How Does Makigami Differ from Value Stream Mapping?

Makigami and Value Stream Mapping (VSM) are both process mapping tools used in Lean thinking, but they differ significantly in scope, application, and focus.

Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping originated within Toyota’s manufacturing system. It was designed to analyze and optimize production processes where physical materials flow through a series of operations, often controlled by a value stream manager. It creates a visual representation of both material and information flows, capturing how raw materials are transformed into finished products and delivered to customers. VSM excels at identifying waste in production environments by distinguishing between value-adding and non-value-adding activities.

The VSM methodology meticulously documents cycle times, changeover durations, equipment uptime percentages, and inventory levels at each stage and calculates the ratio of actual value-adding time to total lead time. This approach is particularly effective in environments with standardized, repeatable processes and high production volumes, where physical transformations are the primary focus.

Makigami

In contrast, Makigami was specifically developed to address the unique challenges of administrative, service, and knowledge-based processes where information, rather than physical materials, is the primary flow element. The term “Makigami” is Japanese for “roll of paper,” referring to the method of creating these maps on large rolls of paper to accommodate their complexity.

Makigami process maps not only chart horizontal process flows but also vertical organizational structures, highlighting how information moves across departmental boundaries and hierarchical levels. This mapping technique is particularly adept at uncovering redundancies, authorization bottlenecks, and communication breakdowns that commonly plague office environments.

Makigami vs. Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

While VSM typically deals with relatively linear production flows, Makigami addresses the complex, often non-linear nature of administrative processes that frequently involve iterations, conditional paths, and decision points. Makigami’s maps explicitly show roles and responsibilities at each step of the process, making accountability clear and revealing when handoffs become problematic. This makes Makigami especially valuable for improving processes such as new product development, customer complaint handling, insurance claims processing, and financial reporting—environments characterized by knowledge work, significant variability,y and multiple stakeholders.

The visual representation styles also differ between the two process map methods. VSM uses standardized icons from lean manufacturing to represent inventory, transportation, electronic information flow, and various types of production processes. Makigami employs a multi-swimlane approach, where horizontal rows represent different departments or roles, and color-coding often distinguishes categories such as transport, processing, delays, and inspections. This detailed mapping helps organizations identify non-value-adding activities that are particularly prevalent in office settings, such as unnecessary approvals, redundant data entry, excessive emails, and waiting for decisions.

Implementation approaches differ as well. VSM typically begins with a current-state map of the production process, followed by the design of an ideal future-state map that eliminates identified waste. Makigami often involves a more collaborative mapping process in which representatives from all involved departments participate in creating the map, helping build consensus on process problems and potential solutions. This collaborative approach is particularly important in administrative environments where processes often cross departmental boundaries and where successful improvements require buy-in from multiple stakeholders.

A Makigami chart is especially useful when the process delay is not on the production line itself but in approvals, documents, systems, or handoffs between people or departments. When comparing a Makigami diagram with a value stream map, the key question is what type of flow you are trying to understand. In essence, while both tools share the Lean goal of eliminating waste and improving process flow, they have evolved to address distinct work environments: VSM for physical production and Makigami for knowledge work and information processing.

The Difference Between Makigami and Value Stream Mapping

1. Purpose & Focus

Value Stream Mapping (VSM):

• Focuses on the flow of materials and information in manufacturing or production.
• Identifies value-added vs. non-value-added steps to reduce lead time and waste.
• Typically applied to physical product flows and repeatable, high-volume processes.

Makigami:

• Focuses on information flow and roles in administrative or service processes (e.g., HR, finance, customer service).
• Designed to reveal communication gaps, handoffs, delays, and inefficiencies in non-manufacturing workflows.
• Best for knowledge-based, low-volume, high-variability processes.

2. What It Maps

VSM:

• Maps the flow of materials through a production process.
• Includes inventory levels, takt time, process times, and information flow signals (e.g., Kanban).
• Emphasizes cycle time, lead time, and production bottlenecks.

