Value stream mapping (VSM) is a business management tool that documents the steps needed to take a project from inception to customer delivery. Often associated with Lean Six Sigma practices, the tool ...

The value stream represents so many processes and activities that refining them individually is nearly impossible. The only way to do it is to harness and distribute process information to the right ...

Lean thinking - the philosophy of maximizing customer value while minimizing waste - has long been hailed as a panacea for low productivity and poor performance. Introduced decades ago through the ...

Waste is any effort or processes, whether in production, administration or logistics, that's unnecessary. It makes a company hemorrhage cash. In lean manufacturing, multiple value steams are unified ...

Ernie Smith is a former contributor to BizTech, an old-school blogger who specializes in side projects, and a tech history nut who researches vintage operating systems for fun. Many discussions around ...

Value stream map vs. process map, which is better for you? As with many tools and methods in Six Sigma, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to mapping things out. Both of these tools have ...

Value stream management has been around for a long time. It got its roots in manufacturing, where it was used to accomplish an impossible task; it simultaneously improved quality, reduced costs and ...

Value stream management involves people in the organization to examine workflows and other processes to ensure they are deriving the maximum value from their efforts while eliminating waste — of ...

What does car manufacturer Toyota and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University have in common? More than you might think. Hospitalists at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based children’s ...