Practice drawing value stream maps and you will learn to see your shop floor in a way that supports lean manufacturing, Just remember that the point of getting lean is not "mapping which is just a technique. What's important is implementing a value-adding flow. To create this flow you need a "vision" of the flow. Mapping helps you see and focus on flow with a vision of an ideal, or at least improved, state.
You shouldn't run out map all your value streams right away. To benefit from value and stream mapping you should make use of shop floor, mapping a value stream you it on the will actually be implementing. If you are planning changes in a value stream, be sure to draw a future state map first. If you are designing a new production process, first map a future state for the value stream Considering a new scheduling system? Draw the future state first. Changing production managers? Use value stream maps to help ensure an effective hand-off and continued implementation progress.
Material and Information Flows
Within the production flow, the movement of material through the factory is the flow that usually comes to mind. But there is another flow of information that tells each process what to make or do next. Material and information flow are two sides of the same coin. You must map both of them.
In lean manufacturing the information flow is treated with just as much importance as the material flow. Toyota and its suppliers may use the same basic material-conversion processes as mass producers, like stamping/welding/assembly, but Toyota plants regulate their production quite differently from mass producers. The question to ask yourself is, "How can we flow information so that one process will make only what the next process needs when it needs it?"
To create value adding flow you need a "vision." Mapping helps you see and focus on flow with a vision of an ideal or improved state.