Value Stream Mapping for Product Development

Lean practitioners will undoubtedly tell you that value stream mapping is one of the most important Lean activities. A value stream map helps you see the sources of waste in a process, displays the linkage between material and information flows, and identifies inventory levels and bottlenecks. In other words, a properly constructed value stream map essentially represents a roadmap for process improvement.

For many years, value stream mapping has been an excellent starting point for many companies regarding their Lean implementations in the factory. However, recently, many companies have been looking to expand the application of Lean beyond the factory walls to other areas of their businesses - such as product development. Consequently, it is now appropriate to ask the question: “How effective is value stream mapping for a transactional process such as product development?” To begin to answer this question, it is first necessary to examine traditional manufacturing processes – where value stream mapping has been used quite effectively.

Generally speaking, it is not uncommon for individual process steps within a manufacturing operation to be completed in a matter of minutes – and in many instances, within a number of seconds. In addition, there is often a high degree of consistency within the manufacturing process. That is, the actions to complete the process steps are highly repeatable – even in the case of a mixed model operation. These characteristics make value steam mapping an ideal tool for assessing and identifying opportunities for improvement.

However, this is often not the case with product development. Individual process steps within the development process, such as the detail design activity or analytical analysis, often can not be completed within minutes, and many times can take hours. In addition, product development projects, even within a specific product area, can vary greatly in size and scope. Consequently, there is a high degree of variability in the actions and steps necessary to complete the project.

It is these factors, long cycle times and high variability of the process steps, that limits the effectiveness of value stream mapping in product development. Long cycle time may preclude the ability to “walk the process” as endorsed by Lean practitioners. In addition, due to process variability, issues that may be identified for one project may not be applicable to another.

At Accelerated Product Development, we have long recognized the issues associated with value stream mapping the product development process. As a result, our approach to remedy these shortcomings is to conduct a Baseline Assessment of the development process - and to integrate a value stream map when deemed appropriate.

A Baseline Assessment is a rigorous, comprehensive analysis of a company’s product development process. This analysis enables the company to understand the current state of its product development process, which represents the starting point, or baseline, for initiating improvement.

Please click here to learn more about Baseline Assessments and how they can be used to help put your company on the path to product development excellence.