How efficient is your supply chain? : VALUE STREAM MAPPING

VSM is a tool to visually show all the actions (both value-added and non-valued-added) currently required to bring a product or service through to the customer.

What is the Goal?

To decrease the proportion of  time spent  not adding value to the company or to the customer.

How do we start?

• We map the key business processes to identify what happens at each stage and by whom this is done.
• We then identify the factors:
  • that cause bottlenecks and delays in the system.
  • that may not be the optimal way of doing things.
  • that give rise to opportunities for introducing new methods, better ways of communicating and Industry 4.0 techniques.

What techniques are used for mapping?

Two simple but sophisticated techniques are used to analyse the value-streams :

• Process activity mapping.
• Value-Added/Non-value added stream mapping.

What type of processes are examined in this way?

Everything!

For example :

• The design process from concept to product or service launch.
• The customer complaint or return process.
• The commercial transaction process from order capture to cash generation.
• Anything else which involves complex processes and input from people!

Click on the summary below for a taster of the course content.

Taster of value stream mapping

How is this programme structured for on-line delivery?

A typical on-line programme would be structured as follows:

• Step 1 : Identify the value-streams you wish to analyse. Allocate an owner(individual or team) to undertake the project for each value stream.
• Step 2  :Training session 1 : An overview of the process: Process Mapping. Learn to map a process.: 2 hours  online.
  
• Step 3 : Individual or Team go away and map the process under consideration using the templates provided : 2-3 weeks.
  
• Step 4 : Feedback on work completed, agree action plan  and deliver  2nd. training session : a study of the links in the supply chain : Activity Mapping : 2 hours  online.
• Step 5 : Individual or Team go away and develop Activity maps using the templates provided : 2-3 weeks.
  
• Step 6 : Feedback on work completed, agree expanded action plan and deliver 3rd.training session : A detailed examination of process efficiency: Value–Stream Mapping, focusing on the 8 Wastes of Muda : 2 hours  online.
• Step 7:  Individual or Team go away and develop detailed Value stream maps using the templates provided : 2-3 weeks.
  
• Final session : Feedback on work completed, agree on finalised action plan  : 2 hours  online.

Face to Face delivery.

Full details of the contents of typical face to face workshop programme on this subject can be obtained by clicking on this link :

Value stream mapping workshop outline

This can be summarised as follows :

UNIT 1  : 

Process activity mapping.

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a tool to visually show all the actions (both value-added and non-valued-added) currently required to bring a product or service through to the customer.

We map the supply chain to identify what happens and by whom this is done.

We also try to identify the factors…

•  That cause bottlenecks.

• That may not be the optimal way of doing things.

The emphasis during the initial training sessions is to get the attendees to start identifying what causes time and effort to be wasted , and the importance of developing more effective systems and procedures so that we ensure customer satisfaction and get maximum value for money.
This course deploys two simple but sophisticated techniques to analyse the value-streams :

• Process activity mapping
• Value-Added/Non-value added stream mapping.

Followed by Group exercise:

Central to the course is the ultimate development of Value stream maps for the processes under consideration using real-time information (often gathered by walking the job!).

Each attendee will therefore be asked to develop a process map of their own area of responsibility using a simple template the results of which will later be shared with their team.

The key outcome of this phase is to get all attendees to develop a process map and identify where opportunities exist to make measurable changes to the effectiveness of the target areas.
The improvements identified will be incorporated into an action plan and will be integrated with the ideas developed during the Value-stream mapping session below.

UNIT 2  : 

Value-Added/Non-value added stream mapping.

In this session we identify the key activities and training necessary to eliminate the ‘waste’ and deliver the process performance improvement by :

• Identifying the ’Vital few’ activities that cause inefficiency.
• Identifying the Root cause of these inefficiencies.
• Identifying what Opportunities exist to address these issues.
• Developing an Action plan to make this happen.

The key outcome of this phase is to get the attendees to develop a prioritised action plan and make measurable and visible changes to the performance of the target areas.

For each of the process steps in the map generated during the first session we ask :

• Can we eliminate/combine/simplify this step?
• What is the core purpose of this step and how else could it be accomplished?
• What could be done “upstream” that would allow us to eliminate this step?
• What effect do errors and variance at this step have on the rest of the process?

The key requirement of this phase will be for the attendees to develop Value-Stream maps for their area of responsibility and that they will be expected to lead their team in eliminating waste by reducing the non-value added ratio.

Followed by Group exercise:

Delegates will be divided into groups for an exercise to develop a value-stream map of their own area of responsibility using a simple template the results of which will later be shared with the wider team.

Typically we will look for sources of ‘Muda’ or process waste such as :