Value Stream Management

Value Stream Management enables organizations to deliver goods and services to their customers more rapidly at higher quality and lower cost by streamlining the flow of value across the enterprise. Improving the flow through the value stream requires breaking down traditional organizational boundaries or “silos” and seeing work from the customer’s perspective. This requires changes to physical and transactional processes, as well as how teams and leadership responsibilities are structured.

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How to Get Started with Value Stream Management

Practicing Value Stream Management builds a customer-focused continuous improvement culture. When we work in a flow, align our efforts, and communicate, we can meet our customer needs better. The shift begins by recognizing that working in silos or functional departments does not always serve the customer best.

Transformation from traditional management to Value Stream Management is done through the following 10 step process:

  1. See the flow of work as cus­tomer-focused val­ue streams.
  2. Doc­u­ment real­i­ty, or the cur­rent state of the val­ue streams.
  3. Arrive at a con­sen­sus on the tar­get condition.
  4. Draw the future state val­ue stream map as an ide­al con­di­tion to strive towards.
  5. Make a plan and begin improv­ing the process toward the future state design goals.
  6. Make a plan and begin updat­ing the orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­ture and man­age­ment roles to sup­port the future state design goals.
  7. Study Lean Account­ing prin­ci­ples, make a plan, and begin putting Val­ue Stream Cost­ing in place to sup­port the future state design goals.
  8. Peri­od­i­cal­ly update the cur­rent state map based on the new and improved con­di­tion, and iden­ti­fy next steps toward the long-term future state.
  9. Peri­od­i­cal­ly update the vision for the future state of the Val­ue Stream, based on chang­ing busi­ness con­di­tions and long-term objectives.
  10. Con­tin­u­ous­ly improve by clos­ing gaps between the cur­rent con­di­tion and tar­get con­di­tion, repeat­ing the process above.

The first five steps of Val­ue Stream Man­age­ment above are addressed through the Val­ue Stream Map­ping activity.


Transforming Your Value Streams

As part of our growing School of Lean library, the Transforming Your Value Streams course guides you through the process of identifying your current state, designing a future state and making an implementation plan. This begins with identifying the value streams within your organization, a detailed mapping and analysis of each step, and prioritizing the problem spots and improvement opportunities.

Through this course you will learn how to see the reality of how value flows through your enterprise from end to end, and develop a plan to start making improvements.


Value Stream Managers

An organization practicing Value Stream Management often must create a new role: the Value Stream Manager. Unlike a traditional manager who is responsible for a vertical function, department, or set of processes, a Value Stream Manager is responsible for ensuring that the value flows smoothly through multiple departments or silos to the customer. The Value Stream Manager focuses not on improving the performance of any specific department but seeks to improve the ratio of value to non-value, cutting out waste from the overall service delivery chain from start to finish for a defined product family.

Value Stream Costing & Lean Accounting

The traditional way of cost accounting does not support the new and improved ways of working in customer-focused, flow-oriented value streams. This requires that we use new approaches to identify and establish costs for all the process steps involved in creating value for the customer. Value Stream Costing is one of these methods, and is introduced in our Lean Accounting course.


Value Stream Mapping Practitioner Interviews

Gal Karen Martin Vsm From Tool

Value Stream Mapping: From Tool to Management Practice, with Karen Martin

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Gal Drew Locher Vsm

Adapting Value Stream Mapping for Office & Service, with Drew Locher

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Organizational Healing Through Value Stream Mapping, with Karen Martin

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Value Stream Mapping Podcasts

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Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation, with Karen Martin

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How to Succeed at Value Stream Mapping, with Beau Keyte

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Value Stream Mapping Articles

For more great blog articles, make sure to visit blog.gembaacademy.com

Value Stream Mapping Current State

Future State Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping Questions Answered

Value Stream Mapping Book Reviews

Miscellaneous Value Stream Mapping Articles

Support for Value Stream Management

We assist clients in their transition to Value Stream Management through online learning and provide support in the following ways:

  • Facilitating a Value Stream Mapping workshop to create the current state map
  • Leading a Value Stream Mapping workshop to design the future state map
  • Assisting in creating a future state action plan to identify pilot projects, ROI, and timelines
  • Designing Value Stream organizations
  • Designing Value Stream Manager roles, and coaching them
  • Leading improvement workshops to implement elements of the value stream action plan
  • Train-the-trainer in using the Gemba Academy online learning curriculum

Are you ready to take your Value Stream Mapping to the next level with Gemba Academy?