Value Stream Mapping: Lean Thinking, #2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Sumeet Savant is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Mentor and coach, with more than a decade of experience in executing, leading and mentoring Lean Six Sigma process improvement projects. He is a BTech, MBA, and Prince certified Practitioner. He has facilitated hundreds of process improvement projects, and coached hundreds of professionals, Yellow, Green, and Black Belts over the years. He lives in Mumbai, India with his family.

LEAN

Lean, value, and waste

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Lean is now a common term, synonymous with process improvement, waste elimination and cost reduction.

You probably might have heard about Lean, or might have some basic idea about Lean, or might be even working on and practicing Lean methodologies

Before we start, let us understand what the term Lean really means.

Formally defined, "Lean is a continuous improvement strategy, focused on maximizing customer value, by minimizing waste in all the business processes, or products."

So, now the question arises, what do the terms Value and Waste mean.

"Value, means something, that the customer is willing to pay for, extending this definition, we can say it is something which the customer needs, and hence expects, from the product or service, for which he buys it.".

And, by "Waste we mean, any activity or feature that does not add value to the product or service, from the point of view of the customer."

The Japanese term for Waste so defined, is Muda.

Some of the examples of Waste or Muda are,

• Unnecessary travel like driving, or riding.

• Waiting for approval.

• Unnecessary Movement like bending, or stretching.

• Producing more than required.

Though Lean is primarily focused on reduction of waste, the Lean strategies framework is much broader.

To understand the Lean framework, it is a must to be well acquainted with something that is known as the House of Lean.

House of Lean

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The collection of Lean concepts, practices, and tools, put together in a container that looks like a home, to act as a framework for implementing a complete Lean system is known as the House of Lean

House of Lean: Goals

The first component of House of Lean is its roof, which represents the Goals of the business.

Most businesses have similar goals as follows,

• Highest Quality

Quality in terms of features and characteristics of the products or services provided to the customer.

• Lowest Cost

Lowest cost in terms of raw materials, man power, and machinery required to design, develop and deliver the products.

• Shortest Lead Time

Shortest time taken from initiation of idea to going to market of the products or services.

The roof of the House of quality is depicted in the following figure.

House of Lean: JIT