Value-stream mapping
Value-stream mapping, also known as material- and information-flow mapping, is a lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of events that take a product or service from the beginning of the specific process until it reaches the customer. A value stream map is a visual tool that displays all critical steps in a specific process and easily quantifies the time and volume taken at each stage. Value stream maps show the flow of both materials and information as they progress through the process. Whereas a value stream map represents a core business process that adds value to a material product, a value chain diagram shows an overview of all activities within a company. Other business activities may be represented in "value stream diagrams" and/or other kinds of diagram that represent business processes that create and use business data. The purpose of value-stream mapping is to identify and remove or reduce "waste" in value streams, thereby increasing the efficiency of a given value stream. Waste removal is intended to increase productivity by creating leaner operations which in turn make waste and quality problems easier to identify. Value-stream mapping has supporting methods that are often used in Lean environments to analyze and design flows at the system level (across multiple processes). Although value-stream mapping is often associated with manufacturing, it is also used in logistics, supply chain, service related industries, healthcare, software development, product development, project management, and administrative and office processes. Daniel T. Jones (1995) identifies seven commonly accepted types of waste. These terms are updated from Toyota's operating model "The Toyota Way" (Toyota Production System, TPS) original nomenclature (muda): Faster-than-necessary pace: creating too much of a good or service that damages production flow, quality, and productivity. Previously referred to as overproduction, and leads to storage and lead time waste.
