- Value – Anything that adds value to the customer – anything for which a customer is willing to pay.
- Value Stream – The set of actions an organisation takes to deliver value to a customer in the form of a product or service.
- Value Stream Mapping – The process of visualising the current state and designing the future state of a value stream to identify areas of improvement.
Purpose of Value Stream Mapping
There are many reasons that an organisation might be driven to undergo a Value Stream Mapping
exercise, but the fundamental purpose of this activity is two-fold:
- Identify how value flows through the organisation
- (Identify opportunities to) optimise how value flows through the organisation
Benefits and Challenges of Value Stream Mapping
The use of Value Stream Mapping continues to grow within organisations due to the numerous benefits it provides. One of the core benefits: It helps organisations shift thinking from projects to product delivery.
Ad-hoc projects generally have a defined start and end point; Value Stream Mapping focuses teams on continuous improvement and efficiency.
Value Stream Mapping helps individuals and teams understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.
Understanding the organisation as a system can incentivise teams to prioritize long-term
improvements over short-term gains, resulting in better results for the organisation.
