Efficiently map your whole factory using Product Families in Value Stream Mapping

[@beatrizsimoes8915]

Dear Tom. Thanks a lot for your video. I have one doubt. In the case of two products of the same family (identical process flow) but very different batch sizes, cycle times, etc, isnt´t difficult to analyze the improvement opportunities, looking for the cycle time, the WIP of only one of the products?

[@TomMentink]

Great question, Beatriz. The batch size isn't very important (unless that creates serious differences in cycle times, stock levels, etc.), but when cycle times are seriously different it's probably better to consider them as belonging to different families. The thing is also that the exact cycle times vs WIP (value added vs non-value added ratio) isn't too important - it's about spotting improvement opportunities, weighing priorities vs other processes, and then measuring progress vs the original situation. Something that you really want to take into account is how the materials and orders move through the factory - so even products with the same production process can have a totally different flow if the big batch items are produced often and take priority, while small batch items are irregular and suffer relatively more dead stock.

[@beatrizsimoes8915]

@@TomMentink Dear Tom. I understood. Thanks a lot for the explanation

[@LubnaAlHasani-p5o]

Thank you Tom for the great video. I have a question, in case of four departments are ordering, but the process of ordering is different and they all lead to the same financial process, so four process and then share the same financial process. The main objective of the value stream mapping is to lean the process of the financial procedure. Can I do the average value added time and non value added time??

[@TomMentink]

It depends a bit on the situation you see: When you're diving into those processes, you will have data on each of those 4 - if they are pretty comparable, simplify the VSM overview and take the average; but if there are serious differences between the ordering processes, this is probably interesting enough to call out in the VSM overview. While making a VSM, you'll investigate the process in more detail than you'll show in the final VSM picture.Your goal is to present your findings in such a way that you can quickly take other stakeholders along in the story. If analysing the data for each of the ordering departments would take up much time, you will have to make a calculated guess up front: will you just check one of them and assume the others are similar, or do you spend the time on each of the four. If the financial side of things is the most important, I'd probably lean to picking one ordering department for a start.