Makigami:

• Maps who does what, when, and how using swim lanes (usually per function or role).
• Highlights tasks, documents, decisions, delays, IT systems, and handoffs.
• Reveals non-value-added time, rework, approvals, and unclear responsibilities.

3. Visual Structure

VSM:

• Uses standardized Lean iconography.
• A linear map that often spans across suppliers, production, and customers.

Makigami:

• Resembles a detailed swimlane diagram.
• Vertical columns for process steps; horizontal rows for departments or roles.

4. Best Use Cases

5. Time & Detail Level

• VSM gives a high-level strategic view of flow and waste across a value stream.
• Makigami is more detailed and operational, often used in workshops to deeply analyze cross-functional processes.

Summary Table

Makigami vs. Value Stream Mapping

VSM is best suited for improving product flow, while Makigami is best suited for enhancing workflow and communication among people. They’re complementary tools—use the one that fits the process environment you’re trying to improve.

How to Create a Makigami Process Map

Creating a Makigami process map is a structured yet collaborative activity designed to thoroughly analyze administrative or service processes. It helps uncover inefficiencies, delays, unclear responsibilities, and areas for improvement. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating one:

Step 1: Define the Process Scope

• Identify the process to be mapped, such as customer onboarding or invoice processing.
• Set boundaries: Where does the process start and end?
• Define objectives: What do you want to learn or improve?

Example: Mapping the purchase order process from request to payment.

Step 2: Form a Cross-Functional Team

• Include people from all departments or roles involved in the process.
• Ensure representation from both the frontline and managerial staff.

Why it matters: Makigami is designed to uncover cross-functional breakdowns—having everyone in the room avoids blind spots.

Step 3: Create the Makigami Template

Set up the Makigami map on a large board, wall, or digital whiteboard, using five vertical sections and horizontal swimlanes:

Vertical Columns (Process Steps / Time Sequence)

• Trigger – What starts the process?
• Tasks – Activities performed in sequence.
• Documents/Tools – Forms, databases, or IT systems used.
• Problems/Delays – Known bottlenecks, errors, or waste.
• Ideas for Improvement – Improvement suggestions.

Horizontal Rows (Swimlanes per Role/Department)

Each row represents a role or function (e.g., Sales, Procurement, Finance, IT).

Step 4: Map the Current State (“As-Is”)

• Begin by walking through the process step-by-step, identifying what each person or department does.
• Record:
• • What is done
  • Who does it
  • What documents or systems are used
  • Where delays or confusion occur

Use sticky notes or digital shapes to visually arrange tasks across departments.

Step 5: Analyze the Process

Ask these questions:

• Where are the hand-offs or communication delays?
• Where do errors, rework, or misunderstandings occur?
• Are tasks duplicated or unclear?
• Is information flowing smoothly?
• What steps are non-value-added?

Add symbols or color coding to highlight pain points, rework loops, approvals, and waiting times.

Step 6: Identify Wastes and Opportunities

• Use Lean’s eight wastes (e.g., waiting, motion, overprocessing) as a lens.
• Record improvement ideas directly on the map (rightmost column).
• Note any quick wins vs. longer-term changes.

Step 7: Define the Future State (“To-Be”)

• Redesign the process collaboratively using your findings.
• Eliminate non-value-added steps.
• Simplify handoffs or automate manual work.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities.

Draw a second Makigami diagram showing the future state.

Step 8: Create an Action Plan

• Assign responsibilities for implementing changes.
• Prioritize changes (e.g., using an impact vs. effort matrix).
• Set timelines, metrics, and follow-up checkpoints.

Step 9: Follow Through and Review

• Implement changes and monitor process performance.
• Remap the process after improvements to confirm gains and identify new opportunities.

