Value Streams
Value Streams in Modern Digital Business
A Guide by Chris Dwyer
Introduction
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, value streams are the lifeblood of successful businesses. They represent the end-to-end processes that create value for customers, stakeholders, and the organisation itself. As a digital consultant, I can help your organisation design, develop, and manage these value streams. Let’s dive into how you make a difference:
What Are Value Streams?
Business value streams represent the end-to-end processes and activities that deliver value to customers and stakeholders. They encompass every step of the value chain, from initial customer engagement to product/service delivery and beyond. By mapping and optimising these value streams, organisations can identify inefficiencies, eliminate waste, and enhance the overall customer experience.
Business Value Streams
Order to Cash
- This value stream encompasses the entire process from receiving an order to delivering the product or service to the customer.
- It includes activities such as order processing, inventory management, production, packaging, and shipping.
Procure to Pay
- The procurement value stream focuses on sourcing, purchasing, and paying for goods and services.
- It involves supplier selection, negotiation, purchase orders, and payment processing.
Reach to Loyalty
- The customer value stream covers activities related to acquiring, serving, and retaining customers.
- It includes marketing, sales, customer support, and relationship management.
Product
Concept to End of Life
- This stream spans the entire lifecycle of a product or service.
- It starts with conceptualisation, moves through design, development, production, and distribution, and eventually ends with product retirement.
Vendor
Pursuit to Separation
- The vendor value stream focuses on managing relationships with external suppliers and partners.
- It includes activities such as vendor selection, contract negotiation, performance monitoring, and collaboration
Human Resources
Hire to Retire
- This value stream covers the entire employee lifecycle.
- It includes recruitment, onboarding, training, performance management, and employee separation.
Finance
Record to Report
- The finance value stream involves financial transactions, reporting, and compliance.
- It includes activities such as bookkeeping, financial analysis, budgeting, and audit.
Information Technology
Idea to Implementation
- This value stream covers the lifecycle of IT solutions, from conceptualisation and design to implementation, maintenance, and support.
- It includes activities such as requirements gathering, system development, testing, deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Ideation to Innovation
- This value stream focuses on generating new ideas, conducting research, and developing innovative products or technologies.
- It involves activities such as market research, concept validation, prototype development, testing, and continuous innovation efforts.
Lead to Conversion
- This value stream involves activities aimed at generating leads and converting them into customers through marketing and sales efforts.
- It includes lead generation, lead nurturing, sales prospecting, pitching, negotiations, and closing deals to drive revenue growth.
Conception to Compliance
- This value stream ensures that products, services, and processes meet quality standards and comply with regulatory requirements.
- It involves quality planning, inspection, testing, corrective actions, and continuous improvement initiatives to deliver high-quality outcomes.
Supply Chain Management
Source to Deliver
- This value stream manages the flow of goods, information, and finances from suppliers to customers, optimizing efficiency and minimizing costs.
- It includes sourcing, procurement, inventory management, logistics, distribution, and coordination with suppliers and partners.
Project Management
Initiation to Closure
- This value stream involves planning, executing, monitoring, and closing projects to achieve specific goals within defined constraints.
- It includes project initiation, scope definition, scheduling, resource allocation, progress tracking, risk management, and project closure activities.
Inquiry to Resolution
- This value stream addresses customer inquiries, issues, and complaints, providing timely and effective resolution to enhance satisfaction and loyalty.
- It includes handling customer queries, troubleshooting problems, providing technical assistance, and ensuring positive interactions with customers.
Risk Management
Identification to Mitigation
- This value stream identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks that could impact the organization’s objectives, assets, or reputation.
- It involves risk identification, analysis, evaluation, mitigation planning, implementation of controls, and monitoring of risk levels and responses.
Compliance and Legal
Assessment to Adherence
- This value stream ensures that the organization complies with applicable laws, regulations, standards, and contractual obligations.
- It involves legal assessment, compliance monitoring, policy development, training, audits, and corrective actions to maintain legal and regulatory compliance.
Facilities Management
Construction to Maintenance
- This value stream manages the physical infrastructure and facilities required for the organization’s operations.
- It includes facilities planning, construction, maintenance, safety management, space utilization, and security to provide a conducive work environment.
