Let’s get rid of value stream maps. I can hear it now: “Why would you say such a thing? Value stream maps are great. We can’t see waste without them.”
Precisely.
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Value stream maps have developed an outsized importance in relation to other types of basic information that one gathers when trying to understand the current state of a process. And they have helped turn kaizen, a doing activity, into a planning activity, where workers spend a lot of time drawing value stream maps—and getting approvals from managers—before any improvement can happen. Focusing on value stream maps as the one expression of the current state slows improvement.
Except in rare circumstances, no person or team should spend more than one or two days gathering current state data—including creating current- and future-state value stream maps (which are not truly needed to begin with)—prior to kaizen.
In the old days, we didn’t use value stream maps in our Shingijutsu-led kaizens. Instead we used target progress reports, 5S forms, percent loading charts, time observation charts, standardized work charts, standard work combination sheets, setup observation analysis sheets, motion studies, and skills matrices to understand the current state. Immediately after one or two days of doing those, we dove into kaizen. We combined and eliminated processing steps, took queue times to as close to zero as possible, changed out metrics, and made the job safer and easier for workers. And we did that quickly—within a few days.
Continuous improvement happened just fine at Toyota before it developed value stream maps. Outside of Toyota continuous improvement happened better before value stream maps came along. Think about that.
As I said in volume three of Real Lean (Center for Lean Business Management, 2008), the real worth of current-state value stream maps is to educate top company leaders, not to help workers make process improvements. Current-state value stream maps prove to leaders that the company has long been organized for a supply-driven sellers’ market that never actually existed. Everything they do is wrong, from how value is created, to how they measure performance, to company policies and practices, to how they treat people (all key stakeholders). In other words, the corporate microeconomic policy, perpetuated by CEOs and CFOs past and present, is to overproduce and generate all eight wastes (and unevenness and unreasonableness), and is thus fiscally irresponsible.
The real worth of future-state value stream maps is, again, to educate leaders, not to help workers make process improvements. Future-state value stream maps prove to leaders that the company must organize itself for the demand-driven buyers’ markets that actually exist. They must change everything they do, from how value is created, to how they measure performance, to company policies and practices, to how they treat people. In other words, the corporate microeconomic policy needs to be reset by the CEO and CFO to eliminate all eight wastes (and unevenness and unreasonableness) and thus be fiscally responsible. Flow changes everything.
The contrast between current and future state maps reveals the flaws and limitations of classical and neoclassical economics, and of bedrock concepts such as “homo economicus.” Lean management can’t function properly if the corporate microeconomic policy drives people to be selfish and overproduce (via standard cost accounting and other entrenched routines). Value stream maps should be used for strategic, not tactical, purposes. They teach leaders something about economics and humanity that they didn’t learn as undergraduates or in their MBA programs. They also teach leaders the beliefs, behaviors, and competencies needed to successfully lead a lean transformation.
So get rid of value stream maps and do kaizen instead—a lot of kaizen. Kaizen every day.
© Bob Emiliani. First published Dec. 16, 2013, on Bob Emiliani's Lean Leadership Blog.
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Overproduction AND overprocessing
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