How digital operations empower value stream management

Reliability, scalability, and innovation are three terms at the forefront of any discussion about how businesses can achieve long-term success. When you put those three together, you create a business that’s capable of producing the best possible product with the least amount of waste, known simply as a lean enterprise. Being a lean enterprise is the ideal state for most organizations but becoming one can be an ambitious all-hands-on-deck undertaking. The best way to do this? A Value Stream Management (VSM) framework.

Adopting a VSM framework is an exciting way for organizations to transition their enterprise into a lean operation, but doing so can be challenging. The Software Development Times noted that 86% of respondents polled stated that they are not using a VSM framework in their business. But why is this happening, and what solutions are available to make this adoption and implementation easier? Let’s discuss.

Why aren’t businesses adopting VSM?

Like many enterprise-level organizational changes, the biggest obstacle in adopting a VSM is an unwillingness to modify company culture. The culture of an organization is vital to its operations. Executives and HR teams have dedicated significant time and resources to crafting cultures that reflect the goals and mission of the business. Adopting a VSM framework requires a business to look at its operations in a neutral light and be honest about its downfalls and areas for improvement: a task easier said than done.

When adopting a VSM framework, businesses tend to face the following hurdles.

1. A failure to identify waste. The first step in the VSM framework is to identify value streams and areas of improvement: this means confronting areas that create waste, like overproduction, transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over-processing, and defects.
2. A failure to accept findings. No one likes to be told their business processes are inefficient. However, failing to accept findings identifying areas of improvement provided by a Value Stream Management framework is guaranteed to hurt production.
3. A failure to improve. Value Stream Mapping is an essential feature of the VSM framework responsible for mapping value and charting ways to improve the product development and support lifecycle while increasing the value of an organization. However, it is in following the steps of the VSM framework after mapping that creates improvement.
4. A failure of continuous review. Many organizations that adopt a VSM framework use the framework only when implementing a new tool or technology: organizations must use a VSM framework outside the scope of these situations and continue its use every day to be successful.
5. A failure to properly address challenges. Businesses need to address challenges from the root; this means resolving complex themes by focusing on people, processes, and products. Without a VSM framework, businesses fail to remediate the core issue and apply temporary solutions with technology, disrupting the product development and support lifecycle.

How a Digital Operations Platform plays a role in VSM

A Digital Operations Platform (DOP) works within a Value Stream Management framework to help organizations solve challenges by improving business processes through implementing robust and personalized technology.

The Everbridge Digital Operations Platform, powered by xMatters, works by automating and streamlining digital service delivery and incident management across teams and toolsets. With automation and other sophisticated technologies at the helm, organizations can use a DOP to digitally transform into lean enterprises without the burden of legacy software. Many of the core features in a digital operations platform work within a VSM to transform an organization, improving product development and support lifecycle. A Digital Operations Platform makes optimization effortless and effective with limitless integrations and continuous service through an optimized product development lifecycle: helping organizations innovate and spring ahead.

However, the implementation of a Digital Operations Platform works best when applied using a VSM framework, which identifies, organizes, maps, connects, inspects, adapts, and applies the vision to an organization. Together, a DOP and VSM framework helps organizations reach their digital transformation goals with fewer disruptions and faster innovation. By removing the challenges of end-to-end visualization, sluggish process inefficiency detection, and confusion regarding the measurement of business goals and value, a DOP creates endless opportunities through its application in a VSM framework.

Conclusion

When working within a Value Stream Management framework, a Digital Operations Platform helps organizations transform into better, stronger, and more resilient enterprises: creating long-term growth and strong product development and support lifecycles. Download Creating a Lean Enterprise with a Digital Operations Platform to learn how organizations can achieve term business growth with fewer disruptions, faster innovation, and better results.