Value stream mapping (VSM) helps manufacturers visualize future states beyond single-process levels, like welding or assembly on a shop floor. Value stream mapping makes it possible for an observer or planner to see flows and connections between departments and processes.
Value stream mapping also lets you see more than waste: you will be able to determine potential sources of waste in the value stream, all the while providing a common language that helps encompass the various manufacturing processes involved.
What’s a Current State Map All About?
We set out to walk the shop floor to visualize a Current State Map to visualize the entirety of flow, from beginning to end.
Current State Maps have the capability of breaking away from islands and silos, so much so that you begin to see that these seemingly isolated silos are still interconnected through different steps.
As we’ve mentioned previously, value stream mapping allows you to see different sources of waste in the Current State Map, such as waiting/waiting times, rework, unnecessary inventory, and other types of delay.
VSM is also a great way to determine what the shop floor’s baseline is – after observing and recording the various processes. Ultimately, a Current State Map gives stakeholders a way to see and understand the efficiency question with a common language, which in turn, is also used to visualize desired Future States.
What Can You See on a Current State Value Stream Map?
A current state value stream map typically includes the following:
· Customers and suppliers
· Information flow elements, including production control, manual information flow, electronic information flow, Kanban symbols, and other symbols for activities such as phone calls and orders.
· Material and product flow elements, including process boxes, inventory triangles, shipment symbols, shipment symbols, push arrows, and supermarket/pull symbols, FIFO lanes, and safety stock.
· Process data boxes, including Cycle Time, Changeover Time, Uptime, Number of Operators, Every Part Every Interval, and so on.
[Lean and VSM hold so much potential for organizations of all sizes. How to get started with digital value stream mapping? You can download our free trial today, then you can request a free consultation meeting with one of our Lean/VSM experts! Find out why Lean/VSM/eVSM is so useful for both Fortune 500 enterprises and smaller companies.]
Tips for Mapping the Current State
1. It’s best to always collect current-state information while walking around the shop floor.
“Walking around the shop floor” differentiates value stream mapping from other methods of improving manufacturing and development processes. For one thing, because you're where the action happens, it involves being fully immersed in the interconnected processes that will eventually be improved, through further work and visualizations in a Future State VSM.
2. It becomes easier to visualize the entire value stream with a quick door-to-door survey of the value stream. This will give you a better sense of the value stream, its many (informational) flows, and most importantly, the synchronization and positions of the different processes involved.
3. Since a Current State Map can involve visualizing the entirety of a selected product family, it might be a good idea to start your work in collecting data and other forms of information at the point of shipping, then carefully working upstream. Sometimes, when we begin our observations at shipping, we start to the process closest to the customer.
4. Assessing a process is much better if you gather current data. Avoid any overreliance on existing data and figures, as the reality on the shop floor may be totally different.
For example, a "three-minute die change" on file might have been a one-off best, and not really the norm for that part of the shop floor. Similarly, files or reports of a "week without expediting" could simply be anomalies from previous years, due to factors that are also one-off.
An observer's capacity to envision improvements hinges on observing and timing operations firsthand.
Go to the Gemba, the place where the work happens, to truly understand the current state. And of course, while direct observation is key, some data, like machine uptime, scrap/rework rates, and changeover times, might be reliably sourced from existing records.
Digital Value Stream Mapping for a Successful Current Value Stream Map
When you start tracing a product family's journey through the shop floor (or the entire company), you'll likely discover it crosses many different departments and functions (we call these silos). It's very common for companies to be designed this way. Who decides exactly where value is created? Who is responsible for enhancing value and trimming waste?
With digital value stream mapping, all the different people involved can access the same information. And with a tool like eVSM, maps can be easily updated when capacity or demand changes.
Most of the people who use eVSM find they recoup the cost of the software while they're still on the free trial. We love this! Download your own full 30-day free trial here, and request a complimentary web meeting here. We're looking forward to helping you get waste out of YOUR value stream.