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LearningTranscript
00:00Welcome to this explainer from Unified Consulting Solutions.
00:03Let's get right to it.
00:04Have you ever wondered why, even with the best teams and the most detailed plans,
00:08projects still end up late and over budget?
00:11It's a huge frustration, right?
00:13Well, the answer usually isn't some big obvious disaster.
00:16It's hiding in plain sight, in all the things we can't see.
00:20Today, we're going to pull back the curtain and show you a powerful tool called
00:23Value Stream Mapping that, well, it helps you see it all.
00:27So, here's what we've got lined up.
00:30First, we're going to dig into the hidden costs that are secretly derailing your projects.
00:35Then, we'll give the enemy a name.
00:37It's called Process Waste, and I'll show you an incredible way to see it,
00:40and more importantly, get rid of it.
00:42We'll walk through how you actually map your value stream,
00:45look at some real-world results, and by the end,
00:48you'll be ready to kick off your own lean journey.
00:50All right, Section 1, the hidden cost of work.
00:54You know that feeling, right?
00:55Everyone on the team is working their tails off, putting in the hours,
00:59but the project is just slipping.
01:02It's falling behind schedule.
01:03It's pure frustration.
01:05So, what is really going on there?
01:08You know that question?
01:10It haunts boardrooms.
01:11It comes up in every team meeting.
01:13And the answer is kind of surprising.
01:16It's almost never one big single thing that goes wrong.
01:19It's not some huge failure you can point to.
01:22Nope.
01:22It's more like death by a thousand cuts.
01:25It's all these tiny, invisible inefficiencies just piling up day after day,
01:30and they create this massive drag on the whole system.
01:34And get this.
01:34Just let this number sink in for a second.
01:37Nine percent.
01:39That's it.
01:40Only nine percent of major capital projects actually hit their goals for cost, schedule,
01:44and quality.
01:45That means a staggering 91% fail.
01:49Can you imagine if any other part of your business had a 91% failure rate?
01:53It's nuts.
01:54And in a field like construction, this usually comes down to things like messy handoffs,
01:58waiting around for materials, or having to redo work because of bad communication.
02:03It's all the stuff that happens between the big obvious tasks.
02:06This isn't about people being lazy.
02:08It's about the system being fundamentally broken, because nobody, nobody can see the
02:13whole picture at once.
02:15Okay, on to section two, defining process waste.
02:19So, if the problem is all these hidden little things, how in the world do you fight them?
02:24Well, the first step is to give the enemy a name.
02:27And in the world of lean thinking, that enemy has a very clear, very specific identity.
02:32It's called waste.
02:33Now, I know what you're thinking.
02:35Waste?
02:36That's like scrap metal on a factory floor, right?
02:38But in lean, the idea is so much bigger and so much more powerful.
02:42Waste is any activity you do that eats up resources.
02:45We're talking time, money, people's effort, but adds absolutely zero value from your customer's
02:50point of view.
02:50Think about that.
02:51It's all the busy work that makes you feel productive, but doesn't actually move the
02:54needle for the customer.
02:55It's the silent killer of productivity.
02:57And to help us hunt down this waste, lean gives us this fantastic little acronym, TIMWOOD.
03:03It stands for the seven deadly wastes.
03:05Let's run through them real quick.
03:07T is for transportation.
03:08Think of needlessly moving materials around a job site or emailing a file through 10 people
03:12for approval.
03:14I is for inventory.
03:15That's not just stuff in a warehouse.
03:16It's a pile of unread emails or reports just sitting there waiting.
03:20M is for motion.
03:21You know, the extra steps a person takes to find a tool or click through a dozen folders
03:25to find a document.
03:27W is for waiting.
03:28Oh, this one's the big one.
03:29Waiting for a decision, waiting for a machine, waiting for the previous step to finish.
03:33O is for overproduction, making more than is needed right now, like printing 500 copies
03:38of a report when only 10 people will read it.
03:40The other O is for overprocessing.
03:42This is gold plating, adding features nobody asked for or having five layers of review on a
03:47simple change.
03:48And finally, D for defects.
03:50Any time spent fixing mistakes, doing rework, basically not getting it right the first time.
03:54Every single one of these is a hidden tax on your projects.
03:58Okay, moving on to section three, a new way to see.
04:02So we figured out the problem.
04:03We've named our enemy waste.
04:05Now for the good part.
04:06Let's talk about the solution.
04:08And it's more than just a tool.
04:10It's a whole new way of looking at your work.
04:12Right at the heart of this whole lean philosophy is something called value stream mapping, or VSM
04:17for short.
04:18The idea behind VSM is actually really simple.
04:21It's about visualizing every single step it takes to get a product or service into your
04:25customer's hands.
04:26But here's the crucial part.
04:28This is not just another flow chart.
04:30What makes VSM so special is that it maps two things at once, the flow of the actual work
04:35being done and the flow of the information that tells each step what to do.
04:39It's connecting those two things.
04:41That's where the real magic happens.
04:43And this quote just nails it, doesn't it?
04:46You can't improve what you don't understand.
04:48I mean, it's that simple.
04:49VSM is the tool that gives you that deep inside and out knowledge.
04:53It basically forces everyone to pop their heads up out of their own little cubicles and
04:57silos and finally see the whole big interconnected system all the way from the customer's initial
05:02request to the final delivery.
05:03So that brings us to section four, mapping your value stream.
05:08Okay, enough theory.
05:09How does this actually work in the real world?
05:12Let's break down what it takes to build one of these maps.
05:14The whole process is, believe it or not, pretty straightforward.
05:18It happens in three main stages.
05:20Step one, you create what's called a current state map.
