Running a value stream mapping exercise
Value stream mapping draws the full flow of material and information needed to deliver a product, distinguishing value-adding steps from waste and waiting. By making the whole flow and its delays visible on one chart, it reveals where lead time accumulates and guides a future-state design that removes the largest sources of waste.
What it is
A value stream map is a visual representation of every step a product passes through, with the information flows that trigger them and the time each step and queue consumes. The exercise maps the current state honestly, calculates how much of the total lead time is actually value-adding, then designs a future state that reduces inventory, waiting and rework rather than just speeding up individual steps.
Why it is done
Most of the time a product spends in a plant is waiting, not being worked on, yet improvement effort often targets the fast value-adding steps and ignores the queues between them. Mapping the whole stream exposes where lead time really hides, prevents local optimisation that does not help the customer, and creates a shared, fact-based picture for redesigning the flow.
How it is done
A product family is chosen and its current state walked and mapped from end to end, recording process times, queue times, inventory and the information signals that drive each step. The value-adding proportion of total lead time is calculated to show the scale of waste. A future-state map is then designed to smooth flow — reducing batch sizes, introducing pull, balancing steps — and a prioritised action plan turns that future state into sequenced improvement projects.
- Select product family
- Map current state
- Record times & inventory
- Calculate value-add ratio
- Design future state
- Plan improvement projects
What to watch for
Mapping in a meeting room from assumptions rather than walking the actual flow produces a tidy map that does not match reality. Drawing a beautiful future-state map with no sequenced action plan leaves the exercise as wall decoration that changes nothing on the floor.
Related practices
Reducing changeover time with SMED
Optimising clean-in-place (CIP)
Running a process capability study
Related topics
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) · Lean Manufacturing · Takt Time
Common in: Food Processing · Pharmaceuticals · Paper & Packaging · Steel & Metals · Brewing & Beverage · Dairy