Dave Kippen and Dan Vermeesch facilitated a Value Stream Mapping with Pregis Films, a blown film extruder and converter in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dave and Dan led the team through a traditional VSM event, with a few Invica twists that added even more value than Value Stream Maps of the past. The biggest wins of the week?

• Within the first 60 minutes of the event, the cross functional team were asking questions of each other and making connections that had never been made before. These will have long lasting effects. It will make future questions, problem solving, and interactions much more fruitful because of the personal connections that have now formed.

• A clear and complete picture of the current state was developed AND AGREED UPON by all stakeholders. Several comments from the group supported that point that no one had seen the process fully from end-to-end 

• 33 opportunity bursts ultimately made it into the “hopper” and were clarified, ranked and prioritized. 

• The impact to the bottom line? The team took a “back of the napkin” approach and guesstimated a yearly savings for each project. If all were completed, the number was almost 3 million in savings. What an opportunity to go get! Oh, and they could potentially shave 36% of the TOTAL PROCESS STEPS off, and reduce the cycle time of the product by 25%. Incredible.

Kudos to the Pregis team and their Lean Leader Corey McCaigue for having the guts to dive straight in. If only all businesses were this brave. If yours is, reach out to Invica and start the discussion!