What type of activities transform materials and information into something the customer wants?
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Value stream mapping can be incredibly useful in various industries. If you're a novice to using value stream mapping software like Lucidchart, you'll find that this guide covers all you need to know about the definition, history, and uses of value stream mapping, along with step-by-step instructions for conducting your own value stream analysis. Show
18 minute read Want to make a value stream map of your own? Try Lucidchart. It's quick, easy, and completely free. Make a value stream map What is value stream mapping?Value stream mapping is a flowchart method to illustrate, analyze and improve the steps required to deliver a product or service. A key part of lean methodology, VSM reviews the flow of process steps and information from origin to delivery to the customer. As with other types of flowcharts, it uses a system of symbols to depict various work activities and information flows. VSM is especially useful to find and eliminate waste. Items are mapped as adding value or not adding value from the customer’s standpoint, with the purpose of rooting out items that don’t add value.  It’s important to keep in mind that customers, whether external or internal, care about the value of the product or service to them, not the efforts it took to produce it, or the value that may flow to other customers. Value stream mapping maintains that focus. A typical process is to draw a current state VSM and then model a better way with a future state and/or ideal state VSM. You can start off sketching by hand and then move to VSM software for better communication, analysis and collaboration. History of value stream mappingThis type of mapping may be older than many people think. Examples of diagrams showing the flow of materials and information are contained in a 1918 book called Installing Efficiency Methods, by Charles E. Knoeppel. Later, this type of diagramming became associated with the vaunted Toyota Production System and the whole lean manufacturing movement, although it was typically called material and information flow mapping, process mapping or other names, not value stream mapping. The people most often credited with creating the Toyota Production System, starting in earnest in the 1950s, include: Shigeo Shingo (1909-1990), a Japanese industrial engineer, Toyota consultant and namesake of the Shingo Prize for lean excellence; and Toyota executives Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990); Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952) and Eiji Toyoda (1913-2014). By the 1990s, as lean production methods in manufacturing and other fields were spreading to the United States and worldwide, "value stream map" became an increasingly common term for them—and VSM became central to lean methodology in many places. Value stream mapping also came to be used in Six Sigma methodologies. Lean and Six Sigma both have the same goal: to eliminate waste and create the most efficient system possible. But they identify waste differently. While lean practitioners focus on non-valued-added activities, Six Sigma followers focus more on process variations resulting in waste. Each has been successful in different situations, leading to the formation of Lean Six Sigma, a combined approach. Other key people in the lean movement and the use of VSM include: James P. Womack, founder the Lean Enterprise Institute; Daniel T. Jones, founder of the Lean Enterprise Academy in the U.K.; John Y. Shook, chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute; Karen Martin, founder of the Karen Martin Group for lean consulting; and Mike Osterling, founder of Osterling Consulting. VSM purpose and benefitsValue stream mapping is a powerful method to ferret out waste in any process, not just manufacturing. That’s its core purpose. You detail each significant process step and evaluate how it’s adding value—or not adding value—from the customer’s standpoint. That focus on value keeps the analysis targeted to what really matters, allowing the company to compete most effectively in the market. Foreseeing or facing any competitive threat, lean practitioners can make good use of VSM to produce the most value for the customer in the most efficient way possible. It can and should be used on an ongoing basis for continuous improvement, bringing better and better process steps on line. VSM allows you to see not only the waste, but the source or cause of the waste. Value stream mapping, as with other good visualizations, serves as an effective tool for communication, collaboration and even culture change. Decision makers can clearly visualize the current state of the process and where waste is occurring. They can see problems like process delays, excessive downtime, constraints and inventory issues. And with the Future State and/or Ideal State VSM, they can see precisely how to improve. Although its typical purpose is eliminating waste, VSM can also be seen from the perspective of adding value. After all, that’s what the customer cares about. Eliminating waste is the means to an end of creating value, such as a lower price and/or better-quality product or service. Value is something a customer is willing to pay for. The title of a popular VSM book is even: Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate Muda, by Mike Rother and John Shook. (Muda is lean terminology for waste.) VSM caveatsWhile Value Stream Mapping is core to lean methods, it often requires a substantial investment of people and time to do it, and if not applied wisely, it can be wasteful in itself. You of course want profitable applications of value stream mapping. It requires team members skilled in carrying out advanced VSM, and it may take days, weeks or even months to carry out some involved mapping projects. Think of it as a powerful tool central to lean methods, but not every circumstance lends itself to value stream mapping. You need to balance potential value with the work necessary to conduct the VSM. You might choose to start small, with a limited focus and a limited budget, get the win and then move on to something more complex and potentially rewarding. Oftentimes, senior leaders may try to bite off something too large initially, and the effort may struggle due to its complexity and possible inexperience of the team. Potential uses of more extensive VSM include:
