Mapping out value streams within one’s organization is commonplace for those embarking on a lean journey. It becomes a visual icon of sorts. It sends the message, “We are pressing forward with this thing called lean”. It takes a team of dedicated people to collect the data that one would expect from such a mapping exercise. After relentless hours of observation and data crunching the final product is completed and a few opportunities are identified and targeted for improvements. What then? The map is usually hung up in a war room or in a public area for all to admire as if it was the lost city of Atlantis just discovered.
In lean, every new improvement should be reflected on a current state value stream map. However, redoing a value stream map takes time during which continuous improvements are already underway. Hence creating opportunity for additional waste. How? This is the taboo of value stream mapping. Because of continuous improvements, data collected for the new value stream map can be obsoleted before it is even completed. Therefore the time your team spent collecting and analyzing the data that is now obsolete has turned into a waste of manpower and resources.
“Big Data” is becoming more and more of a concern with the globalization of the business environment. Weeding through what is “valuable data” versus “non-valuable data” can be brutal and time consuming. Whether you are professional IT or not, we are required to measure our Customer Demands, Costs & Profitability, Organizational Effectiveness, On-Time Delivery, Quality, Innovation, etc. With the lack of lean related IT tools available to the mainstream lean enthusiast, data splicing with MS Excel spreadsheets has become the common tool of choice. Attempting to tackle the data and present the current state story in a real time environment is tedious. In most companies, this is a momentous undertaking and “real time” is usually not an option.
It is time to embrace the world of information technology within lean without compromising our abilities to make human based decisions through observation and assessments. The Areteium software toolkit allows you to update your value streams in real time with the latest kaizen improvements while tracking and calculating potential cost savings. Because Areteium is designed as a lean modeling tool, it eliminates the time associated with traditional data crunching while producing much faster outputs. At the same time, it boosts the opportunity to continue on the lean journey because the time it takes for the application to produce a new value stream is a matter of minutes versus weeks. Now you can truly archive your original value stream instead of using it as wallpaper. Although the idea of the undiscovered lost city of Atlantis is intriguing, give your team the real story with tangible treasures that create continuous wealth and worth.
About mcaConnect
Established in 2002, mcaConnect has grown into one of the largest US-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partners focused exclusively on delivering Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM solutions and services to mid-market and enterprise-size manufacturing, energy, and distribution companies. Headquartered in Denver, CO, mcaConnect has offices throughout the world to support multi-national implementations.
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