Interview with Jim Pastore

Finding the road to efficiency with a value stream map

Q: What is a value stream map?

A: A value stream map is a tool to help you improve your business. It is a graphic representation of the flow of materials and information through a process.

Q: What does it show?

A: The map has various icons that represent steps in a process. Some icons represent suppliers or customers. Others represent your staff members or workstations. The connecting lines show how the “product” – whether it’s a patient or a tube of blood – flows from one part of the process to another.

Two other key elements are the process box – which represents the time spent doing something to the product – and a data box, which contains metrics that characterize how well that process is working.

Finally, there is the inventory triangle, which indicates when the item moving through the process is sitting and not having anything done to it. The patient or blood test is waiting around. And generally speaking, that’s bad.

Q: Why map this information? How does that help me?

A: A value stream map helps define and communicate your vision of the future. Once you have this snapshot of what you’re doing today, you can envision a future state with much better performance.

The next step is to create a two-year vision of how you will get to that future state. You use the information to develop a list of potential projects and break them into doable three-month increments. Then you conduct continuous improvement projects until you achieve your future state.

Q: So you end up with a long-range master plan for improving your operation?

A: Yes. A value stream map is also an important change management tool. You show the map to your staff and explain what the icons mean. You say, “Here's how we do business today. Here's what we want to be in the future.” One of the biggest challenges in change management is reducing that fear of the unknown for the folks in that process. So this is an excellent tool to communicate and get everybody involved.

Q: How is this different from just taking a close look at my work process?

A: We always want to focus on our process. But the opportunity we often miss is what's happening between processes. Very often, that’s where the greatest opportunity for improvement lies.

Q: Why is that?

A: When we prepare value stream maps, we typically find that things going through a process really don’t take that long to have the work performed on them. Its all the sitting around and waiting that makes up the really big component. After all, what is a STAT test? Is the actual work any different? No. Someone hand carries the product from one step to the next to avoid all that wait time.

Q: And that’s where you find the biggest gains?

A: Absolutely. If I spend three minutes doing something to a product, but it sits around in my lab for two hours, where's the opportunity to improve things? That's one of the beauties of value stream mapping. It allows you to step back and take a more system-level view, so you see where the opportunities really are. And indeed, when we get to the future state, we often don’t see a lot of difference in the material flow. But we see dramatic reductions in the time it takes to move from one part to the other.

Q: Things aren’t moving as quickly as they should. Isn’t this telling me something I already know?

A: You’d be surprised at the number of clients who, after they go through value stream mapping, say, “I didn't know we were doing that that way. That's not how it's written in our operating procedures.” Another thing that often surprises them is the powerful role of information – or missing information – in their process. They know that every once in a while, they don’t have the right information. But they can't quantify the impact in terms of rework, or time searching for information. You know your people are busy. But a value stream map shows you where they’re busy doing the wrong things.

Q: Where do these “wrong things” come from?

A: Very often a department had a problem 20 years ago. They put in this fix and the problem never recurred, so they continue to do it “just in case.” Or it was a step that Fred implemented and now Fred’s bust is out in the hallway, so we never tamper with anything that Fred put into place. Organizations end up institutionalizing rework and fixes into their everyday process. When I ask, “Why are you doing this,” the answer is often, “Because we have this problem.” And when I ask, “Why don't we just fix the problem,” they’re often at a loss. They take it for granted that this time-consuming step is how you address the problem.

Q: How long does value stream mapping take?

A: With a team of four to six people in a moderately complex process, it takes about three days to create the map. Usually the first day is going out and walking the process, following the product from one point to the next. You spend the second day collecting data and conducting interviews. By the end of day three, you should have a completed map, ready to review with other staff members to make sure you got it right. You spend another two days moving post-it notes around on a sheet of paper, getting a clear picture of your future state.

Q: This still sounds like a lot of work. Why is it necessary to map my whole operation this way?

A: Everyone thinks they know what's going on in their current state today. And they may know their piece of the picture, but they often don't know how that affects the others. And if we only know our piece of the picture, and only improve that, we run the risk of sub-optimization. Because if I optimize the heck out of step three in a process and change nothing else, what kind of improvement do I get in the overall value stream? Not much. That's the point of value stream mapping, to identify where the biggest opportunities really are. You want to make sure, before you do all this improvement work, which steps will give you significant payback.