Q 730. Discuss how identifying inefficiencies in the Current State and designing an optimized Future State VSM can align organizational processes with strategic goals, using an example from manufacturing or service industries.

 

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Identifying inefficiencies in the current state and designing an optimized future state value stream map can significantly align with organizational process with strategic goals.

Current State VSM:

The clinic maps out all the steps in patient care, which is from appointment scheduling to post checkup follow-up, and it highlights inefficiencies such as long wait times, redundant paperwork, delayed test results. To find out inefficiencies, we can check the current state VSM which is a factor in scheduling, redundant processes, data silos.

After which we can design the future state VSM to address these inefficiencies: streamlined scheduling system, electronic health records, integrated lab systems. Applying there the same principles of future state VSM, the clinic will reduce wait time to 10 minutes and pathology results are available in 24 hours which earlier were wait time of 30-40 min and 3-4 day for pathology results

Value Stream Map (VSM) is a powerful approach to identify inefficiencies in a process. It involves mapping out the entire current state process flow including the flow of materials and information, gathering process times, lead times and relevant metrics which helps visualizing the current workflow and data provides quantitative basis to identify the inefficiencies. Within current process flow, we can identify Value-added activities, the wastes (seven types of wastes - Inventory, motion, defects, transport, waiting and overproduction) and Non-value added activities which are often the root causes of inefficiencies.

VSM is a team exercise involving the team members, subject matter experts and other key stakeholders. VSM can be used to answer the following questions:

 

1. What is the flow of material and information?,

2. Where are the linkages between the information and material flows?

3. Where are the sources of waste?

4. What should our flow look like? (when desired process flow mapped).

5. Where should our improvement efforts be focused?

 

Once the current flow is mapped and waste is identified, A future state process is mapped basis of lean improvement implementation plan which is defined in alignment with organizational strategic goals that the optimized process should achieve. These goals could include reducing lead times, improving quality, increasing customer satisfaction, or reducing costs. For example: In my current organization (Pharma company) which Transfers the Value (ToVs) to Health care professionals (HCPs) for the service the HCPs provides, required to be disclosed to government regulation. Based on the country the regulation requirement can be different and the disclosure document should meet the requirements. The process involves the Data collection of ToVs (payments) made to HCPs from various countries where the company operates, and HCP services were taken. Followed by data validation and data submission with disclosure to regulation department. A Value Stream Mapping was conducted and identified the process times, lead time, value-added and non-value added process steps where majority of process is conducted in manually method. The VSM helped us to identify the inefficiencies in the process and also the opportunities for Automation. Based on solution brainstorming and aligning with team strategic goal to optimize this process, an improvement opportunity was proposed using RPA automation and implementation plan was developed.

 

Value stream mapping is a Lean management tool that is used to visualize, analyze and improve the current flow of process that is required to service a customer. It provides a high level and end-to-end map of the process workflow, identifying inefficiencies, bottlenecks and areas of improvement. Value stream mapping has some key features that makes it a very valuable tool for any organization to implement on a workflow that may be new or old. Some notable features are listed below.,

1)      Visual Representation: Value stream maps are commonly depicted visually using flowcharts that shows each and every step involved in a process from start to finish

2)      Focus on Value Addition: Value steam maps distinguish between value added activities (gives a positive outcome e.g. Customer satisfaction) and non-value-added activities (waste)

3)      Two States:

·         Current State VSM: Shows the existing process map and highlights inefficiencies

·         Future State VSM: Proposes an optimized process that eliminates inefficiencies and has an improved flow

Value stream maps can be applied in Manufacturing, Services, IT and Healthcare industries.

How to identify inefficiencies in Current State VSM: Once the process has been mapped from start to finish, we need to identify all the steps that add value to the process and those that do not add value to the process. There may be steps that need to be present so that it adds value to another step in the future and is not necessarily a non-value-added step in the process right now. So, it is very important to see that we do not remove them as waste. Inefficiencies such as bottleneck, redundancies, delays or waste (remember 7 wastes) are key contributors to processes getting misaligned with the organization’s strategic goals such as Customer experience, reducing cost etc.,

As a service industry example, if we were to map the journey of a patient from admission to discharge the current VSM may reveal help you identify inefficiencies like.,

a)      Long waiting time – In multiple places

b)      Multiple data entry points

c)      Unutilized resources like staff, medical equipment etc.,

Designing a Future State VSM that aligns to Organizations goals: The future state map is one that helps to eliminate the inefficiencies and aligns the process to the organization’s goals. It incorporates lean concepts like flow, pull and eliminate waste while the ensures that the goals are met. This delivers immense and immeasurable value to the organization. It ensures that we focus on

A)      Customer-Centric Goals – Ensure Customer Satisfaction has the highest priority in any process

      Efficiency Goals – Create Efficient workflows by reducing operating cost and increasing meaningful results

C)     Scalability Goals – We will be able to handle higher volumes of patient inflow in the future

Taking the same service industry example, if we were to map the journey of a patient from admission to discharge the future state VSM will implement solution like.,

a)      Real time monitoring of patients progresses at each touchpoint with proper scheduling

b)      Single source of data for all shared services to access patient detail via a Database

c)      Optimizing resources at each touchpoint based on usage and demand

The above solutions will help in streamlining the process and ensure that patient satisfaction and comfort are prioritized while providing the best medical care. This aligns with the organizations goals of providing premier patient care while delivering the best-in-class medical care too.

Forum Q10 - C&F-VSM.docx

All the answers are focusing on the healthcare industry and may be it needs to have better processes with less waiting times

 

Rajesh has provided the best answer to this question. He has explained the approach and questions that a VSM can help address thereby improving the process. Well done.