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Business is
growing more competitive every day. In order to keep up with customer demand
and expectations, companies are having to work faster and be more efficient
than ever before. Value stream management is an emerging business process
intended to gauge the flow of value into business resources and activities as
well as the flow of value back into the business.
Value stream
mapping helps a business oversee the complete end-to-end activity cycle and
measure the success of that activity cycle. In short, value stream mapping
helps a business see what works and what doesn’t. This lets a business focus on
beneficial initiatives while reducing or limiting less-valuable activities and
initiatives.
What is
value stream mapping?
Value stream
mapping is a tremendously valuable tool for improving a process. Well suited
for a broad range of industries and processes. A value stream map is a visual
depiction of the flow of materials and information that provide the customer
with a product or service.
To understand
value stream mapping, we need to first understand what a “value stream” is.
Simply put, a value stream is a series of steps that occur to provide the
product or service that their customers want or need. In order to provide the
product or service that the customers desire, every company has a set of steps
that are required. Value stream mapping enables us to better understand what
these steps are, where the value is added, where it’s not, and more
importantly, how to improve upon the collective process.
The value
stream map provides us with a structured visual image of the key steps and
corresponding data needed to understand and intelligently make improvements
that optimize the entire process, not just one section at the expense of
another. It also describes the lead time of various operations and can be used
as a starting point for analyzing necessary activities and the amount of waste
in the value stream.
Value-stream
mapping is a useful tool for grasping the current situation and for planning
improvements. A current state value-stream map depicts the current situation as
is. A future state value-stream map depicts what the value stream should look
like after planned improvements have been implemented.
You can learn more in my article published in Quality Magazine: The Secrets to Creating an Effective Value Stream Map
Value stream mapping is a powerful tool that reveals every step of your activity cycle, helping you identify what drives success and what doesn’t. By spotlighting high-impact initiatives and streamlining less valuable ones, you’ll optimize efficiency and maximize results. Discover what truly works and transform your business today!
