jon's blog

Mapping mixed model production systems can get tricky in practice.

Excel is a powerhouse tool for collecting and analyzing data, which is why pretty much every company uses it.  That's the reason we at eVSM have relied on Excel for so many of the lean tools we create: our users already know Excel and use it regularly (and we also require that it's installed on your PC).

So I just wanted to talk a little bit about how we've tried to make building maps faster and easier for you, taking advantage of Excel.  In this part, I'll cover a simple tool for building process steps from Excel, but in subsequent posts I'll talk about how you can use process data for building maps, and how you can get eVSM map data out of Visio and into Excel.

Since eVSM v6, we have provided Sketch stencils to go along with our Quick stencils.

Value stream mapping is a process that should be done as a team.  You can't get a realistic sense of how a value stream works without involving the people who work in that value stream.  The de-facto standard way of making value stream maps is by having a group of people work together to form a consensus on how things actually work, and make that into a map.

So once your team have come up with a value stream map (on post-it notes, whiteboard, butcher paper, wherever..) it typically helps to store your map electronically.  The simplest reason is to make the map available and easier to find than if it remains strictly on paper.