Value Stream Mapping
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Question 3 (a)
Value stream mapping employs a flow chart to document every step of a company’s process in high detail. It has deviated from tradition greatly; it no longer follows the original rules. Instead, it has created a ‘should be’ model, which may be utilized in numerous ways during the entire “Rddmaicsi” process improvement. Most practitioners of lean view value stream mapping as the basic tool for not only waste identification, process time reduction, and implementation of process improvement. Some companies take the value stream mapping as the hallmark of the lean efforts they apply.
Using the ‘should be’ model, a cross-functional team may produce a map of the ‘present state,' that is how operations go on now. It may also help to identify all the steps that come in the pathway of a patient, in a healthcare system. The team should then shift focus to the future that often represents a substantial change in the way such systems operate currently. This implies that such a team would need to establish a good strategy to implement to make its future a reality. With the aid of the ‘should be’ model, a company could achieve streamlined processes of its work, decreased costs, as well as increased quality. This technique works best if the managers can visualize all stages of the journey of a particular patient. It is best undertaken if a multi-disciplinary group can be formed in order that service improvements is possible. When goals are set, using this model, service delivery is improved service and delays reduced. For instance, the model can indicate where extra costs are piling up. In an ideal situation, any material delivered to the company goes straight to the industrial process and then transit smoothly via all of the steps of this process until completion of the product.
Question 3 (b)
To do this in an “egoless” manner means using the model and feeling no ego. In other words, no distinction exists between the world and oneself. According to Western therapy and psychoanalysis, this state of "oneness" may be either negative or positive depending on an individual, and in the context in such feelings occur in every individual (Jones & Womack, 2010).
The feeling of oneness described (of being woven to the fabric of the surroundings inextricably) is seen to be akin to the state of egolessness. Communal lifestyles of ownership and poverty in most monastic traditions can also be used to make the act of selflessness much easy to maintain. The practitioners can remain in a meditative state continuously. When management starts to appreciate value stream mapping egolessness, there is a natural tendency to desire to intervene and improve the complex company processes. After all, some of the most complex processes often provide the largest potential returns for the efforts of process improvement.
Those who propose breaking the rules of tradition egolessly recommend the approach of ‘stepping the ladder’ when doing value stream mapping. When learning, ensure you control the project’s complexity by limiting the need for cross-functional assessment and size of the analysis. One first evaluates and maps a simple, limited process within an area of the company and achieves a few early wins. The results are then published. One’s confidence is built using the tool for improving the process. Egoless use of value steam mapping ought to occur when experience, competence, as well as the time for doing the mapping is available. In addition, the tool must be applicable to the present situation.