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Value Stream Mapping

Sustainable Operations

Professor Mellie Pullman

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What’s in it for you? A significant tool for improving any process, Key tool for prototyping an idea before going into action

• Designing a new operation, examining needed resource inputs (information, people, materials)

Relevant for existing operation or new operation

• Evaluating each step to see if is adding value or generating waste

• Determining the costs of inputs and outputs at each step

• Puts new eyes on the process when you walk through and document through your map

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Value Stream Mapping & Analysis

Purpose: to describe a process visually to find ways

of improving the current process.

• Find repetitive operations

• Identify potential bottlenecks

• Describe directions and distances of flows (people, material

and information)

• Look at resource use and minimums

• Create better value & reduce waste

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Detailed Process MapIdentifies the specific activities that make up

the process. Basic steps are:

Identify the entity that will serve as your focal point: Customer? Order, item, proposal, event package, or similar concept that

passes through a series of process steps.

Identify clear boundaries, starting and ending points, and lines of demarcation between customer, order, and other relevant information flows.

Keep it simple Does this detail add any insight? Do we need to map every exception condition?

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Typical Mapping Symbols

Operation (task or work activity)

Inspection

Decision point (typically requires a “yes” or “no”)

Document or order created

Delay

Storage

Transportation: Move Materials, customers or employees

or

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Identifies improvement opportunity

Truck Shipment

External Source (suppliers & Customers)

Other Value-stream Map symbols

Process

Inputs

Outputs

Process Descriptor

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Map Example: Lean & CleanFinding the current state of resource use and plan for reducing it

Green Suppliers want to understand their resource and toxic material use versus the minimum required at each process (currently done at sustainably focused companies like New Belgium Brewery)

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1) Start Big: Look at the major process steps

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2. Identify a key resource that you would like to track (water, energy, GGE or carbon, labor, local economy contribution, value-add time)

Comparing Usage to Needs Visually (bottom of map)

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Example: Water used versus needed

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3. Focus on an opportunity area for improvement or Innovation for new concept developers

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4. Create a process map focusing specifically on that opportunity area

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5. Visualize an Improve “Future State” for the opportunity areas(brainstorm about how to do things differently)

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Value add Lens:Distinguish between Value-Add and Non Value-Add Process Step

Value Add (VA) Business Non-value-add (BNVA) Non-value-add (NVA)

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Value Add Steps Work that contributes to what your customers

want out of your product or service• Cooking a meal• Measuring & Cutting Material• A more sustainable and better life

Does it meet these criteria?• Adds a desired function, form, or feature to the

product or service• Enables a competitive advantage (reduced

price, faster delivery, socially sustainable)• Includes an activity that a customer would be

willing to pay for or would not prefer our competitors if he/she knew we did this task and they did not.

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Business Non-Value Add

Activities that your customer doesn’t want to pay for (it does not increase value in their eyes) but are required for some reason

• Accounting, legal, regulatory Is task required by law or

regulation? Does task reduce financial/liability

risk? Does task support financial

requirements? Does process break down if task is

removed?

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Non-value Add

Work that does not add value in the eyes of the customer and they would not want to pay for it (nor is it required for BNVA)• Rework, multiple signatures & copies,

counting, handling, inspecting, set-up, downtime, transporting, moving, delaying, storage.

• Environmental damage

• Social injustice

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Linking Processes to Value with Metrics (i.e. measures A and B)

Possible Measures or Metrics:• Link desired customer value to process

• Time (measure distance traveled and task time)

• Cost

• Quality

• Flexibility

• Sustainability metrics

• Set standards

• Guide design of new or redesign of existing process

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Including Time & Quality Measures

DealerFaxesOrder

PaperOrder

Created

Order SitsIn FaxIn Box

Internal MailDelivers Fax

Order SitsIn Clerk’s

In Box

ClerkProcesses

Order

Is ItemIn Stock?

WorkerPicksOrder

Clerk NotifiesDealer and

Passes OrderOn to Plant

InspectorChecksOrder

Transport FirmDelivers Order

DealerReceives

Order

2 minutes0.5% of orders incorrect1 to 3 hours

2 hours on averageNo history of lost,damaged, or incorrectdeliveries

YES

NO

10 to 45 minutes20 minutes on average

0 to 2 hours1 hour on average0.5 to 1.5 hours

1 hour on average1% of orders lost

0 to 4 hours2 hours on average

4% oforders lost

5 minutes

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Mapping Exercise can lead to Potential Changes:

Raw materials Product (output) design Job design Processing steps used Management control information Equipment or tools Suppliers i.e. Anything but customers may be changed unless

they do not add value!!

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Questions to ask to improve process

What does the customer need?, operations are necessary? Can some operations be eliminated, combined, or simplified? Can the product be redesigned to address an issue?...

Who is performing the job? Can the operation be redesigned to use labor better? Can operations be combined to enrich jobs? ….

Where is each operation conducted? Can layout be improved? ….

When is each operation performed? Is there excessive delay or storage? Are some operations creating bottlenecks? …..

How is the operation done? Can better methods, procedures, or equipment be used? Can we reduce resources and toxic activity?