7 Common Mistakes in Value Stream Mapping

Plus Benchmarking on Indian Two Wheeler Segment + 1 Announcement

1 Article for the Week:

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is one of the most important tools in Lean Manufacturing and it helps in identifying the bottlenecks and plan for the Improvement projects.

Here are the Top 7 Common Mistakes people make while doing a VSM study.

1. Missing out on Important Data Points - Cycle time, Changeover time, WIP, etc.

2. Relying on the past data / data collected earlier by someone else

3. Observing ONLY the cycle times - and missing out on important observations like VA time, NVAs

4. Observing the processes in bits and pieces (over multiple days)

5. Splitting the observations among multiple team members - none of them will have a clear idea of the entire value stream

6. Focusing only on a Portion of the entire value stream - focusing only on a few sections / departments. - Won’t show the real picture of the entire Value Stream

7. Starting the VSM process without understanding the Product and the operations - lead to poor data collection and confusions while drawing VSM.

By doing a thorough VSM, we would be able to identify the bottlenecks and create a Future State VSM that improves the throughput and reduces Lead Time.

Our FREE Lean Manufacturing Course helps you learn in-depth about VSM and start identifying the wastes in your company. Check it out here.

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1 Video for the Week:

Benchmarking Indian Two Wheeler Segment: Comparison of their Operational Performance - in areas like Inventory Management, Power Costs, Maintenance Costs, Warranty Costs, Freight Costs, etc.

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1 Announcement for the Week:

From September 2025, we will be conducting interesting Games / Riddles on Operations and the winners will get Special Prizes.

Get Ready for some Exciting Games and Events! Share it with your friends and Colleagues too.