Value Stream Mapping Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Continuous Improvement Manager, Operations Manager and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-QP-042

Before you join: Participants should have practical familiarity with a process they manage, support or improve, and should be comfortable discussing process steps, performance measures and operational problems.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Value stream mapping makes the full path of work visible, from customer demand through information flow, processing, queues, handoffs and delivery. Without that view, improvement teams often address isolated delays while defects, excessive work-in-progress, approvals and scheduling rules continue to create long lead times. The method is relevant to production lines, banking operations, public services, healthcare pathways, supply chains and shared-service processes where flow, quality and productivity must improve together.

This course develops the ability to select a product family or service line, define a map boundary, gather reliable operating data and produce current-state and future-state value stream maps. Participants calculate takt time, lead time, touch time, first-pass yield and work-in-process; identify waste using TIMWOODS; analyse constraints using Little's Law and Theory of Constraints principles; and design pull, flow, standard work and quality-at-the-source controls. They also learn to convert a future-state design into an owned, sequenced improvement plan.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked cases, map-building group work, data analysis, simulation and structured application planning. Cases can be adapted for manufacturing, transactional services, logistics, financial operations or public-sector delivery. Participants leave with a completed value stream mapping pack, including a current-state map, future-state map, performance baseline, improvement priorities and a 90-day implementation plan. The five-day instructor-led course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, and participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits professionals who already understand their processes and need a disciplined method for diagnosing flow problems, agreeing target conditions and leading measurable improvement work.

What you will be able to do

  • Create current-state value stream maps using observed process, inventory and information-flow data
  • Calculate takt time, lead time, touch time, capacity and first-pass yield
  • Identify waste using TIMWOODS analysis and distinguish it from value-adding work
  • Analyse bottlenecks using Little's Law, utilisation evidence and Theory of Constraints principles
  • Design future-state maps incorporating flow, pull, pacemaker processes and inventory controls
  • Apply kanban, standard work, SMED and heijunka methods to improve process flow
  • Integrate poka-yoke, FMEA and control plans into future-state process design
  • Produce an A3-based implementation roadmap with owners, measures, milestones and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Ability to diagnose end-to-end delay rather than isolated process symptoms
  • Confidence calculating flow measures from operational data
  • Practical future-state mapping capability for improvement assignments
  • Stronger evidence base for proposing process changes to managers
  • Reusable 90-day plan for applying value stream mapping at work

For your organisation

  • Clearer visibility of queues, handoffs, rework and non-value-adding activity
  • Better prioritisation of improvement work using flow and constraint evidence
  • Reduced lead-time and work-in-progress pressure through targeted pull controls
  • Earlier defect prevention through quality-at-the-source and control-plan design
  • Shared cross-functional view of target conditions, owners and implementation milestones

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain value stream mapping and select an appropriate process for analysis.

  • Lean thinking principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection
  • Value stream mapping symbols, conventions and boundaries for service and production
  • Distinguishing process maps, SIPOC diagrams, spaghetti charts and value stream maps
  • Identifying customer value, waste, unevenness and overburden using Lean terminology
  • Mapping end-to-end work from supplier request through customer fulfilment
  • Selecting a product family or service line for mapping

Participants can define a focused mapping scope based on customer demand and improvement objectives.

  • Voice of Customer requirements translated into critical-to-quality process measures
  • Customer demand, takt time and available time calculated correctly
  • Product-family matrices used to choose meaningful mapping boundaries
  • Defining start and end points, triggers, customers and suppliers
  • Service requests segmented by channel, complexity and demand pattern
  • Scope statements tested against sponsor decisions and improvement objectives

Participants can collect and validate the data needed to construct a credible current-state map.

  • Data collection plans specify observations, samples, owners and measurement windows
  • Cycle time, lead time and touch time distinguished accurately
  • Recording changeover, uptime, queue length and first-pass yield
  • Work content observed using standard work combination tables
  • Information accuracy checked through document trails and system timestamps
  • Swimlane responsibility captured for handoffs, approvals and rework loops
  • Baseline metrics validated before drawing current-state conclusions

Participants can map material, information and work flow using standard value stream mapping conventions.

  • Material-flow icons represent inventory, transport, supermarkets and external suppliers
  • Information-flow paths show schedules, forecasts, signals and system transactions
  • Electronic and manual triggers separated on current-state maps
  • Timeline ladders calculate total lead time and value-added time
  • FIFO lanes, push systems and pull signals mapped precisely
  • Process boxes document operators, equipment, cycle time and uptime

Participants can identify flow losses, locate constraints and prioritise their underlying causes.

  • Seven wastes identified from delays, defects, motion and overprocessing
  • TIMWOODS analysis applied to administrative and transactional work
  • Bottlenecks located using capacity, utilisation and queue evidence
  • Little's Law relates work-in-process, throughput and flow time
  • Constraint effects assessed through Theory of Constraints principles
  • Root causes tested with five whys and fishbone diagrams
  • Kaizen opportunities prioritised by impact, effort, risk and ownership

Participants can design a future-state map with defined target conditions and control points.

