Mapping is an overarching tool that gives you a picture of the entire production process, including both value and nonvalue-adding activities. It helps you avoid the common mistake of cherry-picking lean techniques, which leads to building isolated islands of improvement instead of improving the whole production flow to reap the biggest benefits. And mapping helps you understand the sources of waste so you can apply the right lean techniques at the right places for bigger and more sustainable impact. The benefits of mapping also include:
- Establishing a direction for the company’s improvement efforts - maps become the blueprints for the lean transformation.
- Gaining a better understanding of the linkages between material and information flow.
- Visualizing improvements to the overall production flow, instead of spot improvements to single processes.
- Creating the basis of an effective lean implementation plan by designing how the door-to-door material and information flow should operate.
- Giving operators, engineers, and managers a common language of continuous improvement. (text cited from www.lean.org)