Environmental Sustainability
Assessment to Action
- This value stream focuses on assessing environmental impacts, implementing sustainable practices, and reducing the organization’s ecological footprint.
- It involves environmental audits, sustainability assessments, energy efficiency initiatives, waste reduction programs, and carbon footprint reduction efforts.
Employee Development and Training
Skills Acquisition to Mastery
- This value stream provides training, development, and career advancement opportunities to enhance employee skills, performance, and engagement.
- It includes skills assessment, training needs analysis, curriculum development, delivery of training programs, mentoring, coaching, and performance feedback.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Preparation to Response
- This value stream plans and prepares for potential disruptions, such as natural disasters or cybersecurity breaches, and implements strategies to ensure business continuity and recovery.
- It involves risk assessments, business impact analysis, development of continuity plans, crisis management, emergency response, and post-incident recovery efforts.
Value Stream Management
Strategic Alignment
- Start at the Beginning: Understand what customers truly value. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify customer needs and expectations.
- Quantify Value: Use market research and customer feedback to quantify the value delivered by each step in the stream.
- Include All Players: Involve legal, marketing, support, and other relevant teams. Value streams extend beyond development and delivery.
Optimising Flow
- Eliminate Waste: Identify bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies. Streamline the entire flow by including all steps in the value stream.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Bridge silos by ensuring all stakeholders contribute to value realisation.
- Market Readiness: Prepare the market, company, and product for successful releases .
Data-Driven Decision-Making
- Metrics and Insights: Leverage data to make informed decisions. Monitor performance, throughput, and quality.
- Continuous Improvement: Drive ongoing improvements by analysing data and adjusting value streams as needed.
Benefits of Digitising Business Value Streams
Enhanced Efficiency and Productivity
Digitising value streams enables organisations to automate repetitive tasks, streamline processes, and reduce manual interventions. This leads to greater efficiency and productivity across the organisation, allowing teams to focus on high-value activities.
Improved Customer Experience
By digitising value streams, organisations can deliver faster, more personalised, and seamless experiences to customers. From streamlined order processing to self-service portals, digital value streams empower customers to interact with businesses on their terms, driving satisfaction and loyalty.
Data-Driven Decision Making
igitised value streams generate vast amounts of data that can be analysed to gain actionable insights into customer behavior, market trends, and operational performance. By harnessing the power of data analytics, organisations can make informed decisions, identify growth opportunities, and mitigate risks effectively.
Agility and Innovation
Digital value streams enable organisations to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, customer preferences, and competitive pressures. By embracing agile methodologies and continuous improvement practices, businesses can innovate faster, experiment with new ideas, and stay ahead of the curve.
Cost Reduction and Resource Optimisation
Digitising value streams often leads to cost savings through process automation, resource optimisation, and waste reduction. By eliminating manual errors and inefficiencies, organisations can minimise operational costs and maximise the value delivered to customers.
My Approach To Digitising Value Streams
Value Stream Mapping
We work closely with your teams to map out your existing value streams, identify pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
Technology Assessment and Selection
Leveraging my expertise in emerging technologies, we help you select the right digital tools and platforms to digitise your value streams effectively.
Process Automation and Integration
I can help design and implement automated workflows, integration solutions, and digital platforms to streamline your value streams and drive operational efficiency.
Data Analytics and Insights
We can deploy advanced analytics tools and techniques to analyse data generated by your digitised value streams, uncover actionable insights, and drive data-driven decision-making.
Change Management and Adoption
I help support your teams throughout the digital transformation journey, providing change management guidance, training programs, and ongoing support to ensure successful adoption and alignment with business goals.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Run the Business
How efficient are our efforts?
The time taken for a unit of work to move through the entire value stream, from initiation to completion. A shorter lead time indicates greater efficiency and responsiveness.
The time taken to complete a single iteration or cycle of work within the value stream. This KPI measures the speed at which value is delivered to customers.
Measures the ratio of value-added time to total lead time within the value stream. A higher process efficiency indicates less waste and smoother workflow.
The rate at which value is delivered through the value stream over a specific period. It measures the volume of work completed and is often expressed as units per day or units per hour.
