Karen Martin — Value Stream Mapping: From Tool to Management Practice

Val­ue Stream Map­ping (VSM), pop­u­lar­ized in Mike Rother and John Shook’s land­mark book Learn­ing to See, is a high­ly effec­tive method for improv­ing per­for­mance across an orga­ni­za­tion. How­ev­er, VSM is com­mon­ly mis­un­der­stood, mis­ap­plied and under-uti­lized. Prop­er­ly exe­cut­ed, val­ue stream map­ping is much more than an oper­a­tions design tool. It also results in a more engaged and knowl­edge­able lead­er­ship team; sur­faces hid­den cul­tur­al and orga­ni­za­tion­al issues; and aligns val­ues, resources, goals and priorities.