The Jacksonville Lean Consortium and VyStar Collaborate on Value Stream Mapping Project

This September we’ve collaborated with our member VYStar Credit Union on a value stream mapping project. The organization selected a value stream focused on delivering services to its’ members— starting with project ideation and flowing across multiple departments all the way through customer delivery.

This mapping project provides the opportunity for a cross-functional team to raise the value stream’s effectiveness to a new level— one with higher quality, faster turnaround times, and seamless delivery.

The team will accomplish this by improving the way work gets done. By targeting this value stream, the organization seeks first to achieve impactful results within the defined project scope, then systematically leverage similar improvements throughout its’ enterprise.

Value stream mapping is a continuous improvement method organizations leverage to capture the current reality of a key cross-functional process (the good, the bad, and the ugly), then develop and implement a desirable future condition aligned with the organization’s vision.

Our collaboration with VyStar has progressed to the stage where we’ve begun constructing a current state map. The purpose of current state mapping is to gather accurate information that shows the overall effectiveness of a cross-functional process— today.

Current state mapping consists of cross-functional team members studying the value stream in its’ entirety, identifying its’ major steps, capturing the flow of information, while measuring performance in terms of cost, time, quality, and delivery. The VyStar team is also tasked with identifying waste throughout the process— the barriers that prevent the organization from delivering the value customers expect. This includes defects, overproduction, waiting, and extra-processing.

Future State Mapping

Once the VyStar team completes the current state map, we’ll assist them in constructing a future state map and plan—a redesigned process in which barriers are removed and value smoothly flows all the way to the customer.

The future state plan includes the specific actions (countermeasures) needed to achieve the desired future state.

Rapid Improvement Events

The team will implement these actions in a series of rapid improvement events—structured improvement events endorsed by an executive sponsor, led by a team champion, guided by a facilitator, and anchored by a cross-functional team challenged to reach stretch improvement goals within a condensed time.

These events enable project teams to make the rapid, significant, and sustainable improvements identified in the future state plan.

Typical Lean countermeasures implemented during rapid improvement works include error proofing, standard work documentation, A3 problem solving, visual management, and leadership standard work.