VSM in a virtual environment

Don’t tell any #continousimprovement folks.

Don’t tell any #valuestreammapping facilitators.

And please don’t tell anyone from Toyota (I’m a big fan of Taiichi Ohno), but…

I recently violated the principle of Genchi Genbutsu ("the place where it actually happens") while facilitating two recent Value Stream Mapping events.

It’s my favorite #lean/continuous improvement tool and I was taught many years ago never to facilitate an event unless we could go and see, put boots on the ground, walk the manufacturing process, etc.

But I had some teams that really needed help with #costsavings and #vsm was the right tool. So, I made an exception using the “global pandemic clause” (completely made up, by the way).

Here are some tips to consider:

· Planning is even more important. Ensure you use a planning checklist to ensure the right scope, pre-work, participants, etc. Check in with the event owner a couple times prior to the event.

· One of the teams I supported was halfway around the world in India. Great team to work with! Their system engineer and I roughed out the Process Steps as part of prework and got the team off to a very fast start.

· Use pictures, videos, diagrams, etc. to replace the visuals of walking the system. It’s not ideal, but it’s an acceptable substitute.

· Share the electronic version of the map during the event. I facilitate and map at the same time, so while it isn’t the same as mapping on the floor and seeing the entire map, you can still keep people engaged and feeling that they are building the map together.

· Ensure good participation by ensuring the right experts are included, and encourage the use of the chat feature in your video call to help round out the conversation.

· It’s not realistic to spend a full day or two virtually, so you can split up the event to an hour or two per day over the course of several weeks. Good way to keep momentum. 

· Keep the focus on the classic areas of Waste – use TIMWOODS or DOWNTIME.

The events weren’t perfect, but they were successful as the teams found opportunities to reduce waste, lower costs and improve efficiencies. Be adaptable with your CI tools – you can still achieve great results despite challenges.