The recently released book, Value Stream Mapping, by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling (McGraw-Hill, 2013), necessarily emphasizes using a tool, in this case the value stream map, to unlock enterprisewide performance improvement. As good lean practitioners, however, Martin and Osterling understand that tools can take you only so far; principles matter far more. As they write: “The broader use of value stream mapping [is] as a methodology to transform leadership thinking, define strategy and priorities, and assure that customers are receiving high levels of value.”

That’s it in a nutshell. That broad scope and focus on customers as the ultimate arbiter of an organization’s quality often gets overlooked in books of this nature, which can sometimes get bogged down in the minutiae of a particular methodology. But there are no angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-pins arguments here, just good, practical advice for continuous improvement.

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