What is the difference between a value stream map and a process map?

A process map shows the steps and who does them. A value stream map adds the data (cycle time, changeover, inventory, uptime) and the information flow, and it sums lead time against processing time, which is what exposes the waiting.

What should go in each process box?

Cycle time, changeover time, uptime, number of operators, batch size and, where it matters, scrap rate. Take the numbers from the floor with a stopwatch and a count, not from the routing.

How do I draw the future state?

Copy the current-state board, then remove or merge steps, cut inventory to what a pull signal needs and redraw the information flow. Keep the current state as it was, so the two can be compared.

Can LeanSuite build the map for us?

LeanSuite's Vision AI builds a value stream map from a process video. The Lean Studio board is the hand-drawn version for a workshop.

Who owns the value stream map?

A value stream manager: one person accountable for the flow of that product family across departments. Without one, each department improves its own step and the lead time stays where it was.

How often do you update it?

Redraw the current state once a year per product family, or when the future state has been reached, and compare it with the previous map. Between times, the kaizen bursts are tracked as projects.

Lean Studio board · Process & flow

Value Stream Map board

In one sentence

A value stream map is a diagram of every step a product family passes through from supplier to customer, with the process data, the inventory between steps and the information flow, summed into a timeline that compares total lead time with actual processing time.

A value stream map shows one product family's path from supplier to customer: each process step with its data, the inventory waiting between steps, the information that tells each step what to make, and a timeline that compares total lead time with the minutes of actual work. This board has the shapes and the data boxes ready to fill.

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When to use it

When to use the Value Stream Map board

When lead time is the problem and nobody can say where the days go.
Before a kaizen programme, to choose which steps to improve first.
When a plant is moving from batch to flow and needs a future-state picture to aim at.
Once a year per product family, to compare the current state with last year's future state.

What is on the board

1
Customer and supplier
Demand, delivery frequency and the takt time it implies.
2
Process boxes
Each step with cycle time, changeover time, uptime and operators.
3
Inventory triangles
Pieces and days of stock waiting between steps.
4
Information flow
Schedules, orders and signals, from planning to each step.
5
Timeline
Days of waiting along the top, minutes of processing along the bottom, and the totals.

Running it

How to run a Value Stream Map session

1
Choose one product family and a value stream manager who owns the map. Bring a team of five to eight from every function on the path, and plan a full day for the current state.
2
Start at the customer: demand, delivery frequency and the takt time they imply. Write them in the top right before anything else.
3
Walk the flow backwards from shipping to receiving with a stopwatch and a clipboard. Take cycle time, changeover, uptime, operators and batch size from what you see, and count the inventory at every wait point.
4
Draw the material flow left to right, then the information flow above it: how does each step know what to make? Find the schedule, the orders, the phone calls.
5
Fill in the timeline: days of inventory along the top, seconds of processing along the bottom. Total both. The ratio is the finding.
6
Mark kaizen bursts where the team sees waste, then copy the board and draw the future state: fewer steps, pull between them, one schedule point.
7
Good output: a current state everyone recognises, a lead-time-to-processing ratio, and a future state with dated kaizen bursts that become the improvement plan.

Worked example · sample data

Worked example

The sample map follows a bracket through stamping, welding and assembly to shipping. Stamping runs a 4-second cycle but a 45-minute changeover and 82% uptime, so it stamps in large batches: 5 days of inventory sit in front of welding. Welding cycles at 38 seconds with a 10-minute changeover and 95% uptime, and another 4 days of parts wait for assembly. Assembly cycles at 46 seconds with no changeover and 99% uptime, and 2.5 days of finished brackets wait for the daily truck. The timeline sums it: 11.5 days of lead time against 88 seconds of processing. The team put its first kaizen burst on the stamping changeover, since the 45 minutes is what forces the batches, and made SMED on the press the first project of the future state.

The board shown at the top of this page, read through. Invented data, not a customer.

Common mistakes

Mapping every product. One product family per map, or the map shows nothing.
Taking data from the routing or the ERP. Walk the floor with a stopwatch and count the stock.
Drawing only material flow. The information flow is usually where the batches come from.
Improving the individual steps. The map is for the flow between them; the waiting is the waste.
Drawing a future state nobody dated. Every kaizen burst needs an owner and a month.
Treating it as a finished artefact. Redo the current state once a year and compare.

How it works in Lean Studio

1
Start from the Value Stream Map template: process boxes, inventory triangles and a timeline laid out left to right.
2
Type each step's data into its box and drag the inventory triangles between steps; use arrows for information flow.
3
Add stickies with the kaizen bursts where the team sees waste, then copy the board and rearrange it as the future state.
4
Save the finished board to My templates so the next team starts from your version.

Lean Studio boards are drawn with stickies, text, shapes (rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, diamond), arrows and charts, and any board can carry the 15 data widgets, from a scorecard to a kanban. See all widgets and boards.

Also in LeanSuite

Where it goes next in LeanSuite

LeanSuite's Vision AI builds a value stream map from a process video.

Vision AI builds a current-state map from a walk of the process filmed on a phone, with process times, wait times, inventory and information flow, and the process to lead time ratio calculated. AI Video Analysis
Each kaizen burst becomes a Kaizen project with owners, due dates and savings tracked against plant targets. Kaizen & Projects
Lead time and inventory days can be KPIs with targets and RAG ranges, so the dashboard shows the map's numbers month by month. KPI Dashboards

See Value Stream Mapping

Open this board in LeanSuite

Value Stream Map is one of the 30 ready-made boards in Lean Studio, LeanSuite's whiteboard. Try the interactive demo in your browser with sample data, or pilot LeanSuite on your own lines for 90 days, with the setup done by our team.

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