What is a Value Stream Map?
A Value Stream Map (VSM) is a visual representation of the value, information and material flow steps of a specific product or service within an organization. VSM sessions teach participants to see the organization through the customer’s eyes.
A VSM is a powerful approach to help a team/company to identify and eliminate waste in their work processes. A VSM Workshop enables participants to see the entire end-to-end value stream and identify where waste is present. Once revealed, it is the Team’s responsibility to come up with ways to reduce or eliminate the waste. These ‘projects’ are often referred to as Kaizen activities. In a VSM session, we create a visual representation of the workflow by interviewing subject matter experts and going to the organization to walk the process. We collect data, pictures and workflow items to help create a realistic picture of the value creation process.
The VSM Facilitator will lead a ‘Brown-Paper’ exercise to help the team create a Value Stream Map. The end result will be a picture as well as a list of activities for immediate, near-term and long-term attention. In addition, The Facilitator will reveal the actual Lead-Time, Cycle-Time and Value-Add % metric, which is an interesting measure of exactly how much waste is built into the Value Stream.
The VSM Sessions are a highly effective exercise to assist Business Managers and Lean Leaders from each location in understanding their businesses better at the operational level. These sessions serve to create a visual understanding of the constraints and inefficiencies businesses are experiencing in their operations and to link them to Lean thinking and Lean problem solving.
There are countless Value Streams that can be mapped at every organization. The VSM is a tool that can be applied over and over again. With a focus on transferring this knowledge and experience, TLC leads clients through a VSM session in a Facilitative Learning style. The objective is to enable your Lean Leaders to become more proficient in running Value Stream Mapping sessions on their own.
