Lean manufacturing is still a big part of business, but it has become second nature in most places and lost some of its original effect.\u00a0 Buzzwords and phrases like kaizen, six-sigma, and \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d are commonplace today, almost to the point of being clich\u00e9.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean their practices have become obsolete, however.\u00a0 An effective tool to use when trying to discover inefficiencies in a process is value stream mapping.\u00a0 This process requires you to follow your company\u2019s goods through their entire process flow within your organization.\u00a0 While this may sound easy, correctly doing it requires the help of the entire organization and can help uncover significant, sometimes enlightening, opportunities.<\/p>\n
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What is Value Stream Mapping?<\/strong><\/p>\n At its core, value stream mapping is nothing more than a process flow chart.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t have to be limited to a product-based manufacturing system. \u00a0Any process can be mapped, but your definition of \u201cproduct\u201d may vary.\u00a0 In some places, it may be the exchange of information.\u00a0 In others, it\u2019s a good or commodity-based product in which materials are received into a company, processed, and then shipped to the customer.\u00a0 The major checkpoints in the system are those in which \u201cvalue\u201d is added to the product.\u00a0 Again, your definition of \u201cvalue\u201d will change depending on the product, but the ideas are the same.\u00a0 Every time there is a change of state of the product, that process is noted.\u00a0 You will note all of these checkpoints during the event.<\/p>\n Value stream mapping typically takes place over a dedicated amount of time.\u00a0 These are not small events that can be done in an afternoon.\u00a0 To do it right, you may need a full day on smaller processes or a solid week for larger processes. These are cross-functional events where every team in the organization is involved.\u00a0 The value stream of a product should involve every department since every department is what keeps the organization moving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why map?<\/strong><\/p>\n We all as business people want our businesses to operate in the most efficient manner. We want to shorten timeframes and lower costs. Value stream mapping was designed as a way to visually see the flow of a product in an organization since people generally understand information better this way.\u00a0 The most important thing a value stream map event does is highlight problem areas or inefficiencies in an organization.\u00a0 As you follow a product\u2019s path within your company, you will likely uncover a lot of areas to improve upon.\u00a0 Multiple handling steps, redundant information and unnecessary processes are just a few of the items that show up.\u00a0 It is a very powerful tool that anyone can use to highlight problem areas so they may be addressed.<\/p>\n As you can see, the value of stream mapping is significant to every organization to continue improving. To learn how to apply this at your own organization, check out next week\u2019s blog in part II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lean manufacturing is still a big part of business, but it has become second nature in most places and lost some of its original effect.\u00a0 Buzzwords and phrases like kaizen, six-sigma, and \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d are commonplace today, almost to the point of being clich\u00e9.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean their practices have become obsolete, however.\u00a0 An effective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":10825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[92,1519,1518,1517],"class_list":["post-8688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-businessstrategyandfinance","tag-business-strategy","tag-process-efficiency","tag-process-flow","tag-value-stream-mapping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n