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Product Family Selection

Overview of Module

One of the most dangerous things an organization can do when first learning about value streammapping is to attempt to solve all of their problems with a single value stream mapping exercise.

Some may refer to this as attempting the boil the ocean. This type of behavior typically leads to

failure.

To help avoid these issues lean practitioners often utilize specific tools and techniques that leadthem to the best candidate(s) for value stream mapping. Specifically, the two main tools are

Product Quantity (PQ) and Product Routing (PR) Analysis/Matrix.

The main premise behind a PQ matrix is that it helps guide us to the product families with thehighest volume. By targeting these higher volume product families were better able to maximize

our return on investment.

In some cases the results of a PQ analysis do not deliver a decisive message as to which productfamily to map first. In this situation a Product Routing (PR) Analysis/Matrix can become extremely

effective.

The PR Matrix is a powerful tool that allows us to better understand which product families share

common processing steps. This is to say that if two different product families share the same orvery similar processing steps we would be able to map both of them with one value stream

mapping exercise.

Finally, a popular choice of lean practitioners is to combine both a PQ and PR Analysis which some

refer to as a PQPR analysis.

Key Terms

Product Quantity (PQ) Analysis: Used to identify key product families by theexamination of both product volume (revenue and units shipped).

Product Routing (PR) Analysis: Used to identify key product families by theexamination of the production routings of all products.

PQPR Analysis: The combination of both Product Quantity (PQ) and Product Routing(PR) Analysis.

Pareto Principle: The Pareto law states that a small number of the causes areresponsible for a large percentage of the effects. This is often referred to as the 80/20 rule.

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