What Are Lean and VSM?

Discover the meaning of Lean and VSM, and how they can benefit your organization.

What is Lean?

Lean helps to implement a continuous improvement philosophy that allows companies to reduce costs, improve processes and eliminate waste to increase customer satisfaction and maintain margin of benefits.

What is Lean’s mission?

Lean’s mission is to change the way an organization identifies, analyzes and eliminates waste, and maintains continuous improvement, by providing the necessary tools, knowledge and techniques.

To achieve this, the main objectives of Lean experts are to:

• Help the organization establish a work environment where continuous improvement becomes a daily habit
• Train and support the organization in its constant search to identify and eliminate waste
• Identify best practices and ensure implementation as standard throughout the organization, to take advantage of its effects
• Support the organization to develop leadership to keep the changes going

Continuous improvement focuses on reducing several types of waste:

• Overproduction
• Waiting time
• Transportation
• Overprocessing
• Inventory
• Movements
• Defects and underutilized human potential

Lean tools include continuous analysis processes and methodologies: Kaizen events, a value stream map/mapping (VSM) and pull production (Kanban). It is a system of governance that analyzes root causes, from equipment to visual management.

What is VSM?

A value stream map analyzes material flows and the information given to the customer about a product or service. It also analyzes the current state of the product or service, to design a better future state.

This tool was developed at Toyota, where it was known as the material and information flow map.

The development of a VSM can have several stages:

• Identification of the product or service and definition, in the best way possible, of the scope of the process to be analyzed
• Drawing the value stream map, showing each stage, timescales and information required to deliver the product or service. There are standardized symbols that represent the different value chain elements. At this stage, it must be clarified that any process has three versions – how you think it is, how it is in reality and how it should be. Most attention should be paid to analyzing how it is in reality
• Identification on the map of the waste found (that which does not add customer value). This includes overproduction, waiting time, unnecessary transport, overprocessing, inventory, unnecessary movements and defects
• Drawing the future state map, i.e. the map as it will be once the waste is eliminated
• Implementing a plan of improvement actions (Kaizen events) to get to the future state map

The aim is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste.

To summarize, one of the main objectives of Lean experts is to create an environment of continuous improvement, bringing about measurable and sustainable changes, while focusing on adding value and eliminating waste to improve customer satisfaction, and profit.

Lean is a management model focused on continuous improvement. With the necessary resources, it can deliver maximum value for customers.

For more information, visit our Consulting Services web page or speak with your local SGS representative.

For further information, please contact:

Jason Hulbert
Associate Marketing Manager
Knowledge
t: +44 7912426878