Makigami Example Use Cases

• Reducing lead time in purchase requisition approval
• Clarifying responsibilities in customer service escalation
• Streamlining employee onboarding

How Makigami Supports Industrial Intelligence

Makigami is especially relevant to Industrial Intelligence because it maps the work that traditional production metrics often miss: information flow, decision handoffs, approval loops, rework, waiting, unclear ownership, and cross-functional communication breakdowns. In a manufacturing environment, these hidden workflows often shape quality, delivery, cost, compliance, and customer response. A production process may appear stable on a value stream map, while the surrounding information system introduces delays through unclear approvals, duplicate data entry, disconnected systems, late engineering feedback, slow CAPA reviews, or gaps in supplier communication.

Industrial Intelligence depends on more than sensors, dashboards, and AI models. It requires a clear understanding of how evidence moves through the organization, who interprets it, who makes the decision, which workflow executes the decision, and how the result is verified. Makigami can help expose those decision and information pathways before a company attempts to automate or apply AI.

Manufacturing Workflows Where Makigami Can Prepare the Ground for AI

Makigami is especially useful when the workflow spans departments and depends on information quality rather than solely on machine cycle time. Examples include:

• CAPA workflow: Map how nonconformance evidence moves from detection to containment, root cause analysis, corrective action, approval, and effectiveness review.
• Internal audit process: Map how audit findings, objective evidence, process owner responses, corrective actions, and management review inputs are handled.
• Supplier corrective action: Map how supplier issues are detected, communicated, investigated, escalated, and verified.
• Engineering change control: Map how design changes affect work instructions, control plans, tooling, inspection criteria, training, and supplier communication.
• Production scheduling exceptions: Map how schedule changes, material shortages, quality holds, maintenance downtime, and customer priorities are resolved.
• Customer complaint handling: Map how complaint evidence, returned product, inspection results, warranty information, and corrective action decisions flow through the organization.

Makigami can be used in smart factories to map how industrial intelligence information, decisions, approvals, system transactions, and physical work move across a process—not just how material moves. Traditional value-stream mapping is strongest for physical flow. Makigami is particularly useful when the real waste is hidden in MES, ERP, QMS, CMMS, email, spreadsheets, dashboards, approvals, and handoffs.

Why AI Should Not Be Applied Before the Workflow Is Understood

Many organizations try to automate broken workflows before they understand them. Makigami helps prevent that mistake. If a process contains unclear ownership, inconsistent data entry, unnecessary approvals, missing evidence, or poorly defined decisions, AI may only accelerate confusion. Before applying AI or AI agents to a workflow, manufacturers should first ask whether the process has clear inputs, evidence sources, decision rights, workflow triggers, escalation paths, and effectiveness measures. Makigami can help make those conditions visible.

How does it apply in a smart factory?

A Makigami map can show, in parallel:

• The physical production steps
• The people or functions involved
• The digital systems used
• The information created or transferred
• The decision points
• The waiting time between actions
• The defects, rework, and communication failures
• The value-added and non-value-added time

For example, a quality issue may move through:

Machine alarm → operator review → MES entry → supervisor notification → inspection → QMS record → engineering disposition → production restart

The machine may detect the problem in seconds, but the full response may take hours because ownership, context, approvals, or system integration are unclear. Makigami makes that delay visible.

High-value smart-factory applications

1. Map digital information flow

Use Makigami to identify where data are:

• Entered more than once
• Manually transferred between systems
• Reconciled in spreadsheets
• Delayed before reaching the decision owner
• Missing operational context
• Available on dashboards but not connected to action

This is especially useful when factories have invested in sensors and dashboards but still rely on manual coordination.

2. Improve alarm-to-action workflows

A smart factory may generate thousands of alerts, but not every alert produces an effective response.

Makigami can map:

Signal → interpretation → escalation → decision → action → verification → learning

The map helps determine:

• Who owns the signal
• What information do they need
• What response is expected
• Which workflow should be triggered
• Whether the outcome is validated
• Whether the lesson is retained

3. Integrate MES, ERP, QMS, and CMMS

Makigami is useful for mapping cross-system processes such as:

• Nonconformance management
• CAPA
• Predictive maintenance
• Production scheduling
• Material release
• Change control
• Supplier quality
• Tooling or calibration response

The map can reveal that each system works correctly on its own while the end-to-end process remains fragmented.

