Now we're on to Value Stream Mapping (VSM) as part of the overall agile implementation project.

Before I get into the details, though, I'm going to go over some of the conceptual stuff about VSM.

Back in the good ol' days, a lot of time and energy was wasted (and I do say, wasted) on something called time and motion studies.  Don't get me wrong....there is a role for studying motion, travel, and how tasks get done so as to make them easier and safer.  But this wasn't the objective in those good ol' days.  The objective back then was to cut a few seconds here and a few seconds there.  Reduce labor content, in other words.  Fred Taylor started it and it spiraled out of control in the subsequent 50 years or so. 

To illustrate how silly time and motion studying got, back when I worked for a hospital, time and motion studies were conducted on how long it took physical therapists to apply and remove bandages.  No, seriously.

Anyway, in my mind, the primary value of VSM (and process mapping) is that it puts time and motion studies where they belong....WAAAYYY back on the back burner. 

Because here's the thing...what difference does it make if we cut a few seconds (or minutes or hours) out of Task A, if the work then sits for a week before Task B?   Or, what difference does it make if we cut time out of Task A but produce something Task B can't use.  Or even, what difference does it make if we cut time out of Task A if we then LOSE the work before it even gets to Task B? 

I was working with a group of machinists on a VSM (that I never got to finish because the plant manager was a short-sighted goofball) and we were walking around the shop, doing kind of a "real time" VSM.  We picked a product and walked through its process.  Parts were machined in batches which were moved along to other machines until the product was completed.  I'd ask how long it took a batch at the first machine.  A few minutes for the entire batch or just seconds per part. 

Then I'd ask how long it takes to get the part from the first machine to the second machine.  Well, just the few seconds it takes to walk the batch over there.

No, I'd say, how long does it take for the part to get over to the next machine and the next machine start working on it.  Oh...that might take a few seconds if we really need the part or it might sit for awhile.  How long?  Let's see....sometimes five or six weeks. 

So....a few minutes at the first machine, a few minutes at the second machine...and six weeks between the two.  And there were more machining steps in the process. 

VSM mapping looks, first and foremost, at that six weeks between steps.  It also looks at that variability of time between steps.  I'll have more to say in my next post.