00:00Welcome! Here at Unified Consulting Solutions, our goal is to simplify complexity and amplify your performance.
00:07Today, we're diving deep into an incredibly powerful tool that does just that, value stream mapping.
00:13It's all about learning to see the hidden problems that cause delays and drive up costs.
00:18So, let's start with a question that, let's be honest, probably feels a little too familiar.
00:23You know the feeling, right?
00:24Projects that seem to be stuck in quicksand, constantly behind schedule, bleeding money.
00:30And just leaving everyone frustrated.
00:32What is really going on?
00:34Well, the answer usually isn't one big, dramatic failure.
00:38Most of the time, the real culprits are the little inefficiencies.
00:42The wastes that are baked right into our daily workflows, totally invisible to the naked eye.
00:47So, our game plan today is to give you the special glasses you need to see that hidden waste.
00:53We'll start with what Vesem actually is, learn the language of value versus waste,
00:58then walk through how to map your process as it is today, design a better one for tomorrow,
01:03and finally get you started on your own lean journey.
01:06And by the time we're done here, you're going to have a solid framework to define what Vesem is,
01:12spot waste in your own work, and use this tool to drive real continuous improvement.
01:16Let's jump in.
01:18All right, first things first.
01:20What exactly is value stream mapping?
01:22I want you to think of it less as a typical flow chart and more like an x-ray for your entire business process.
01:29It shows you all the stuff happening beneath the surface.
01:32At its heart, Vesem is a lean management method.
01:36It's a way to visually tell the story of how you deliver value,
01:39documenting every single step from the moment a customer makes a request
01:43until they have the finished product in their hands.
01:45And crucially, it tracks the flow of both materials and information.
01:49And really, it all boils down to this.
01:53This isn't just about making a pretty diagram.
01:55Vesem has one clear, powerful purpose.
01:58To make waste so glaringly obvious that you can't help but see it.
02:03And then you can finally get rid of it for good.
02:06Now, to really use a value stream map, you've got to learn to speak its language.
02:10And that language is built on the critical difference between two simple concepts, value and waste.
02:16Here's the core question you have to ask for every single step in your process.
02:19If your customer saw this on an itemized bill, would they be happy to pay for it?
02:23If the answer is yes, congrats.
02:25That's a value-added activity.
02:27If not, well, it's probably waste.
02:29It's eating up your time and resources without making the final product any better for them.
02:34Now, lean philosophy gets even more specific and breaks this waste or Muda into eight categories.
02:41Think about it.
02:42Waiting isn't just about a person standing around.
02:44It's a file sitting in an inbox for three days.
02:46Extra processing is that report nobody reads.
02:49Or adding features a customer never even asked for.
02:52Once you learn these eight wastes, I promise you will start seeing them everywhere.
02:57Okay, so now that we've got the language down, it's time to get practical.
03:00The first step is to create what's called the current state map.
03:04And this is key.
03:05It's not about how the process is supposed to work.
03:07It's about capturing the messy, honest-to-goodness reality of how things get done today.
03:11You do this by following a few clear steps.
03:15But I want to call out step three, because it's the most important one.
03:18You have to physically walk the process.
03:21That means getting up from your chair, going to where the work happens, and talking to the people on the front lines.
03:26You're gathering real-world data, not just making assumptions in a meeting room.
03:30One of the most important pieces of data you'll collect is tact time.
03:34Think of it like the heartbeat of your customer demand.
03:36It's not about how fast you can work.
03:39It's the rhythm you need to work at to keep your customers happy.
03:43And the calculation is beautifully simple.
03:46You just take your available production time and divide it by your daily customer demand.
03:50That number you get, that's your talk time.
03:53It becomes your new north star, telling you exactly how fast you need to be.
03:57Now, besides tact time, we measure a few other things.
04:00But here's where it gets really eye-opening.
04:02You might find that the total cycle time, the actual time someone is touching the product, is maybe a few hours.
04:08But the total lead time, from start to finish, is a few weeks.
04:12That massive gap is your product just sitting around waiting.
04:15And that's your biggest opportunity.
04:17And you know what's great?
04:18You don't need any fancy software to do this.
04:21VSM is, at its core, a simple paper and pencil tool.
04:25The most valuable part is the act of getting out there, observing the process, and having conversations with your team.
04:32And from that simple paper map, you can create incredibly powerful visuals like this.
04:37Here, we're comparing the cycle time for each step against that customer talk time we calculated.
04:42And wow, look at that.
04:44The bottlenecks just jump right off the page.
04:47You can see, clear as day, where your process is falling behind customer demand.
04:51All right, so we've taken a hard look in the mirror.
04:54We've mapped our current reality, warts and all.
04:57Now comes the exciting part.
04:58We get to design the future state, a vision for how amazing our process could be.
05:04And that vision is always guided by the simple, laser-focused goal.
05:09The future state map isn't just wishful thinking.
05:11It's a concrete plan of attack for systematically eliminating all the waste we just uncovered.
05:17So how do we actually get from our current state to that better future?
05:22The engine for that transformation is a philosophy known as Kaizen,
05:27which simply means continuous, incremental improvement.
05:31On our maps, we use these little Kaizen bursts to pinpoint the exact spots
05:36where we're going to focus our improvement efforts.
05:38So when we're designing this future state, we're aiming for some big improvements.
05:42A huge one is creating a pull system.
05:45Instead of just pushing work down the line and creating big piles of inventory,
05:49work is only pulled to the next step when it's actually needed.
05:52That idea alone can drastically cut down on chaos and delays.
05:56So we've covered the what, the why, and the how.
05:59We've seen how to create a map of where you are today and a blueprint for where you want to go.
06:04Now it's all about actually starting that journey.
06:06And this is really the ultimate question that VSM leaves you with.
06:11It's more than just a mapping technique.
06:12It's a new superpower.
06:14It gives you the vision to stop guessing and start making smart, targeted improvements.
06:20So what's the first thing you're going to improve?
06:23All right, let's do a quick recap.
06:25The magic of VSM is that it makes your entire process visible.
06:28It gives everyone a shared language to talk about waste,
06:31uses real data to diagnose problems,
06:33and acts as a strategic roadmap for your transformation.
06:35All powered by that spirit of continuous improvement or Kaizen.
06:39We hope this explainer has been a valuable first step for you.
06:43And if you're serious about this journey,
06:45let Unified Consulting Solutions by Dr. Mari Muthuki be your guide on the path to true operational excellence.
06:51To keep the conversation going, please join our LinkedIn community.
06:55You'll find the link right there in the description.
06:57And of course, if you found this helpful,
06:59be sure to like, share, and subscribe to the channel
07:01so you don't miss out on more content that will amplify your performance.
07:05And finally, for those of you who want to go even deeper,
07:10these books are some of the foundational texts on the topic.
07:13They are absolutely fantastic resources.
07:16Thanks so much for your time today.
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