9 John Shook and Roberto Ronzani - Flow begins by understanding - Lean and Agile Summit 2022

Given the theme of the conference and the contributions of Nigel Thurlow (Agile and Lean and Flow) and David Snowden (Agile and Lean and Complex Systems) and others, our contribution centers around “flow” and “systems” as viewed through the lens of the well-known lean tool of value stream mapping, or VSM.

VSM, as it was developed by Toyota and introduced to the world via the workbook Learning To See (LTS), is a tool or process or enabler to understand and improve the flow of value as a “material (work) and information (instructions) flow system”. As such, VSM is nothing less than a system design tool for any enterprise endeavor, whether manufacturing or other.

At its most simple level of usage, VSM visualizes work so that teams of humans can *look
together* at a map of the system within which they work, analyze its functioning, and design a better system for the team to strive for. Critical to that process are the questions to use to
understand the functioning of the system, a useful set of which you can find at the beginning of Learning To See.

VSM enables us see together, to understand together, to be able to act together, and, also, to
think together in the interest of creating better flow of value for customers while providing
meaningful ownership to the teams of people who do the actual work.