  • Future-state design begins with customer demand and operating targets
  • Takt-driven process steps balanced against available capacity and demand variation
  • Continuous-flow cells evaluated for sequence, layout and product mix
  • Supermarkets and kanban loops sized using replenishment assumptions
  • Pacemaker processes selected to control production or service release
  • Future-state maps show target conditions, information triggers and inventory limits
  • Assumptions documented where demand, staffing or technology constrain design

Participants can select and configure practical methods for stabilising flow and controlling work release.

  • Heijunka principles level volume and mix across planning intervals
  • Kanban card quantities calculated from demand, lead time and safety stock
  • Pull-system rules define replenishment signals, container sizes and escalation
  • Standard work establishes sequence, takt alignment and expected outcomes
  • SMED concepts reduce changeover losses and batch-size pressure
  • Visual management makes status, abnormalities and priorities visible
  • Workload balancing addresses unevenness before adding resources or automation

Participants can incorporate defect prevention and process controls into future-state designs.

  • Quality-at-the-source controls prevent defect escape between process steps
  • Poka-yoke options matched to common error modes and causes
  • First-pass yield tracked alongside flow, delay and rework metrics
  • Failure mode and effects analysis ranks future-state process risks
  • Control plans assign checks, frequencies, reactions and accountable roles
  • PDCA cycles test countermeasures before wider process changes

Participants can translate a future-state map into an owned and measurable implementation roadmap.

  • A3 reports frame the problem, analysis, countermeasures and follow-up
  • Future-state gaps converted into sequenced improvement work packages
  • Impact-effort matrices rank quick wins and structural changes
  • RACI matrices allocate ownership for actions, approvals and decisions
  • Implementation roadmaps identify milestones, dependencies, resources and review points
  • Benefits hypotheses connect changes to lead time, quality and cost

Participants can establish review routines and a 90-day plan for sustaining value stream improvements.

  • Daily management boards track flow, quality, delivery and improvement actions
  • Tiered huddles escalate abnormalities through defined response paths
  • Process confirmation audits verify adherence to future-state operating conditions
  • Control charts distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause signals
  • Before-and-after metrics test realised results against target conditions
  • 90-day application plans specify sponsors, measures, actions and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Current-state value stream map template
  2. Future-state value stream map template
  3. Operational data collection plan
  4. Waste and constraint analysis worksheet
  5. A3 implementation roadmap
  6. 90-day workplace application plan

Who should attend

  • Continuous Improvement Manager — needs a repeatable method for directing flow-improvement projects
  • Operations Manager — needs to reduce delays, rework and avoidable work-in-progress
  • Process Improvement Specialist — needs credible current-state evidence and future-state designs
  • Quality Manager — needs to connect defect prevention with process flow and productivity
  • Production or Service Delivery Manager — needs to balance demand, capacity and daily work release
  • Project Manager — needs to plan cross-functional process changes with measurable target conditions

Skills and tools covered

Value stream mappingFlow analysisWaste identificationFuture-state designPull-system designImprovement planning

Tools and standards

Value Stream Mapping, SIPOC, Little's Law, A3 problem solving

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce Lean flow concepts, mapping conventions and analytical methods. Participants work through realistic production and service cases, construct current-state and future-state maps, analyse operational data and test design choices through group exercises and simulations. Facilitated discussion examines common constraints, quality failures and implementation risks. Each participant develops an application plan for a relevant workplace process. Delivery is instructor-led in classrooms or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with a process they manage, support or improve, and should be comfortable discussing process steps, performance measures and operational problems. Prior exposure to Lean, Six Sigma, process mapping or quality improvement is helpful but not essential. Participants do not need advanced mathematics, specialist software, statistical certification or prior value stream mapping experience. The course is most useful when participants can bring a real process example, such as an order-to-cash flow, claims process, service request or production family.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need familiarity with a real operational or service process and its basic performance measures. Previous Lean, Six Sigma or value stream mapping training is helpful but not required.

Bring details of a process that would benefit from shorter lead time, fewer errors or less work-in-progress. Useful information includes process steps, demand volumes, staffing, cycle times, known delays and quality issues.

It is suited to managers, improvement specialists, quality professionals, project managers and operational leads responsible for process performance. It applies equally to production, banking, logistics, shared services, healthcare and public-service processes.

This course concentrates on value stream mapping as a practical method for visualising end-to-end flow and designing a future state. Lean Six Sigma programmes usually cover a wider set of improvement methods, including more statistical analysis and DMAIC project structure.

Participants can use the templates and application plan to map a selected process with their team, establish a baseline and agree target conditions. The course also provides methods for assigning owners, tracking actions and reviewing results over 90 days.

The programme includes approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided among instruction, case analysis, map construction, data calculations, group discussion, simulation and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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