Notion of Value in a Service

When applying the notion of Value and Value-Adding steps in a Service, the idea is not as clear-cut as in a product. For example, if you were to buy a car, fastening the door on to the car when it is manufactured is clearly a Value-Adding step for the end consumer. They need a door for the car.On the other hand, the factory worker in the assembly line filling out a production form may not add direct value to the end consumer and may clearly be a Non-Value Adding step.

Many Value Stream Mapping articles paint with a broad brush that value stream mapping is easily applicable for "products or services". It may not be that simple when you actually try to apply the same!

Let’s assume that we are doing Value Stream Mapping of a busy doctor’s rounds in a Hospital. The doctor checking the patient’s bedside medical record and making sure that the right medications have been given at the right time, is clearly a Value Adding step. Now, how about the Doctor chatting for 10 minutes with the patient on how he or she is feeling at that time? Is that a value-adding activity? From the point of view of most patients, it may be a value adding activity, adding a sense of comfort that may even speed up recovery. Who knows? The doctor may find out something totally new about the patient or the side-effects some of the medications may be having. Alternatively, some patients may feel that this talking did not add any value to them directly.

This is where things that are cut-and-dried in the case of a product, may wander into some uncharted territory when it comes to services! In fact, many companies advertise on TV about the personal attention that they provide in addition to say an Insurance policy or some other service they provide.

For the purposes of Value Stream Mapping how do you treat these differences? Are they differences that matter? Is there any other way to look at these?

All interesting questions! Looking for some answers...

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large. - Henry Ford