Remember, an improvement in one process step or in one part of production won’t always translate to a bottom line improvement. Often, a fuller look will be required. However, keeping those caveats in mind, an individual could try VSM on a budget for a simple review that might produce results or at least help you to better understand VSM. After reading up on the basics (and you’re off to a good start with this article), you might just grab a pencil and legal-size pad, and armed with the step-by-step instructions listed later in this article, start mapping. You’ll map out the process steps, data for each step (such as cycle time), improvements you think you could make for an “ideal state,” and a summary showing how your improvements help each data point and overall value. Just keep in mind that this would be a tiny taste of what expert value stream mapping can accomplish. How VSM is used in different fieldsIn manufacturing: To find waste in the production process by analyzing each step of material handling and information flow. This is where lean methodology got its start in the 1950s at Toyota, and lean methods and value stream mapping remain key to manufacturing throughout the world. Of course, they have since spread to other fields and have become intertwined with Six Sigma methods and Lean Six Sigma. Supply chain and logistics: To root out waste and costly delays at the various points on the supply chain leading to finished product. Software engineering/development: To find inefficiencies in software development, from idea to implementation, including feedback loops and rework. Although some critics question the value of VSM in an agile development environment, others find it useful to gain efficiencies, such as reducing wait time between steps or reducing the need for rework. Service industries: To improve the value and find waste in the activities required to carry out any service for external customers. Healthcare: To improve the steps required to treat patients in the most effective, timely, cost-efficient, high-quality way possible. Office and administrative: To find wasteful steps and improve the service provided within a business to internal customers. In value stream mapping, the process items that flow through the value stream are determined by the field. For example:
Diagramming is quick and easy with Lucidchart. Start a free trial today to start creating and collaborating. Make a value stream mapWhat symbols are usedVSM symbols vary in different places, but they fall into these four categories: process, material, information and general. The symbols can be complicated, although some simply imply their meaning in a layman's sense, such as a truck icon for external shipments and eyeglasses for something to go see. Here are some widely used symbols. VSM process symbols/iconsSymbolNameDescriptionCustomer/SupplierRepresents customer in upper right or supplier in upper left.Dedicated Process FlowA fixed activity flow within a department.Shared ProcessA process shared by other parts of the value stream.Data BoxData about the process step, such as cycle time, change over time and uptime.WorkcellIndicates that multiple processes are being integrated in a manufacturing workcell.VSM material symbolsSymbolNameDescriptionInventoryInventory between two processes.VSM information symbolsSymbolNameDescriptionProduction ControlA central production scheduling or control operation, department or personManual InfoShows the general flow of info from memos or conversation.Electronic InfoSuch as EDI (electronic data interchange), the internet, WANs (wide area network), LANs (local area network) or intranets.Production KanbanTriggers the production of a predetermined number of parts. This signals a supplying process to provide the parts to another downstream process.Withdrawal KanbanA device or card that informs a material handler to transfer parts from a supermarket to the receiving process.VSM general symbolsSymbolNameDescriptionKaizen BurstAttention-getting symbol highlights improvement needs to achieve the future state Value Stream Map.OperatorNumber of operators required to process the VSM family for a particular workstation.OtherOther useful information.TimelineShows cycle times and wait/down times. Used for calculating Lead Time and Total Cycle Time.Along with the timeline symbol, there’s also the lean concept of takt time, the rate at which a finished product needs to be completed to meet customer demand. (Takt is a German word for an orchestra conductor’s baton.) Need more detail? See this in-depth article on VSM symbols and how to use them. Value Stream AnalysisIn lean theory, the “value stream” refers to all of the actions required to bring a product or service from concept or raw material to finished good. Each action contributes value to the finished product, ideally working together efficiently to create a continuously flowing stream of value. The first step toward creating a lean environment – increasing value and removing waste – is analyzing the value stream. This provides the foundation for creating an improvement plan. By examining the current state of a system, actions that add to value creation can be clearly separated from those that create waste, making it easier to locate opportunities for improvement. Value stream mapping supports stream analysis by simplifying a complex system into a map. The map illustrates the outcomes of the value stream analysis, providing a visual tool to facilitate understanding and communication. The next section outlines the steps for completing a value stream analysis, creating a current state map, developing future and ideal state maps, and ultimately carrying out a lean plan. These steps are best practices for VSM and provide organization to value stream analysis, hopefully leading to the best possible outcome: an efficient and integrated material and information flow system. How to conduct value stream analysis, step by stepThe wording here includes examples from lean manufacturing, but you can apply these steps to software engineering, service industries, healthcare or other fields, as discussed earlier in this article. What type of activities transform materials and information into something the customer wants multiple choice question service non valueValue-adding activities transform materials and information into something the customer wants.
What type of production only produces what is needed when it is needed?Example of Manufacturing
Just-in-Time: Each process manufactures only what is essential for the current process.
What is defined as anything that does not add value from the customer's perspective?Waste, therefore, is defined as anything that does not add value from the customer's perspective. Examples of process wastes are defective products, overproduction, inventories, excess motion, processing steps, transportation, and waiting.
What type of schedule requires material to be pulled into final assembly in a uniform pattern?Level schedule is a type of schedule that pulls materials into the final assembly at a constant rate.
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