Every company or firm does its best to improve its overall performance. It is possible to use various tools to identify improvement opportunities, and value stream mapping is among them. This term stands for a kind of flowcharting tool that is used to understand the development of lean processes (Jacobs & Chase, 2014). Both manufacturing and service-driven companies use this tool to observe the flow of materials and information within their businesses. As a rule, value stream mapping includes all the stakeholders who participate in the shaping of product or service, which refers to suppliers, customers, and the firm itself.
Numerous companies deal with value stream mapping because it offers a few essential benefits. Firstly, it presents a scheme that depicts how a product or service is made. It helps understand how information and raw materials come to a company. Secondly, value stream mapping offers “a look at both value-added and non-value-added steps” (Kettering University, 2016, para. 4). These data make it possible to identify problems that exist within a manufacturing process (Lynch, 2019). Finally, value stream mapping provides “a dashboard to measure continuous improvement” (Kettering University, 2016, para. 4).
The information above means that it is reasonable to comment on how a company can measure its improvements. On the one hand, a firm can draw attention to its financial results. If it has started losing less money after removing inefficiencies, it is a good indicator. On the other hand, it is necessary to understand what customers think of the firm. If they are satisfied with the products or services, one can say that value stream mapping has coped with the task of improving performance.
References
Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. (2014). Operations and supply chain management (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Kettering University. (2016). How to use value stream mapping for continuous improvement. Web.
Lynch, A. (2019). Benefits of using value stream map in Edraw. Edraw. Web.