Lean For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7

You Are Here: Mapping the Current State

In This Chapter

Introducing the value stream

Understanding the purpose and importance of value-stream maps

Building and validating a current-state value-stream map

Setting the stage for analyzing and improving your processes

Ultimately, all organizations are defined by what they produce. Not only do the most successful organizations produce goods and services that are highly valued by customers or consumers, but they also produce them in a manner that sustains the organization’s viability over the long term. In the Lean enterprise, these capabilities are not an accident. They’re the result of a very conscious awareness that every activity is really a process that adds some amount of measurable value.

Even more, these organizations understand and capitalize on how all of their processes work together to provide value to their customers and consumers. Think of materials and information flowing through a series of connected processes that ultimately deliver a product or service to a customer. Lean organizations call this the value ...