ShareValue Stream Mapping Vs Process Mapping
By Larry Coté, Managing Director, Lean Advisors Inc.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a powerful tool that can help businesses and organizations transform their operations and become more competitive. By mapping out the flow of value from the customer's perspective, VSM can help identify areas of waste and inefficiency, and provide a roadmap for improvement.
One key benefit of VSM is that it can help businesses and organizations deliver higher quality products and services to their clients. By identifying and eliminating waste in the value stream, businesses can reduce defects and improve the overall quality of their offerings. This, in turn, can lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. Another benefit of VSM is that it can help businesses and organizations become more competitive.
By streamlining their operations and reducing waste, businesses can lower their costs and improve their responsiveness to customer needs. This can help them compete more effectively in the marketplace and win new business.
In summary, Value Stream Mapping is a powerful tool that can help businesses and organizations transform their operations, deliver higher quality products and services, and become more competitive. By adopting VSM, businesses can improve their service to their clients and achieve greater success.
Summarized elements of each
| Value Stream Mapping | Process Mapping | |
| Focus | Activity End-to-End Focused (not people) | Department/People - Siloes |
| Detailed Analysis | Root Cause -analyzes true Interconnectivity of the process | Overview of Process |
| Identifies | All Waste and Value | Doesn’t Identify Waste in system |
| Improvement | Total ‘System’ Improvement | Drives Point Improvements |
| Creates | Future State Vision and Direction – Corporate Based | Unable to Develop Vision/Direction |
| Understands | End-to-End Impacts/Causes (upstream and downstream) | Chases Bottle Necks – point improve Improvements |
| Staff Engagement | Fully Engaged - Solutions and Plans – Buy-in | Doesn’t engage Staff |
| Impact | Operational and Cultural – Total Transformation | Operational Impact Only |
| Results | Bottomline + Quality + Speed Sustainable Results | Minimal/Restrictive Results |
| KPI Support | Corporate KPI Support | Department or Personal KPIs |
| Organizational Planning/Labour | Key to Developing a more effective XFunctional Organization – improved lines of communication/Information | Focuses on maintaining Departments and Siloes |
| Space Planning/Layouts | Creates ’Flow’ and Designs Efficient Layouts | Not Useful for Layout changes – identifies departments |
