The five principles of Lean are; Eliminating waste, Standardization, Visibility, Continuous

improvement, and Lean culture.

Value stream mapping starts with identifying all the steps in a process, and then applies Lean
principles to improve that process.
Creating a process map involves visualizing all the steps in a process.

The next step in value stream mapping is to identify the process steps that add value – and
those that do not – from the customer’s perspective.
Creating a ‘current state’ process flow diagram involves creating a process map for how an
activity is performed now.

Identifying non-value added steps that can be eliminated leads to the creation of a ‘future state’
process flow diagram.
 A transformation plan is a series of actions that must be completed in order to get you to the
‘future state’ process flow.

Value stream mapping can be performed on a high level process – like the warehouse
operations process - or on a lower level process like stretch wrapping pallets.
It is possible to have different processes for the same activity where items going through the
process can be segmented into different groups.

Cross-docking is the leanest possible warehouse operations process without items skipping the
warehouse entirely.
When analyzing a process, look for opportunities to eliminate waste as described in the Lean
warehousing part 1 course.