Value Stream
101 Kaizen TemplatesLean Manufacturing

Brilliant Value Stream Mapping Icon Fonts

Avatar photo By Jon Miller Updated on April 18th, 2023

 

Yesterday, Jamie Flinchbaugh shared a discovery on his blog. Also, the nice folks at Ambor have developed several very useful fonts for Lean.

Skill Matrix Font

The Harvey Balls ideograms are great for filling out the skill matrix.

Compare this skill matrix template using square cells and colors

to this skill matrix template using the Harvey Balls font from Ambor. This is much simpler to make and use.

Value Stream Mapping Font

Equally brilliant is the value stream mapping icon font set. Just download the fonts at the Ambor website, follow the simple instructions, and then select the font in your text editing program. To use these icons, you can either copy and paste them from the “vsm_demo.xls” file or type their alphanumeric values directly from your keyboard. As they are fonts, you can modify them just like any other font. For instance, to change the angle of the information and shipping arrows as shown in the example at the top of this article, you can go to Format Cells > Alignment > Orientation.

Start with Paper and Pen, then Digitize

Jamie Flinchbaugh emphasizes that the goal of value stream mapping is not to produce aesthetically pleasing visuals. Nonetheless, I’ve witnessed skilled and well-compensated professionals devote excessive time and effort to manually document these maps on computers in order to fulfill the mandate to record and disseminate them digitally. Now, with the option to simply type them, this process is more efficient and cost-effective. This exemplifies the principles of kaizen, utilizing suitable technology for documentation, and continuous improvement. Give it a try!


  1. Robert

    October 21, 2009 - 5:52 am
    Reply

    Great idea! The skill-matrix solution is already in use in our company, but we are wasting a lot of time with the “official” documentation!
    To the purpose of vsm and the “pretty picture”-topic: if it helps to sell/promote kaizen/lean in an organisation, than it it a must-have!

  2. lee-jon

    November 5, 2009 - 3:23 am
    Reply

    Agreed Robert! Nice work. I was going to convert my symbols to visio but this is much better!

  3. Ron Vance

    December 31, 2011 - 7:17 am
    Reply

    Hello,
    We are beginning a good start in Kaizen activities, but need better documentation and templates for each step with basic instruction for each template; observation templates,spaghetti mapping, checklists of steps to follow, time and motion study, etc. Any help in templates and instructions would be greatly appreciated.
    Ron Vance

  4. Ben Salto

    April 11, 2023 - 5:27 pm
    Reply

    How do you determine when to fill/complete a square or a quarter of the ‘pie’? Do you have any guidelines to share?

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