Value stream mapping is an important concept in lean manufacturing.

Value Stream Mapping is simply mapping on paper (often in pencil) the various information and processing steps to get a product from idea or raw material to finished product and to the customer.

Value Stream Maps should focus on the product itself, following it from beginning to end and including the information that needs to flow to various departments as the products moves through the process.

Placing all of this on paper in front of you enables you to see where the waste is. Every system has some form of waste. Even system which have implemented lean manufacturing principles can be improved. One small example of this is documentation that takes time to complete but goes nowhere. Another example is more movement of product than necessary.

The Value Stream Mapping enables seeing where the long lead times come from when the value added time is often a few minutes or hours. For example, if the lead time to produce a product and deliver to the customer is 7 days, but the actual time it takes to produce the product is 28 minutes, VSM will enable seeing the picture of the non value time.

It is important after developing the value stream map to involve many employees, both management and workers, to eliminate the non value added activities.

The VSM module is one of the first in the Lean Manufacturing course as the “big picture” must be seen first before attempting to develop a new Value Stream with less waste.

BPR’s lean manufacturing certification online courses can be completed at your convenience 24/7. Simply log in and begin the course. You can stop any time and come back to where you left off. Once the course is successfully completed, the certification will be mailed to you.