Putting modern VSM tools in perspective

From the previous chapters, you now know that the concepts behind VSM are not new and have been applied to many industries and innumerable value streams. You also now know that VSM emerged from the discipline of Lean production improvements. Unlike traditional hierarchical and functional-centric views of making process improvements, Lean improvement structures organizational activities as orchestrated flows to deliver value optimally to internal and external customers.

Since VSM is fundamentally a strategy to help organizations marshal their resources to make Lean improvements, we spent some time in this book learning about Lean. And from that training, you now know that Lean is a system for planning and implementing continuous process improvements. The focus is on developing efficient production and information flows by eliminating all forms of waste from the customer's perspective. As a quick reminder, the common types of waste include...