05:23This is where you get up from your desk, walk the actual process from end to end, and
05:28draw what's really happening today, warts and all.
05:30Not the process from the manual, but the real one.
05:33Step two, you take that map and using our Tim Wood checklist, you hunt for all the waste.
05:38And finally, step three, the team gets together and designs the future state map.
05:42This is your blueprint for a much better, faster, leaner process.
05:46Okay, pause for a second and just look at this.
05:49This is a current state map, and this is where the light bulb really goes on.
05:53I know it looks a little busy, but it tells a powerful story.
05:57See those boxes at the bottom?
05:58Each one is a step in the process.
06:00But now, look at the little yellow triangles between them.
06:03That's inventory.
06:04That's work just sitting, waiting.
06:06And those zigzag lines?
06:07That's the messy flow of information.
06:09But here's the kicker.
06:10The most important part is the timeline way down at the bottom.
06:13It separates the total time, the lead time, from the actual hands-on work time.
06:18And what you almost always find is shocking.
06:20A project might take weeks to complete, but when you add up the actual value-added work,
06:24it might only be a few hours.
06:26That huge gap between the two?
06:28That is where all your opportunity is hiding.
06:30So the whole point of creating that future state map is to completely transform your process
06:35from what's called a push system to a pull system.
06:38Now, what does that mean?
06:39Well, most companies run on push.
06:41Think of a cafeteria that just keeps cooking food and pushing it out onto the line,
06:45hoping someone buys it.
06:46You end up with tons of waste, right?
06:48A pull system is the opposite.
06:50Nothing gets made until the next person in line, the customer, says,
06:54Hey, I'm ready for one.
06:55It's a simple change in thinking, but it's absolutely revolutionary.
06:58It just vaporizes huge amounts of waiting and excess inventory.
07:02And here's a perfect example of that in action.
07:05This is a real workflow from a big industrial project.
07:08Just by getting it all up on a wall where everyone could see it,
07:11the team had this huge aha moment.
07:13They saw two steps that they had always done one after the other,
07:16and they realized, wait a minute, why can't we do these at the same time?
07:20And cost them zero dollars to make that change.
07:22It was just rearranging the workflow.
07:24And that one simple insight, which they only got from mapping it out,
07:28cut two entire days off their schedule.
07:30Incredible.
07:31Which brings us to section five, from mapping to impact.
07:35So is this all just nice theory, or does it actually deliver in the real world?
07:39Well, the numbers don't lie.
07:40Let's look at a few quick ones.
07:42Take a look at this one.
07:43A healthcare construction project.
07:45The team mapped their design and approval process,
07:48and found it was a total mess of waiting for information and reviews.
07:52By cleaning up that information flow, which, again, they could only see on the map,
07:56they slashed their design cycle time by 60%.
07:59I mean, think about that.
08:01From 81 days down to 33.
08:03That one change put the whole project back on schedule,
08:06saving them five months.
08:07Or how about this?
08:09A construction crew was putting up these massive eye girders for a bridge.
08:12They mapped it out and were shocked to find that more than half their time was just wasted.
08:18Hunting for tools, waiting for inspectors, moving cranes around for no reason.
08:22After they redesigned the workflow, they took an 11-day job and crushed it in just four.
08:27A 64% time savings on one of the most critical parts of the project.
08:32And hey, this isn't just for construction.
08:33Check this out.
08:34A manufacturing company.
08:36The used VSM found some major bottlenecks in their line and made a few simple changes.
08:41Things like just reorganizing a workbench.
08:44The result?
08:44They went from struggling to make maybe one or two parts a day
08:47to cranking out five every single day.
08:50That's a five-fold increase in productivity,
08:53just by helping the workflow smoothly.
08:56Alright, final section.
08:57Begin your lean journey.
08:59We've seen the problem.
09:00We've seen the tool.
09:01We've seen the amazing results.
09:03So, what's the bottom line?
09:04What should you take away from all this?
09:06And how can you get started?
09:08Let's just boil it all down.
09:09The number one thing to remember is this.
09:11Your projects are almost certainly being held back by hidden waste you just can't see right now.
09:16Value stream mapping, it's like putting on a pair of x-ray glasses.
09:19Suddenly, you and your whole team can see the invisible.
09:23You can see the delays, the bottlenecks, the waste.
09:25And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
09:28You can get rid of it.
09:29And that leads directly to getting things done faster, at a lower cost,
09:32and frankly, with much happier customers.
09:35But it's so important to remember, this isn't a one-time fix.
09:39This quote says it perfectly.
09:41Lean is a journey, not a destination.
09:44Your first mapping session?
09:45Yeah, it's going to uncover some huge wins.
09:47But the real, lasting power comes from making this a habit.
09:52You're always mapping, always learning, always looking for that next small improvement.
09:57So, we started this explainer wanting to know why so many projects struggle.
10:01Now you know.
10:02We've covered the seven wastes.
10:04You've seen how to map the current state and design a future one.
10:07And you've seen the kind of massive impact this can have.
10:10You have the foundation now.
10:11So, the only real question left is, what waste are you going to go find first?
10:15Hey, thank you so much for joining us for this deep dive into value stream mapping.
10:20I really hope we've given you a totally new lens to see the work that's happening all around you.
10:25This explainer was brought to you by Unified Consulting Solutions,
10:28based on the work of Dr. Mara Muthukay.
10:30If you want to keep learning and connect with other professionals,
10:33please join our community on LinkedIn.
10:35And of course, if this was helpful, do us a huge favor, like, share,
10:39and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss what's coming next.
10:42Thanks again for watching.
10:43Now go find some waste.
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