What is value stream mapping?

When there is a problem in the warehouse, everyone has an opinion. One colleague thinks receiving is too slow, another says collecting takes too long. Value stream mapping replaces those opinions with a drawing that everyone can look at.

You follow one kind of order, from the moment it arrives to the moment the customer has it. Each step gets a box: receive, store, collect, pack, dispatch. At each box you write down how long the work itself takes, and how long the product or order has to wait before it. You also draw the information that travels along, such as a delivery note or an order message.

The surprising thing is usually that the work itself is only a small part of the total time. The largest part is waiting: for a next step, for a decision, for a colleague. That waiting is waste, and with the drawing you see exactly where it sits. That is how you choose where to begin, instead of everywhere at once.

In an SME warehouse you usually draw the stream on paper, with the people who do the work. They know which steps run differently in practice than on paper. Then you also draw how you want it to be, with less waiting and a better flow. The difference between the two drawings is your improvement plan. A new warehouse layout is often part of that change.

Value stream mapping is a fixed part of our warehouse scan. Read how that scan works at optimise your warehouse with a warehouse scan.