream Map is not necessarily the end customer or consumer who buys or consumes the final product or service; the customer may be another business or even someone or some other function within your own organization.

Current State Value Stream

The first Value Stream Map that you construct shows the current state — the way things are now. Next, you identify the ideal Value Stream Map — the idealized notion of the process in a perfect world, where all steps are only value-added steps. As you conduct improvement activities, which refine the current state, you update the Value Stream Map to reflect the changes to the process. The goal is to be continually improving the process — constantly moving it in the direction of the ideal state.

A Value Stream Map flows from left to right with time — raw materials come in on the left, the process steps line up in order of occurrence, and the finished products or services exit to the right. The main flow is like the river channel, and the ancillary processes are like tributaries that feed the main process. In addition, the process steps are timed and then further categorized as value-added or non-value-added. A full Value Stream Map includes not just the flow of materials, but also the flow of the supporting information.

The figure below is a typical Value Stream Map, drawn with standard conventions. It, no doubt, looks complex.  But stick with it and we’ll examine it step by step.

Value Stream Maps are often hand-drawn. However, software tools that enable the drawing, archiving, and e-mailing of VSMs are now available.   A basic version is now included with Visio.

These programs are useful, but you don’t have to have computer software to create a fully functional VSM. You can draw one anywhere, on just about anything, including a whiteboard, a pad of paper, or even a piece of scrap paper.  Anything will work, as long as it communicates!

A typical Value Stream map; a graphical representation of the value stream

The purpose of the Value Stream Map

Why is a Value Stream Map so useful? What does a VSM provide that other process diagrams or activity descriptions don’t? Here’s the list:

·         The VSM always has the customer’s perspective and is focused on delivering to the customer s expectations wants and needs

·         The VSM in a single view provides a complete fact based time series representation of the stream of activities — from beginning to end — required to deliver a product or service to the customer

·         The VSM provides a common language and common view to analyze the value stream

·         The VSM shows how the information flows to trigger and support those activities

·         The VSM shows you where your activities add value and where they don’t, enabling you to see what ultimate impedes your ability to supply and satisfy your customer.

After you construct the Value Stream Map, not only do you see the process from the customer’s point of view, but you also see what is required and how long it takes to deliver the product or service to the customer. The VSM shows you the primary activities, as well as the ancillary processes. And the VSM is not limited to the traditional functional perspective — it shows all the contributing activities and processes.

Creating the Ideal-State Value Stream Map: for a perfect world

If your process is in a state of ideal flow, you make one as the consumer takes one. The process is in perfect balance. All activities are value-added. All process steps take the same amount of time. There is no inventory in process. All process steps produce perfectly, without defects. You have the exact capacity needed for the consumption rate, with the precisely correct number of staff, trained perfectly for the tasks.

Ponder this for a moment: the process where everything is exactly right.  Don’t ruin the thought with the realities of imperfection — that’s for the next section. For now, picture utopia. See it all working perfectly.

Why define an Ideal-State VSM? Why spend legitimate business time and effort considering something that you probably can’t have? The reason is simple: Because you can have it. When you allow people to imagine cutting the ties of the past and letting go of the constraints of the current environment, you raise the collective consciousness and enable teams to engage in radical thinking that often identifies breakthrough opportunities. You simply can’t soar when your feet are nailed to the floor.

Frequently, the Ideal-State Value Stream Mapping exercise results in dramatic gains. The power of imagination is unbounded. When unbridled, ideas flow freely and great things emerge. The Ideal-State VSM produces the options for the next step: the future state.

Stepping closer to perfection: The Future -State Value Stream Map

Now it’s time to take all the mapping efforts, the analyses, and the ideal-state visions and marry them to define the future state. The improvements that you select now become the foundation for your planning activities. The Future-State Value Stream Map is your next increment of performance improvement.

What makes a VSM so useful, as opposed to standard process-flow diagrams?

A process-flow diagram is a valuable tool for identifying resources and interfaces, but that’s only part of the picture. A Value Stream Map is a more complete process flow— and it’s customer-centric. The Value Stream Map, in one place, shows not only how material flows through the value stream, but also the information flow, takt time, bottleneck operations, operator location, size and type of inventories, modes of transportation, as well as the relationship of customers and suppliers along the whole value stream. The value stream is much more comprehensive than a process flow diagram.

Why create an Ideal-State Value Stream Map?

Creating an Ideal-State VSM encourages you to think outside the box, looking at the value stream with an objective viewpoint to identify breakthrough ideas. It opens up your mind to the possibility of dramatic innovation, sometimes referred to as Kaikaku. Although the main focus of Lean is in making regular, small, incremental improvements, if you never take the time to contemplate or dream of a radically different state, you’ll be missing an opportunity for truly innovative improvement.

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