Hello everyone, welcome to this video on value stream mapping under the Lean

Methodology series. Value stream mapping is an extremely powerful lean tool if used
appropriately. To understand this better, let's ask ourselves what is value? It is
actually what the customer is willing to pay for, decided by quality, price and
time.
This is formed by the flow of material and information from design to delivery and
this flow creates value for the customer. Mapping the stream of value is called
value stream mapping or popularly VSM and it helps identify waste, reduce process
cycle time and implement other process improvement activities.
The complete value stream mapping activity is divided into three distinct phases.
Current state, that is the as-is process, future state, that is the to-be process
and finally the next future state, which is actually the ideal state.
So, we have discussed about value, stream and mapping. But what flows through a
value stream? Let's quickly see a few examples.
In manufacturing, what flows in the value stream are materials. In design and
development, designs flow in the value stream.
Talk about the service industry. It is the external customer needs that flow
through the value stream. In an internal setup, for example, our administration
department at our workplace, internal customer needs are what flows through the
value stream.
When we map a value stream, there are standard symbols which we use to denote
specific events or activities in the stream. There are different categories of such
symbols. Let's quickly go through them in the next few slides.
The first category would be process symbols. The first one is a customer or
supplier icon, which represents the supplier when in the upper left corner of the
value stream map or the customer when it's in the upper right corner of the value
stream map.
Process. It is a dedicated process flow icon, which means a process, operation,
machine or department through which material flows. It represents one department
with a continuous internal and fixed flow.
The third one is a shared process icon, which means a process, operation,
department or work center that other value stream families can share.
Next one is a data box icon. It goes under other icons that have significant
information, data required for analyzing and observing the system.
The last one is the work cell icon. It indicates that multiple processes are
integrated in a manufacturing work cell. So these were the process symbols.
Let's move on to material symbols now. The first one is an inventory icon, which
shows inventory between two processes. Next one is a shipment icon, representing
movement of raw materials from one point to the other.
Third one is a push arrow icon, which represents the pushing of material from one
process to the next process.
Fourth one is a supermarket icon. Supermarket, so an inventory supermarket. It is
also known as a can ban stock point.
The next one is a material pull icon, where supermarkets connect to downstream
processes with this pull icon.
The next one is a FIFO lane icon. FIFO, as we know, first in, first out inventory.
We can use this icon when processes are connected with a FIFO system that limits
the input.
Next, a safety stock icon, which represents an inventory hedge against problems
such as downtime to protect the system against sudden fluctuations in customer
orders or system failures.
External shipment icon. These are shipments from suppliers or to customers using
external transport.
The next category of information is symbols, which are actually known as
information symbols. The first one is production control.
This box represents a central production scheduling or control department, person
or operation.
Next one is a manual info icon. It's a straight thin arrow, which generally shows
the flow of information from memos, reports or conversation.
Third is an electronic info icon. This wiggle arrow represents electronic flow,
such as electronic data interchange over the internet, intranets, WANs, etc.
Fourth one is a production can ban icon. This icon triggers production of a
predefined number of parts.
Next, withdrawal can ban icon. This icon represents a card or device that instructs
a material handler to transfer parts from a supermarket to the receiving process.
Then we have the signal can ban icon, which we can use whenever the on hand
inventory levels in the supermarket between two processes drops to a trigger or
minimum point.
Next is a can ban post icon, a location where can ban signals reside for pickup.
Then we have the sequenced pull icon. It represents a pull system that gives
instruction to sub-assembly processes.
Then we have the load leveling icon, a tool to batch can bans in order to level the
production volume and mix over a period of time.
Then we have the MRP or the ERP icon, which we use to schedule using MRP or ERP or
other centralized systems.
We have the go see icon for gathering of information through visual means. Then we
have the verbal information icon, which represents verbal or personal information
flow.
Moving on to the last category of symbols, which is the general symbols.
