Any idea on how much fat might have accumulated around your business processes? Thoughts on how much of your organizations resources are being wasted in pursuit of delivering results to your customers?
Value Stream Mapping is the exact technique you need to answer the questions posed above. It's a lean development technique that is used to identify and strip wasteful steps out of a company's flow of information and materials. The end goal of the technique is to make the company "lean," meaning free of wasted effort by improving the processes.
The idea is to capture the entire process (and current issues) from end to end in a method that is easy to understand by those working the process while presenting a realistic picture.
The method that Reston uses to conduct Value Stream Mapping exercises encourages a team approach and the capture of performance measurement data such that an activity can be constructively critiqued. Participants in the activity are encouraged to suggest improvements and contribute towards and implement an action plan. While conducting a Value Stream Mapping exercise, we categorize a process activity in one of three areas: Value-Add, Non Value-Add (but necessary) and Waste.
Our Value Stream Mapping workshops are made simple by design crisply planned with clear agenda and timeline, validated list of attendees and a structured process to arrive at meaningful results that ensure value to the organization. Here are some of the important steps we use in planning and conducting a Value Stream Mapping workshop:
- Determine a project sponsor or champion who can make decisions, arbitrate solutions and plan the project
- Determine the VSM team while ensuring that each area or the stakeholder of the process is represented
- Select process to be mapped
- Collect data and produce current state map
- Critique current state identify bottlenecks / pain-points that hinder smooth flow of business
- Articulate desired future state of business
- Create an action plan. This will include a phased approach to achieve future state and definition of performance driver metrics that can help monitor progress towards the future state
- Measure benefits