We have seen many ways of approaching Value Stream Mapping: from high level modelling without staff to methods which deeply engage only a small number of personnel. Often we see "academic" approaches to modelling which do not deliver business outcomes.

Our approach to Value Stream Mapping is deeply pragmatic, focused on delivering business value and engaging staff.

We have developed methods to:

• Rapidly capture process steps from those who do the work;
• Quantify the time spent on those steps;
• Fast-model the process steps;
• Analyse the opportunities;
• Generate improvement ideas;
• Quantify and prioritise the ideas;
• Implement.

We do not see modelling as an academic exercise but as a critical part of understanding the problems which need to be urgently tackled.

A structured, analytical approach to processes is essential to understand:

• Where the key points of process failure can be found;
• What those failures are costing the organisation;
• Where change teams should focus their efforts.