Customers pay for the “VALUE” they perceive.  Sometimes this is the product, other times it may be a special need they require, such as immediate delivery, or special colors.  Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a method of identifying those attributes that the customers are paying for and identifying all the other “Non-Value Added” actions and costs that they are not going to pay for.  We can then work on the reduction to elimination of those “Non-Value Added” (NVA) items.  The costs that are reduced by this method turn into pure profit line entries.

The process of Value Stream Mapping appears to be fairly simplistic on the surface, but done incorrectly leaves NVA Non-Required costs that might have been eliminated or even worse, eliminates NVA Required actions / items.   VSM starts with visually mapping each product's (or product families’) production path (materials and information) from "cradle to grave". Each point on the path is “challenged” with the Value Added and Non-Value Added components dissected.  The potential improvements are identified, qualified, and quantified.  By applying Pareto’s Principles, the possible improvements are ranked and addressed.

Use of an experienced VSM Consultant is highly recommended!

There are 22 opportunities for wasteful Non-Value Added to hide at each of the points of the Value Stream Map.   The low hanging fruit should have already been addressed.  The rest of the improvements will take effort.