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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Karen Martin
Read between
June 8 - July 4, 2019
Third, the process of value stream mapping deepens organizational understanding about the work systems that deliver value and support the delivery of value to customers, which aids in better decision making and work design.
Fourth, the quantitative nature of value stream maps provides the foundation for data-driven, strategic decision making. Measuring overall value stream performance and identifying the barriers and process breakdowns as the work flows through the value stream is a powerful way to drive continuous improvement so that an organization is able to better meet the needs of both its customers and its internal operation.
Last, value stream maps reflect work flow as a customer experiences it versus the internal focus of typical process-level maps.
Value stream mapping forces an organization’s hand to either make the difficult structural changes that are more in line with the cross-functional reality within which they exist, or continue to deny reality, stick with outdated structures, and continue to perform accordingly.
The ability to visualize non-visible work is an essential first step in gaining clarity about and consensus around how work gets done.
Value stream maps provide a clear line of sight to the external customer from every function and work area involved in the value stream. This degree of clarity helps an organization make the transition from internally focused thinking to customer-focused thinking, which is the foundation for providing greater and greater value.
When organizations see the interconnectedness of various departments and processes, they make better decisions, work together in more collaborative ways, and avoid the common and costly trap of suboptimization.
while traditional organization structure and business management is based on functional silos, the customer experience is largely dependent upon the interplay between those silos.
Value stream maps should not merely reside on shared drives.
How do you know what to focus on if you don’t know how the value stream truly performs?
We’ve also led mapping efforts that are designed solely to help inwardly thinking leaders see the value of looking at work from a customer’s perspective.
slow delivery, customer complaints, regulatory noncompliance, cost overruns, waning productivity, safety violations, low morale, and so on.
The mapping activity results in three deliverables: a current state value stream map, a future state value stream map, and a value stream transformation plan.
the benefits of viewing work through a value stream lens.
full customer-facing value stream
a value stream segment
a value-enabling (support) value stream
product families include goods and services that pass through common processes.)
consensus-driven improvement.†
we recommend that you use a verb-plus-noun format to reflect the process in its active form—for example, “enter order” (instead of “order entry”), “register patient” (instead of “patient registration”), and so on.
the executive sponsor is typically the senior leader with the greatest degree of “skin in the game.”
The current state value stream map enables everyone in the organization to see the truth about how the value stream is performing. When the current state value stream map is socialized across the organization and people come together and agree that, yes, this is how we currently operate, the map has begun to achieve a larger purpose: consensus building to accelerate improvement.
While the results from current state mapping can be sobering (it’s not always easy confronting the truth in such a visible and data-driven way), they’re extremely powerful for achieving a collective understanding and consensus around problems. Improvement design and implementation moves more quickly and is met with less resistance when it’s based on what is actually occurring, as opposed to differing perceptions of or opinions about what is occurring.
The current state value stream map is a visual storyboard that shows how the work currently gets done.
Members of mapping teams often argue that “what we are seeing today is not normal” and want to map the process the way it should perform, how it used to perform, or how it sometimes performs. We have observed that, when you ask people to describe a specific process in a value stream, there are at least four different versions: how managers believe it operates, how it’s supposed to operate (i.e., the written procedure, if one exists), how it really operates, and how it could operate.
The purpose of current state value stream mapping is to get an understanding of how work is actually being performed in today’s environment.
who their external or internal suppliers and customers are,
Rules of Engagement for Improvement Activities We typically work with our clients to select the rules of engagement that match the culture and the conditions under which we’ll be working. These are the most common “rules” we use. We gain the team’s agreement with the rules during the kickoff, modifying as needed. We often use a three-knock rule: anyone can knock three times on the table if he or she feels a rule is being violated, and the team will address it. Posting the rules in a visible place in the base camp is an effective way to minimize straying from the rules. The activity begins and
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VALUE STREAM WALKS
A critical step in creating the current state map is physically walking the value stream, also known as “going to the gemba.” Gemba is a Japanese term that means “the real place, where the work is actually done.”*
only by going to the gemba can you appreciate the physical separation and isolation that may exist between upstream supplier and downstream customer, and observe whether visual management exists.
A final reason to perform value stream walks is to break through “inattentional blindness” that may exist when people have grown used to specific working conditions.* When “outside eyes”—people who don’t live the process—intentionally and directly study a work environment, they can often see causes for performance problems that would otherwise go undetected.
For a value stream walk to be truly effective, you need to properly prepare the workforce in the area being visited so employees understand the objectives and spirit (understanding, ...
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The workers need to understand that the focus is on work systems design, not individuals’ performance. To speak candidly, they must be free of fear. We often emphasize that we want to know what is really happening, so there is no need to be afraid to tell us everything, and that the e...
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This inclusion pays significant dividends by spreading organizational learning, demonstrating leadership engagement, gaining consensus, and showing respect.
Walking the value stream begins to replace less effective leadership habits of making decisions from offices with “go and see” behaviors, which builds stronger relationships between leadership and the front lines and results in higher quality decisions.
You may choose to walk the value stream from the first to the last process within the scope you’ve defined, or you may choose to walk the value stream in reverse, from the last process to your starting point. There are several advantages to walking the value stream in the reverse order from how work typically flows.
Pull is a work management system where upstream suppliers deliver work to downstream customers only when the downstream customers are ready to receive it.
Pull definition
push systems; that is, work is pushed from one function or department to the next function or department regardless of whether the receiving entity (the process’s customer) has the capacity to do the work. As a result, work often sits idle until the receiving party is able to work on it.
five steps to documenting the current state: walking the value stream, laying out the map, walking the value stream a second time, adding details to the map, and summarizing the map.
a value stream is a series of processes that connect together and transform a customer request into a good or service that’s delivered to the customer, which completes the request-to-delivery cycle.
Value stream definition
the sequence of processes that connect together to form the value stream, and the functions that perform the work.
the team should gain clarity about what inputs the worker receives, where they come from, who they pass work on to, and if the work stops at any point.
It’s common for mapping team members to make comments such as “I can’t believe we do it this way,” and “Why don’t we . . . ?” As improvement ideas surface during the walks, they should be captured, but the facilitator should discourage the team members from discussing the merits of the ideas right then or getting drawn too deeply into future state discussions. Instead, they should create an “idea list” that they can refer to during the future state design phase.
The team should also avoid using an accusatory or demeaning tone when talking with the value stream workers. Humility and curiosity demonstrate respect for the people and open the lines of communication, whereas a judgmental tone causes workers to behave defensively or shut down, inhibiting the team’s ability to gain valuable insights.
This is the time for learning, not judging. Some of the most positive and longest-lasting benefits we’ve seen from value stream mapping have occurred when leadership-based mapping teams have seen the pain that frontline workers experience in a dysfunctional value stream, and have apologized fo...
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Determining how macro to go takes some practice. You want to make sure that your value stream map isn’t so large that it becomes unwieldy, nor so simple that it becomes useless.
aim for 5 to 15 serial process blocks.
Flow is present when work moves from one process to the next in the value stream without interruption or delay.
Generally, a new process block is warranted when the work stops flowing. This often occurs with a handoff to a new work area, when work accumulates (a buildup of work-in-process), or when the work is only processed at a predetermined time interval.
