Sharing insights and knowledge nuggets #2: Operational Excellence & VSM & MIFA & Swim Lane
Franck DEMAREST
Operations | Management | Operational Excellence | People engagement | Continuous Improvement
Value Stream Map is one of the key tools to improve processes through a lean approach. It uses symbols and help to quantify lead time, non-value added, and value-added activities. It could also be used to highlight pain points the users are experiencing.
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Material and Information Flow Analysis (or Diagram) is similar and comes from Toyota. To my knowledge it requires a deeper understanding of the activities and look also at transactions with 5W2H at each step. I have seen more emphasis also in it on information stagnation time integrated in the lead time.
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Finally, is swim lane which is displayed as a two-axis visualization with people or function on the vertical one and step in time on the horizontal one. I find it very powerful to engage people to describe their processes and put upfront pain points and repeat loops of activities.
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Key point is to find the fit for purpose lean tool during your own journey into Operational Excellence.