Learning to Lean

The Newsletter of EMS Consulting Group, Inc.

December, 2003 www.emsstrategies.com

Value Stream Mapping and Analysis

Seasons Greetings and welcome to the December edition of our monthly newsletter, Learning to Lean. In this edition, we will talk about value stream mapping and analysis. Value Stream Mapping is one of the most important activities you will undertake on your lean journey. This is because Value Stream Mapping allows you to obtain a baseline of your operations, identify and prioritize areas of improvement, and set measurable goals for improvement activities. Many times companies make improvements in a random fashion without prioritizing and planning improvement activities up front. Value Stream Mapping prevents this from happening.

In this issue, we feature four articles. The first article is an overview of Value Stream Mapping. If you have little or no experience with VSM, we recommend that you read that article first. If you are more familiar with value stream mapping, the three other articles detail the steps you need to take from identifying your value stream to creating a future state map.

The materials referenced in this newsletter will teach you more about the techniques and benefits of Value Stream Mapping. If the articles, links, and books to the left have piqued your interest and you would like to learn more, feel free to call us at 866-559-5598 or visit our website and click on "Contact Us."

Best Regards,

Darren Dolcemascolo

darrend@emsstrategies.com

David McBride

davidm@emsstrategies.com

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