Free tool · Continuous improvement · Beta
Value stream mapping, guided from current state to future state
Draw today's value stream with the standard symbols — takt, the lead-time ladder and flow efficiency work themselves out — then let the Value Stream Builder walk you, one lean question at a time, to an improved future state and an action plan.
No sign-up, nothing to install. Already started? Open your maps.
How it works
- 1
Map the current state
A short guided setup asks for customer demand, your process steps and what you measured on the floor. The map, the timeline and the totals draw themselves; click anything to refine it.
- 2
Improve, one question at a time
The guide takes you through 9 future-state decisions in the order lean practitioners use. Each one shows what your map says, recommends an answer and redraws the future state as you choose.
- 3
Compare, then act
See lead time, stock and flow before and after, print the report, and give every kaizen burst an owner and a date.
The worked example, run through the guide
From 37.5 days to 8 days
An invented steel-bracket family with five processes, two of them shared batch processes and one that cannot keep up with takt. Accepting the guide's recommendations gives a cell of press brake and welding, kanban supermarkets after the shared processes, one pacemaker with a levelled schedule — and these numbers:
- Lead time
- 8 days
- from 37.5 days (−79%)
- Stock
- 4 800 pcs
- from 22 500 (−79%)
- Working capital freed
- R3.19 million
- at R180 a unit
- Flow efficiency
- 0.06%
- from 0.013%
Built for the people who actually run the improvement
Diagram tools give you the shapes and leave the lean thinking — and the arithmetic — to you. Specialist VSM software does the arithmetic but costs thousands and assumes you already know the method. The Value Stream Builder does both, and teaches as it goes.
The standard symbols, drawn for you
Process boxes, data boxes, inventory triangles, push arrows, supermarkets, FIFO lanes, kanban, load leveling and kaizen bursts — laid out the way Learning to See taught a generation of lean practitioners. You enter data; the map draws itself.
The numbers work themselves out
Takt time, days of stock, the lead-time ladder, processing time and flow efficiency update as you type. Every process shows its effective cycle time against takt, so the bottleneck is obvious.
A guide, not a blank canvas
Nine steps through the classic future-state questions — takt, finished goods, flow, pull, pacemaker, levelling, supplier and kaizen — each with a recommendation worked out from your own numbers and the reason for it.
Before and after, in days and rand
Lead time, stock, working capital, operators, schedule points and first-pass yield, current against future, on one page you can print for the management meeting.
Kaizen bursts become an action plan
Every improvement the future state needs becomes an action with an owner, a due date and a status — the part most value stream maps never get.
Private, and no sign-up
Maps are saved in your own browser. Share a map as a link or a file; nothing is uploaded to us. Works on a laptop at the gemba or a phone in the meeting room.
The future-state questions the guide walks you through
1 · Takt time
What pace does the customer set?
2 · Finished goods
Build to a finished-goods supermarket, or straight to shipping?
3 · Continuous flow
Where can work flow one piece at a time?
4 · Pull
Where flow stops, how will each process know what to make?
5 · Pacemaker
Which one process will receive the customer schedule?
6 · Level the mix
How often will you make every part?
7 · Level the volume
What increment of work will you release at the pacemaker?
8 · Supplier
How will raw material arrive?
9 · Process improvements
What has to improve to make this future state work?
Value stream mapping symbols, explained
The builder uses the symbol set popularised by Mike Rother and John Shook's Learning to See — the one taught on virtually every lean course — plus the quality-problem flag common in software libraries. Here is what each one means.
Material flow
- Customer / supplierA company outside the plant. The customer sits top right, the supplier top left, each with a data box underneath.
- ProcessOne area where material flows without stopping. A new box starts wherever the flow stops and stock builds up.
- Shared processA process other product families also use — a paint line, a big press. Not all of its time is yours.
- Data boxUnder each process: cycle time (C/T), changeover (C/O), uptime, first-pass yield (FPY) and batch size.
- WorkcellSeveral processes joined into one cell that makes one piece at a time — continuous flow.
- InventoryStock waiting between steps. Count it on the floor, then turn it into days of customer demand.
- Truck shipmentDeliveries in from the supplier and out to the customer, marked with how often they run.
- Push arrowMaterial made to a schedule and pushed to the next step whether it needs it or not.
- Shipment arrowRaw material arriving from the supplier, and finished goods leaving for the customer.
- SupermarketA small, controlled stock. The process that feeds it makes only what was taken out. Open on the supplying side.
- Withdrawal (pull)The downstream process takes exactly what it needs from the supermarket, when it needs it.