We have the case and burst icon used to highlight improvement needs and plan case
and workshops.
We have the operator icon, which represents an operator, shows the number of
operators required at any workstation.
Then we have the other icon, other useful or potentially useful information.
We have the timeline icon, which shows value added time, like the cycle time and
non-value added time, like the wait time.
It is used to calculate lead time and total cycle time.
So these were different symbols that we have seen in value stream mapping and which
we would be regularly using whenever we create a value stream map.
Now let's look at some important information here. Good to know information,
important information, which is very important for you.
So the first one is tacked time. So what exactly is tacked time? It is the ratio of
net available time to customer demand.
So net available time to customer demand.
Then we have the cycle time. So cycle time, it is the time from when an operation
begins to the point of time when the operation ends.
Thirdly, we have the lead time. This is the time taken by one unit of the thing to
be transformed to go through every step of the process.
So if you look at the diagram below, we have the starting point is the order
receipt point and the end point is order delivered.
So the time between the first and the last point, that is the beginning and the end
of the task is the lead time.
During this period, if there is a specific task named operation, then the start and
end time of this operation is the cycle time for this particular operation.
So I hope this makes clear the difference between what a lead time is and what a
cycle time is.
Now let's go ahead and see how we map a value stream.
So we will take an example for an in-depth understanding of value stream mapping,
how we do it.
So I will discuss an example from the manufacturing industry and we will try to
create a current state value stream map.
That is the as is value stream map.
So we have a production control system at the heart of our business.
Information is received electronically through monthly forecasts and weekly orders
from our customers.
The production control system feeds information to the supplier accordingly and
also weekly to the production supervisor.
Prior internal information that is available to us is how much time do we have per
day per resource.
It comes to approximately 450 minutes per day, which we have pinned in here just
above the customer icon to the right.
Supplier sends a weekly shipment of raw material to the production unit where
manufacturing is being done.
Production supervisor does a daily manual monitoring of the different tasks or
steps involved in converting the raw material to a finished product to be shipped
to the customer.
Number of operators required for every task is also shown here.
We can also map how the material is being pushed from one process to the other
through the stream.
There is a data box for every task which captures information like cycle time,
operator time, equipment time, changeover time, etc.
Inventory pile up between any two processes can also be shown using the appropriate
symbol.
Once the product is ready at task 5 process, it is pushed for shipment to the
customer.
Depending on how frequently we ship or due to fluctuations in customer order, an
inventory might pile up here as well.
In this example, we are assuming a daily shipment to the customer.
At this point, we can also keep a track of how many pieces need to be shipped per
month or per day.
Every task has its own cycle time in seconds, which we can show in the map.
Wait time in days between each process is also shown here.
We can also quickly paste a summary of the highlights of the process here to the
left, just below the supplier icon to the left.
Once this current state map is ready, a quick analysis with good process knowledge
will help us identify the low-hanging fruits.
For example, look at the highlighted items here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. 8 is
the whole of task 3.
We can dig deeper to do a root cause analysis and try to reduce the number of
operators for task 2.
The inventory volume in the first two stages. The cycle time and the time elapsed
between two processes.
And finally, whether task 3 is actually required at all.
Possibly look at automating the whole of task 3.
There could be multifarious possibilities and these will actually help you to
create a future state value stream map.
Something which you want. How you want your process to be.
Once the new process starts stabilizing, we will reach to the ideal state map.
Value stream mapping is very beautiful and if appropriately done, it can change the
shape of your business process drastically and obviously for the better.
As a matter of fact, approximately 75 to 90% of the steps in service and
administrative processes add no value, causing delays and customer dissatisfaction.
So, map the value stream and get leaner.
I hope you loved this video on value stream mapping. Thank you very much for taking
out time to watch this video.
I am sure you will implement the concept at home as well as at your workplace.
Please do share your feedback and suggestions for improvement.
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. If you liked the video, do share it with
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Thank you once again and cheers to value creation.