Learning to See : Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate MUDA

The Lean Enterprise Institute is a non-profit education and research organization founded in 1997 to promote the principles of lean thinking in every aspect of business and across a wide range of manufacturing and service industries. A major LEI objective is to create a full set of tools for lean thinkers to use in transforming traditional businesses.

The first tool in the lean tool kit is value stream mapping at the facility level as explained in Learning to See. Future tools presented in workbook form will include: lean scheduling; information management; accounting and performance metrics; supplier development; physical distribution, customer development; policy deployment; and mapping of entire value streams from concept to launch, and from raw materials into customer use.

In Learning to See you will find :
• A foreword by Jim Womack and Dan Jones explaining the need for this tool.
• An introduction by Mike Rother and John Shook describing how they discovered the mapping tool in their study of Toyota.
• Guidance on identifying your product families.
• A detailed explanation of how to draw a current-state map.
• A practice case permitting you to draw a current-state map on your own, with feedback from Mike and John in the appendix on how you did.
• A detailed explanation of how to draw a future-state map.
• A second practice case permitting you to draw a future-state map, with "the answer" provided in the appendix.
• Guidance on how to designate a manager for each value stream.
• Advice on breaking implementation into easy steps.
• An explanation of how to use the yearly value stream plan to guide each product family through successive future states.

Foreword by Jim Womack and Dan Jones
Introduction

Part 1 : Getting Started
What is Value Stream Mapping?
Material and Information Flow
Selecting a Product Family
The Value Stream Manager
Using the Mapping Tool
Part 2 : The Current-State Map
Drawing the Current-State Map
Your Turn
Part 3 : What Makes a Value Stream Lean?
Overproduction
Characteristics of a Lean Value Stream
Part 4 : The Future-State Map
Drawing the Future-State Map
Your Turn
Part 5 : Achieving the Future State
Breaking Implementation Into Steps
The Value Stream Plan
Value Stream Improvement is Management's Job

Conclusion
About the Author
Appendix A : Mapping Icons (also inside back cover)
Appendix B : Current-State Map For TWI Industries
Appendix C : Future-State Map For TWI Industries