We’ve seen many value stream maps (VSM) over the past 20 years, as it has become a common tool. In some companies it’s a first requirement before a lean effort begins. In other companies, value stream ...

Value stream mapping (VSM) is a business management tool that documents the steps needed to take a project from inception to customer delivery. Often associated with Lean Six Sigma practices, the tool ...

Ernie Smith is a former contributor to BizTech, an old-school blogger who specializes in side projects, and a tech history nut who researches vintage operating systems for fun. Many discussions around ...

The value stream represents so many processes and activities that refining them individually is nearly impossible. The only way to do it is to harness and distribute process information to the right ...

Value stream map vs. process map, which is better for you? As with many tools and methods in Six Sigma, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to mapping things out. Both of these tools have ...

Waste is any effort or processes, whether in production, administration or logistics, that's unnecessary. It makes a company hemorrhage cash. In lean manufacturing, multiple value steams are unified ...

Value stream management has been around for a long time. It got its roots in manufacturing, where it was used to accomplish an impossible task; it simultaneously improved quality, reduced costs and ...

The Lean Startup concept, developed by Eric Reis roughly two years ago, has been embraced by the startup community. And though I think it’s the best and most consistent framework available for ...

While some manufacturers are transitioning to lean production systems -- which emphasize lot sizes of one and are driven by demand-based pull signals -- others are still mired in a "mass-production ...

Lean thinking - the philosophy of maximizing customer value while minimizing waste - has long been hailed as a panacea for low productivity and poor performance. Introduced decades ago through the ...