The number of items or tasks currently in progress within the value stream. Monitoring WIP helps identify bottlenecks and manage workflow capacity.
Grow the Business
How successful are our outcomes?
Measures the percentage of deliverables or outputs that are completed and delivered to customers on time as per agreed-upon deadlines.
Metrics related to the quality of output produced by the value stream, such as defect rates, error rates, and customer satisfaction scores.
Measures customer satisfaction levels with the products or services delivered by the value stream. It can be assessed through surveys, feedback forms, or Net Promoter Score (NPS).
Transform the Business
How can we improve our performance?
The total cost incurred to deliver a unit of value through the value stream. This KPI helps assess the cost-effectiveness of the value stream and identify opportunities for cost reduction.
Measures the utilisation of resources (e.g., equipment, personnel) within the value stream. It helps identify underutilised resources or areas of overcapacity.
Measures the percentage of time spent on value-added activities within the value stream compared to non-value-added activities (e.g., waiting, rework). A higher flow efficiency indicates smoother workflow and less waste.
Measures employee satisfaction levels and engagement within the value stream, as happy and engaged employees are more likely to contribute positively to performance.
Benefits of My Expertise
Faster Delivery
My value stream management expertise accelerates product delivery, enhancing competitiveness and revenue.
Better Customer Experiences
By aligning teams around customer satisfaction, we ensure positive reviews and referrals.
Employee Engagement
Cross-functional collaboration enables employees to see the big picture, fostering engagement.
Data-Driven Investments
Use insights to guide future investments.
Why Partner With Me
Together, let’s define and realise your digital ambitions, unlocking new opportunities for growth, innovation, and success.
Proven Track Record
With a track record of successful digital transformations across different business functions, I bring deep expertise and insights to the table.
Collaborative Approach
I believe in the power of collaboration and partnership, working hand-in-hand with business leaders and executives to co-create tailored solutions that drive meaningful business outcomes.
Future-Focused Vision
My forward-thinking approach ensures that your organisation remains poised for success in an ever-changing digital landscape, anticipating trends and embracing innovation to stay ahead of the curve.
What I Can Offer
Unlock the full potential of digital transformation with my strategic consultancy services tailored to meet the unique needs of business leaders.
Let's Get Started
Free Consultation
- Up to 4 hours
- Personalised Expert Advice: Receive tailored recommendations based on your specific needs.
- Strategic Planning Session: Discuss your goals and objectives in detail to develop a customised plan of action.
- No Obligation: Explore our services risk-free with no commitment required.
- Limited Time Offer: Act now to schedule your complimentary consultation before availability fills up.
Time and Materials
- Charged per hour
- Flexible Billing: Pay only for the hours and resources utilised on your project, ensuring cost efficiency.
- Transparent Pricing: Clear breakdown of costs for materials and labor, providing full visibility into expenses.
- Agile Development: Adapt the scope and features of your project as it progresses to meet evolving requirements.
- Ongoing Support: Continued assistance and maintenance available post-project completion for seamless operation.
Fixed Price per Sprint
- Two-week sprints
- Predictable Budgeting: Know the total cost upfront, eliminating surprises and budget overruns.
- Defined Scope: Clear timeline and deliverables outlined for a focused and efficient project execution.
- Risk Mitigation: Minimise project uncertainties with a predetermined scope and fixed pricing structure.
- Accelerated Delivery: Expedited development process to meet strict deadlines and launch targets.
Digital Leadership
Inspect & Adapt
- Ensure the organisation's technology systems are running smoothly and efficiently, and that they are able to support the organisation's operations and goals.
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.
Strategy & Planning
- Develop and implement long-term technology strategies and vision for the organisation.
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.
Innovate & Transform
- Lead rapid development and commercialisation of ideas, products or services.
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.
Discovery & Design
- Lead research and development efforts to create new products, services, and technologies.
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.
Develop & Engineer
- Lead development and implementation of digital projects, such as websites, mobile apps, and software.
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.
Manage & Sustain
- Lead management and sustainability of digital products, services and technology. Ensure the organisation's technology systems are running smoothly and efficiently
- Two-week sprint.
- $130 per hour NZD ($) for contract roles.