Reaping The Benefits Of Value Stream Mapping

Every business, company, or organization runs on a lot of processes that occur daily. Whatever the sector or industry, processes of activities should be done to meet a specific goal; if not, progress would never be made. But what structures or methods are there to ensure that there is a free and unhindered flow of work processes to ensure successful execution? There are numbers of them, but one, in particular, Value Stream Mapping (also called business process mapping), is widely used.

 Value stream mapping, VSM, is simply a visual representation of a pictorial map, or flowchart of a particular process that depicts the flow of information and inventory involved in the delivery of a product or service from the initial to the final step. It is a picture of processes that informs of its particular state and also help those involved get access to quick information without diving deep into studying the situation. Value stream mapping is not limited to a specific industry but can is a useful tool that any business across all sectors can make use of. 

Benefits of value stream mapping

As a critical aspect of lean manufacturing, value stream mapping is used majorly to identify leaks and waste and to streamline the operational procedure by providing analysis, design, and management for the flow of resources and information through an organization either vertically or horizontally. The following are some benefits that value stream mapping offers:

1. Helps identify waste: VSM helps in the identification of non-productive or non-value adding activities that may be involved in the process. These activities consume time and resources but add no value to consumer requirements. Identifying the source of waste makes it easier to eliminate it from the whole process.

2. Helps identify areas with a bottleneck: Asides waste, bottlenecks are another severe thing that businesses have to avoid to improve productivity. A bottleneck is simply a part of the process where there is a delay in delivery due to huge volumes of data or work to be done. Value stream mapping does not just look at the activities at each stage, but it also brings the critical points at which specific input is required into the picture.

3. Process improvement: As value stream mapping involves communicating with the staff directly involved in the whole activities, process improvement can be brought to the fore through their participation. A value stream map creates an open floor for the workers to express their satisfaction, frustrations, and ideas concerning the process. Since they are daily involved, they will know best what they need to do. VSM helps build a culture of development.

4. You don’t have to spend: VSM can be done with inexpensive tools and without pomp. As a simple visualization process, your business doesn’t have to spend expensively to obtain and start reaping benefits.

Value stream mapping is one tool that businesses ought to make use of. The process of improving productivity might be daunting, but beginning with a simple map of everything can help.