4. Reduce digital waiting waste

Smart factories often reduce machine cycle time but leave decision lead time unchanged.

Makigami can quantify waiting associated with:

• Approval queues
• Engineering review
• Quality release
• Maintenance authorization
• Data reconciliation
• Shift handoffs
• Missing master data
• Unclear escalation rules

This exposes what might be called digital waiting waste.

5. Design human–AI decision workflows

For AI-assisted manufacturing, Makigami can define where AI should support the process and where human judgment remains necessary.

A future-state map can specify:

• Data inputs
• AI analysis
• Recommended action
• Human approval
• Governance controls
• Execution system
• Outcome validation
• Learning capture

This prevents AI from becoming another isolated dashboard.

Example: Smart-factory downtime response

A Makigami map might show the following lanes:

The current-state map may reveal:

• The sensor alert lacks product and order context
• Maintenance receives the alert, but production planning does not
• Quality is involved only after the product is affected
• The same failure mode has occurred before, but prior lessons are difficult to retrieve

The future-state design could automatically connect the signal to the asset, order, product risk, maintenance history, and predefined escalation workflow.

What to capture on the map

For each activity, document:

• Process owner
• System used
• Trigger
• Input information
• Output information
• Decision rule
• Processing time
• Waiting time
• Error or rework risk
• Automation level
• Governance requirement
• Evidence retained
• Outcome measure

A useful additional smart-factory field is:

Is the information merely displayed, or does it trigger a governed decision workflow?

Relationship to Industrial Intelligence

Makigami helps move a factory through three stages:

1. Visibility: Data are available.
2. Managed action: The signal is tied to an owner, decision, and workflow.
3. Industrial Intelligence: The action is governed, the outcome is validated, and the lesson becomes reusable organizational knowledge.

That makes Makigami more than a process-mapping tool. In a smart factory, it can serve as a decision architecture tool for designing connected, decision-oriented, learning-enabled operations.

Makigami, VSM, and Industrial Intelligence

Makigami as a Foundation for AI-Enabled Operational Excellence

AI-enabled operational excellence works best when the process being improved is already visible, understood, and governed. Makigami helps create that visibility for knowledge-based manufacturing workflows such as CAPA, internal auditing, engineering change control, supplier corrective action, customer complaint handling, production scheduling, and management review.

Before applying AI to these workflows, manufacturers should understand:

• What information starts the process?
• Which roles handle each step?
• Where does the process wait for a decision?
• Where is information re-entered, duplicated, or lost?
• Which systems contain the evidence?
• Where do approvals slow the workflow?
• Where do errors, rework, or unclear ownership appear?
• What output should trigger action or learning?

Used this way, Makigami becomes more than a Lean office tool. It becomes a practical method for preparing workflows for Industrial Intelligence, AI-supported root cause analysis, CAPA intelligence, audit preparation, supplier-risk monitoring, and decision-loop improvement.

FAQ

What Is a Makigami Analysis?

A Makigami analysis is a Lean process-mapping method used to make information flow, roles, handoffs, documents, delays, and waste visible. The resulting Makigami chart or diagram provides a visual representation of the current process, enabling teams to identify queues, unnecessary handoffs, and other forms of waste.

How does Makigami help with Industrial Intelligence?

Makigami helps with Industrial Intelligence by making information flow, decision handoffs, role ownership, delays, rework, and cross-functional communication visible. These are the conditions that AI and analytics must understand to support better operational decisions.

Can Makigami be used before applying AI to a process?

Yes. Makigami is useful before applying AI because it shows whether the workflow has clear inputs, evidence sources, decision rights, approvals, escalation paths, and effectiveness measures. AI is more useful when the underlying workflow is visible and governed.

Dr. Chris Anderson President

CEO bizmasterz.com, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Consultant, Industrial Intelligence / Operations Management / Forecasting / QMS / Agentic AI expertise.

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