Value Stream Mapping Current state map markup and Future state map for a call center

The next step in Value Stream Mapping is the Markup for the current state map. At this step, the bottleneck areas are identified in the current value stream map. As shown in the diagram below for the call center value stream map, a markup is created by identifying the bottlenecks at each step of the ticket resolution process. The type of bottleneck is also identified at this step such as Overprocessing, Defect, Waiting etc. These bottlnecks need to be removed and the process needs to be stream lined.

The last step in Value Stream Mapping is the Future State Mapping. In this step, the bottlenecks identified in the current state map markup are removed and the future streamlined process is documented as a diagram. The star bursts indicate the process improvements. The flow of the entity through the process is recorded. The volume of entities processed at each step of the process is also documented. Here is a sample future state diagram for a BPO call center that I created from a project that I worked on where "ticket" is the entity that passes through the process. The potential ticket volumes are recorder at each step. If you do not have the exact volumes, use a best guess estimate. The processing time and lead times are measured and calculated for each step. Click on the future state map image below to see full size image. This diagram was created using Microsoft Visio. Please leave any questions in the comments section below.

Value Stream Mapping Current State Mapping for a call center

The first step in Value Stream Mapping is the Current State Mapping. In this step, the current process is documented as a diagram. The flow of the entity through the process is recorded. The volume of entities processed at each step of the process is also documented. Here is a sample current state diagram for a BPO call center that I created from a project that I worked on where "ticket" is the entity that passes through the process. The ticket volumes are recorder at each step. If you do not have the exact volumes, use a best guess estimate. The processing time and lead times are measured and calculated for each step. Click on the current state map image below to see full size image. This diagram was created using Microsoft Visio. Please leave any questions in the comments section below.

Creating a Value Proposition for Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping starts with a Value proposition. This is basically an outline of the problem, the process to improve and the goals or objectives of solving the problem. Typically a value proposition consists of the following elements:
1. Problem Statement -  short description of the problem
2. Business case - value to the business eg. profits or meeting SLAs or increasing customer satisfaction etc.
3. Objectives - what will be achieved once the process is improved and problem is solved
4. Customers
5. Customer specs - expectations of the customer, restrictions
6. Scope - Deciding what's in scope or out of scope
7. Start - what is the starting point of the process
8. Stop - what marks the end of the process
9. Unit - the entity that is transformed in the process
10. Current metrics - that are being measured in the process eg. speed, accuracy etc
11. IT systems
12. Issues and problems - what could be some problems that can happen during process improvement
13. Suppliers
14. Inputs - inputs to the process
15. Outputs - outputs of the process
16. Process - Detailed steps in the process
17. Team members

Here is a sample value proposition template for a Support Ticket management system which includes the problem, business case, objectives and process. This project is a typical process in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies.

Problem Statement
1.  Central Marketing Support Team (CMST) members are missing sending acknowledgements for tickets within one hour of receiving the ticket in the ticketing system as required by the SLA agreement.
2. Work distribution for CMST team members is uneven; some departments are overloaded with tickets
3. Many tickets are in pending status for weeks

4. Net Promoter Score score for the CMST team that depicts customer satisfaction need to be improved.

Business Case
1. Ticket closure rate is low due to high number of pending tickets, which is causing the marketing team to not get marketing reports on time and impacting timely launch of marketing campaigns
2. Missing acknowledgements is impacting the 95% ticket Time to Acknowledge metric in the SLA
3. Net Promoter Score must be between 9-10 for 80% of the tickets closed as part of the SLA
4. Not meeting the metrics in the SLA will lead to CMST team losing the project to other companies.

Objectives
1. Ensure 95% of tickets are acknowledged within one hour of ticket receipt
2. Reduction of manual tasks such as manual acknowledgement, follow-up and resolution emails

3. Reduce number of pending tickets by at least 25%

Process
The detailed process is as below:
1. Ticket is received in the  Central Marketing Support Team (CMST) Ticketing system.
2. Depending on the ticket category, ticket is routed to one of the four relevant CMST departments
 3. CMST department member picks up the first ticket from the new tickets queue and assigns ticket to himself.
4. Member assigns ticket priority, ticket complexity, expected completion date to the ticket and sends an acknowledgement to the ticket creator through the Ticketing system by manually typing the acknowledgement email
5. Member then checks for in-progress tickets and begins working on pending tickets
6. If ticket is resolved, member updates the status of the ticket as Resolved with comments explaining the resolution, adds the resolution date and sends a notification email to the creator through the Ticketing system.
7. If the ticket requires approval from CMST head, ticket is assigned to CMST head and status is updated to Pending
8. If the ticket requires IT team to work on, the ticket is assigned to IT team and status is updated to Pending
9. For the resolved ticket, Ticket creator reviews the resolution and assigns a Net Promoter Score (NPS) score between 1-10 to the ticket depending on his satisfaction level with the resolution of the ticket (1 being least satisfied, 10 being completely satisfied) .
10. If the ticket creator does not respond within 24 hours or if the ticket creator has assigned the NPS score to the ticket, CMST team member will update status of the ticket to Closed.
11. If the ticket creator has not assigned NPS score to the ticket, a default NPS score of 9 will be assigned to the ticket.

Customer Specs
1. Number of resources in the  CMST team cannot be increased
2. Improvements must be completed within three months
3. Improvements within the Ticketing system must be minor to medium level

4. Improvement process must not impact daily operations of the CMST team

In scope
1. Automation of manual tasks within the Ticketing system
2. Updates to Ticketing system


Out of scope
1. Major updates to Ticketing system such as change of technology

2. Updates to IT Team processes outside the ticketing system

Issues/Problems
1. Deploying updates to the CMST ticketing system may cause some downtime

2. Resistance to change from CMST team members

Sample value proposition template