Overall Lead Time Reduction of complete Business Blueprinting Phase using LEAN VSM

[Shubham1]

Hello All

As a part of my study & experience in SAP implementation projects , came across a simple and powerful LEAN tool -Value Stream Mapping (VSM).

LEAN practices are very common in industries wherein the objective is to maximize output ,increase productivity ,improve efficiencies and most importantly reduce waste. Consultants can read more on LEAN practices followed in diversified sectors by visiting various websites /blogs /documents freely available on web.

The current focus is on  " Minimizing  / Reducing overall lead time involved in completing the BBP  - Business Blueprinting Phase of any implementation project.

This is an attempt to utilize LEAN Value stream mapping (VSM) tool in achieving the objective of overall time reduction.

Like we all are aware about the Accelerated SAP methodology (ASAP) steps :

1. Project Preparation
2. Business blueprinting
3. Development & realization
4. System Testing & Go Live
5. Post Production Support

It is observed that BBP phase takes a large amount of valuable time & efforts of both consultants & clients.

What are sub steps of BBP ?

• AS IS study  : Understanding of current business environment & gathering of various client requirements.
• TO BE study : Mapping client's requirements in standard SAP /Custom solution. Preparation of functional requirement specs (FRS)
• GAP Analysis : Fitment analysis & finalizing RICEFW object list
• Final BBP document sign offs by client & System integrator

Lets see the same in a VSM  : Current & Future state diagram

As shown below it is very simple to understand as I have used some arbitrary values (duration in weeks)

LEAN Ideas which we can apply are as below :

• Deploy parallel teams for requirement gathering ,proposal making & FRS preparation.
• AS & TO BE study can also be done in parallel and the eventual output is the GAP & Fitment analysis.

Let us see how VSM helps us understand the benefits of LEAN practices/ideas.

Benefits :

There is an approximate  37.5% reduction in overall lead time. 

This is just my idea & thought on reducing waste and improving lead times in BBP phase.

Cheers!!!

Shubham