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Value stream plan (VSM action plan)
A value stream plan is the action plan that takes a value stream from its current state to the future-state map. The future state is cut into loops, starting with the pacemaker loop from the pacemaker process to the customer, and each loop gets an objective, a goal you can measure, and the kaizen bursts that have to happen in it, each turned into a project with one owner, the resources it needs, a start, a finish and a way to tell whether it worked. The value stream manager reviews it every month. Page 1 of this template is the plan: four loops with three projects each, a 12-month timeline, % done and a status per project, the metrics before, at target and at each review, and a review log. Page 2 explains each part and works an example. The Excel version shades the timeline from the dates, works out % planned and a status from the status date, flags late projects, averages % done by loop and tracks how much of each metric's gap has closed.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a value stream plan
- Right after a future-state map is agreed, before the team goes back to daily work.
- When kaizen bursts sit on a map on the wall and nothing has moved for weeks.
- To run a monthly value stream review with one sheet instead of a stack of project updates.
- To check that the projects under way still add up to the future state and not to a list of point fixes.
How to fill it in
- 1
Cut the future-state map into loops
Draw a ring around each loop on the map: the pacemaker loop from the pacemaker to the customer, then one loop for each supermarket upstream, and the supplier loop. Number them in the order you will do them; many teams start with the pacemaker loop.
- 2
Give each loop an objective and a goal
The objective says what the loop will do, for example ship daily from a finished goods supermarket. The goal is a number with a date that proves it, such as finished goods from 3.0 to 1.0 day.
- 3
Turn each kaizen burst into a project
Make it specific: which change, by how much, one named owner, the resources it needs, a start and a finish. Split a big one, such as a capital change, into stages with their own dates.
- 4
Write how you will know it worked
Set the success criteria before starting, and test on one line, shift or product first. Roll it out once the test meets them.
- 5
Shade the timeline and set the review dates
Shade the months each project runs and agree a monthly review with the value stream manager. Write the metrics before, the target and the value at each review.
- 6
Review every month
Update % done and the status of each project, close the ones that met their criteria, and move people and money to the loop that is falling behind.
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: the steel bracket value stream from the future state worksheet, reviewed on 15 January (illustrative numbers).
- Four loops: the pacemaker loop (assembly to the customer), the weld and paint loop, the stamping loop and the coil supplier loop. Eight projects, from the assembly cell in October to twice-weekly coil deliveries in April.
- The shipping project runs from 7 December to 29 January. On 15 January 39 of its 53 days have passed (74% planned) and it is 50% done, 24 points behind: amber.
- The press changeover project from 60 to 20 minutes was due on 13 January and is 90% done: red, 2 days late. Two projects are done, one is green and three have not started.
- % done by loop: pacemaker loop (100 + 100 + 50) ÷ 3 = 83%, weld and paint 15%, stamping 45%, supplier 0%. All eight projects average 46%.
Lead time is down from 17.0 to 14.5 days against a target of 5.0, so (17.0 − 14.5) ÷ (17.0 − 5.0) = 21% of the gap is closed; finished goods have closed 50% of theirs and the press changeover 70%. The review put a second die setter on the changeover project so the stamped parts supermarket can start in February.
Common mistakes
Treating every kaizen burst as equally urgent
Spreading people across all the bursts at once means none finishes. Work the loops in order and finish one before starting the next.
A team as the owner
A project owned by a team is owned by nobody. Name one person, and list the others as resources.
No success criteria
Without a number to hit, nobody can say whether a change worked. Write it down before the project starts and test on a small scale first.
Skipping the monthly review
A plan nobody reviews goes stale within weeks. Put the review in the calendar with the value stream manager and keep it short.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite one live portfolio rolls up every improvement project, its timeline and its savings across every plant, and reminders and late-phase alerts keep owners on their sustaining tasks.
In the lean glossary
FAQ
Value stream plan (VSM action plan): common questions
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