Understanding how work flows through an organization is paramount to delivering a customer’s request in an accurate and timely manor. Every industry, from service to manufacturing, hospitality and even healthcare, could benefit from value stream mapping. Nonetheless, it has been my experience that this is the missing link within a wide array of struggling organizations. I might have curbed mass frustration if this book had only been published earlier in my professional career.
There is a difference between value stream mapping and process mapping.
“There’s a logistics advantage as well: value stream mapping enables a team to fully understand how work flows through a complex system in a matter of days, whereas detailed process mapping (which serves a different purpose) can take weeks or months and is too detailed to help in making effective strategic decisions” (Martin & Osterling, 2014, p. 10).
Martin & Osterling (2014) highlight that the value stream map is a highly misunderstood and underutilized tool in business. If you are an internal or external consultant looking to augment an organization’s value stream map, this book might greatly help your efforts. With chapters, such as “Understanding the Current State”, to “Developing the Transformation Plan” and “Achieving and Sustaining Transformation”, Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation might be worth your investment.
Discover more from Improvement Habit
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
