This is an original article from NIST's Blogrige, the official Baldrige Blog, written by Christine Schaffer.

The national Baldrige Performance Excellence Program's website is the source of the regularly updated, widely validated leadership-and-management-strengthening tool known as the Baldrige Excellence Framework (which includes the Criteria for Performance Excellence).

Are you already using this comprehensive self-assessment guide to strengthen your organization’s performance?

Smart Manufacturing. Factory of the Future. Industry 4.0. These are the buzzwords used by those driving the manufacturing world forward. At the heart of these concepts is digital manufacturing and design (DM&D). But what exactly is DM&D? And what does it mean for the small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) that make up the majority of the industry?

It has been proven that when safety is treated at the same level of importance as productivity, cost saving and quality, companies save hundreds of thousands of dollars daily by preventing injuries.

How can you incorporate safety in your daily work interactions?

Current State vs. Future State VSM

Current State is intended to represent conditions that are present today. Not ideal conditions or how it is supposed to be, but as close to reality as possible. Future State should be your goal, your blueprint, your roadmap; this is your destination. It should be optimistic, but not unrealistic. We generally plan for a timeframe of 6 – 12 months to get to Future State. There are times an interim map is drawn, which I often call “Current State with kaizens.” Kaizen is the Japanese translation for ‘good change’. The interim map with the kaizens can be a bit messy, but it helps represent the transition from Current State to Future State. There are times when the Future State isn’t structurally different than the Current State, and the Future State is the Current State with kaizens.

Can I facilitate the VSM myself, or should I use an outside resource?

Short answer: Sure. You probably can facilitate it yourself; and should if you’re comfortable with it. VSM isn’t rocket science. But, depending on your level of experience with lean / VSM and company dynamics, there may be advantages to using an outside resource.

Suppliers and Customers

Most Value Stream Maps have multiple suppliers and customers. Some have several hundred. You generally can’t put them all on a map, so you want to focus on the most important few.

I once worked with an aerospace supplier who could count their customers on one hand; in this case they were included individually on the VSM. Sometimes the scope is such that we have a single, internal customer. Other times, we have many customers which can be represented as a generic “Customers” or perhaps we consider the Warehouse or Distributors to be the customer…or a combination of these.

Where to start / Granularity

At what level should we map? I’ve done VSMs where an entire factory (a big one, making lawn tractors) was merely a box on the map. Our focus was on logistics and distribution- we included inventory, capacity, and setup time in the factory box, but that was about it. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve done VSMs for an Order Entry process. We got into much greater detail and discussed when/how credit approvals were done, etc. The level you go to really depends on your goals and scope of the VSM. If I were taking a first crack at VSM, I’d start door-to-door in a process, using major activities as my process boxes. If you find that one or more of these process boxes are real issues or need a better depth of understanding, you can complete a follow-up VSM on that process which includes more detail.

I don’t claim to know everything about Value Stream Mapping (VSM). However, I have used VSM extensively over the past 15 years in many different industries and situations. I believe strongly in the value of the tool and want to share some of my experience with the intention of helping novice Continuous Improvement leaders head in the right direction with VSM.

We are all aware that technology is reshaping the economy – and now the workforce. It provides opportunities for companies to see their way through the ever-present workforce challenge - too many businesses cannot find the skilled workers they need, when they need them and where they need them.

 Guest post, written by Ron Jacobs, Human Resources Professor and Consultant.

This one-day workshop provides a practical introduction to job analysis and the skills to conduct the well-known technique called DACUM (Developing a Curriculum). DACUM has a long history of proven success in gathering information about what people do on their jobs, including the following:

• Identifying employee selection criteria
• Identifying current and future job requirements
• Designing training programs
• Supporting quality and safety programs
• Developing work instruction documents