- FIFO laneFirst in, first out, with a fixed maximum. When the lane is full the process feeding it stops.
- Buffer / safety stockStock kept against swings in customer demand (buffer) or against internal problems (safety stock).
Information flow
- Manual informationPrinted schedules, phone calls, a list on the whiteboard. Label what it is and how often.
- Electronic informationEDI, email, MRP and ERP messages — the zig-zag marks it as electronic.
- Production controlWhere the schedules are made — MRP, ERP or a planner with a spreadsheet.
- Production kanbanA card that tells a process to make a set quantity. It travels from the supermarket back to the supplying process.
- Withdrawal kanbanA hatched card that authorises moving parts from the supermarket to the process that uses them.
- Signal kanbanAn upside-down triangle that triggers a whole batch when stock falls to a reorder point. Used where changeovers still force batches.
- Kanban postWhere kanban cards are collected before they are taken on.
- Kanban arriving in batchesCards that pile up and travel together instead of one at a time.
- Sequenced-pull ballMake exactly the next item called for, straight away — pull without a supermarket.
- Load leveling (heijunka)Spreads the product mix and the volume evenly over the day at the pacemaker, one pitch at a time.
- Go-see schedulingSomeone walks the floor, looks at the stock and adjusts the schedule by eye.
- Verbal / phoneInformation passed on by word of mouth.
General
- Kaizen burstAn improvement the future state needs. In the builder each one becomes an action with an owner and a date.
- OperatorA person, seen from above. The number beside it is the headcount.
- Quality problemWhere scrap or rework happens (a common addition to the original set).
- PacemakerThe one process that receives the customer schedule. Everything after it flows first in, first out.
- Timeline (lead-time ladder)Upper steps: days waiting in stock. Lower steps: seconds of processing. Totals at the right-hand end.
Questions
What is a value stream map?
A one-page picture of how one product family moves from raw material to the customer: every process with its data, the stock waiting between them, how information and schedules flow, and a timeline that compares the total lead time with the few minutes of real processing time. The current-state map shows how it works today; the future-state map shows how it should work after lean improvements.
Which symbols does a value stream map use?
The standard set popularised by Rother and Shook's Learning to See: process boxes with data boxes, inventory triangles, push arrows, supermarkets with withdrawal arrows, FIFO lanes, trucks, manual and electronic information arrows, kanban cards, the load-leveling box, go-see glasses, kaizen bursts and the lead-time ladder. The builder draws all of them for you, and the legend explains each one.
How do you calculate takt time?
Takt time = available working time per day ÷ customer demand per day. Two 8-hour shifts with 30 minutes of breaks each give 54 000 seconds; at 600 units a day, takt is 90 seconds. Planned breaks come off the available time; breakdowns and changeovers do not — they are what the processes must absorb.
How is lead time calculated on a value stream map?
Each stock point is turned into days by dividing the quantity by the daily customer demand — 3 000 pieces at 600 a day is 5 days. The lead time is all those days added together, plus the processing time. The processing (value-added) time is the sum of the cycle times along the bottom of the ladder.
What is a future-state value stream map?
The map of how the value stream should run once lean principles are applied: producing to takt, continuous flow where possible, supermarket or FIFO pull where not, one scheduling point (the pacemaker), a levelled mix and volume, and the process improvements needed to make it work. The builder walks you through each of those decisions and draws the future state as you choose.
Is the Value Stream Builder free? Do I need to sign up?
It is free, with no sign-up, during the launch beta — every feature is unlocked. Exports carry a small 'Made with Qlause' line unless you switch it off.
Where are my maps stored?
In your own browser, on your own device. Nothing is uploaded. Download a map file (.json) to keep a copy, move it to another computer or send it to a colleague, or copy a share link — the whole map travels inside the link.
Can I map an office or service process?
Yes, with a little translation: use the process time for cycle time, count the work waiting (files, requests, tickets) as stock, and set first-pass yield to how often work arrives complete and accurate. The builder is designed for manufacturing value streams first.
New to lean? Start with the free CI Academy
Short narrated modules on lean, the eight wastes, 6S, quality at the source and standard work — each with a quiz, a worksheet and a team talk. They are the vocabulary the improvement guide uses.
Go to the CI Academy →Ready to map your value stream?
Walk the floor, time each process and count the stock — then give the guided setup ten minutes.
Learning to See is a workbook by Mike Rother and John Shook published by the Lean Enterprise Institute; Qlause is not affiliated with either. The builder's calculations follow standard practice (takt from available time, stock converted to days of customer demand, flow efficiency on working time) and are planning estimates, not a substitute for watching the process.