Part of MaxKnow
MaxValue and the MaxValue CI Toolkit
See the real work, find the value, improve it, and keep what each project learns.
MaxValue and the MaxValue CI Toolkit are the continuous-improvement and quality tools for BMA workshops and your own team: MaxValue VSM for value stream mapping from video, VA/VE, Lean, and Six Sigma DMAIC. They sit inside MaxKnow, the knowledge and improvement platform, which works with Microsoft 365 and where Digital Assistants help and a person approves every change.
Tools marked In development are specified and are not yet in the core set.
How the toolkit is organized
Map the flow, cost the function, then solve the problem.
01
MaxValue VSM
Map and understand the flow: capture the real work on video, build the current-state map, design the future state and compare the two.
02
VA/VE events
Run Value Analysis and Value Engineering events where function, cost and worth are the target.
03
Lean and Six Sigma tools
Use the Lean and Six Sigma tools when the problem needs statistical, control, standard-work, pull or reliability methods.
All three share one engagement record: the value stream, its steps, the projects and the actions. A Lean or Six Sigma tool links to the step it is about instead of making a second copy.
MaxValue
MaxValue VSM: value stream mapping from video
Go to the place where the work happens and capture it. Tag the steps on playback, and MaxValue turns the tagged times into work content and a value-add versus non-value-add split, step by step.
Capture the work
Record from a camera you pick, or load a video file you already have. The recording stays on the machine that captured it. It is not uploaded to a server. With no camera, the value stream still works without video.
Tag each step
On playback, mark an in-point and an out-point for each process step, and mark more than one cycle of the same step when you have it. A mark that ends before it starts is rejected. You can still type a cycle time with no video.
Work content, calculated from your tags
Each step's representative cycle time is the median of its marks when there are two or more, otherwise the single mark, otherwise the typed time. Observed work content is the sum of those times. A blank cycle time is reported as missing, never counted as zero.
Value-add and non-value-add, by step
Class each step as value-added, non-value-added, necessary but non-value-added, or unclassified. The panel totals each class on its own. The value-added ratio is withheld until every timed step has a class, and lead time is withheld while any wait time is missing.
Formulas you can see
Every total shows the formula behind it, so the team can check the arithmetic. There is no performance rating, no allowance and no invented standard time: the label on screen is observed work content.
Suggested process steps from your videoIn development
Automatic segmentation of a recording into steps, for a person to review. Today, people tag the steps.
MaxValue VSM
Current-state and future-state maps
One value stream, two maps, and a comparison. The maps are built from the step records, so every box on the map is a step you can open and check.
Current-state map
Process boxes in sequence, left to right, with a data box under each: cycle time, wait, value-add class and inventory. Optional supplier and customer boxes, information arrows you draw between steps, and a timeline underneath. A blank cell reads missing, not 0.
Future-state map
It starts empty. The app does not design your future state. Add steps, or use Copy current to future, which asks before it copies and asks whether to copy the times. A target is something you type, labeled user-entered.
Current versus future comparison
Step count, work content, value-add, non-value-add and lead time, side by side. A difference appears when both maps have a number; otherwise it is withheld. There is no dollar column on the comparison.
Export the maps
Each map exports as an image, and the steps, map ends and arrows export as a workbook.
VA/VE
Value Analysis and Value Engineering
VA/VE looks at what a part, product or process must do, what each function costs, and what it is worth. It is the lead tool in MaxValue. Every cost, worth and savings amount is typed by a person or imported from a file that person supplied.
BMA's VA/VE client work has typically delivered 10-25% product cost reduction. That is a track record of past work by people. It is not a promise, a forecast or a target for your parts.
The VA/VE tools
Function analysis
The team writes each function as a verb and a noun, such as contain liquid or resist corrosion, and marks it basic or secondary. People write every function. The tool does not draft functions from a bill of materials.
Cost and function worth
For each function, enter its current cost and what the team says it is worth, each with a source. The value index is worth divided by cost. The cost-worth gap is cost minus worth. Both are withheld unless both numbers are present, and the gap is never labeled savings.
Idea generation and evaluation
The workshop captures its own ideas and links each to a function. Evaluate each idea for feasibility, risk and impact, with an optional score. There is no hidden weighting. Sort by any column.
Savings tracking
A savings line hangs on an idea as an estimate or a validated amount. A person enters every amount. It is never calculated from a gap, a rate or a mapping time.
The full VA/VE event
VA/VE event charterIn development
Event scope, product or process family, customer, team, constraints and goals.
Customer value criteriaIn development
What customers value, how it is measured, and how much each criterion matters.
FAST diagram builderIn development
How and why functions relate: basic, secondary, supporting and unnecessary functions.
Cost driver breakdownIn development
Labor, material, overhead, equipment, supplier, logistics, quality and complexity drivers.
Tradeoff matrix and feasibility scoringIn development
Alternatives scored against customer value, feasibility, cost, risk, schedule, quality and operational impact.
Teardown observation logIn development
What a teardown found about a part or a comparable part.
Should-cost, design-to-cost and supplier or material substitutionIn development
Cost views built from the benchmarks and alternates your team supplies.
Before/after value scorecard and event reportIn development
Current and future cost, function, customer value and risk, in an event packet for leadership.
The VA/VE assistantIn development
A facilitator or cost engineer loads a product's bill of materials. The assistant lays the parts out, asks the VA/VE questions, and drafts proposals: a different material or process, fewer part numbers, a spec review, a should-cost gap, make or buy, or another supplier. Each proposal carries an estimate when its inputs exist; otherwise the estimate is withheld and the missing input is named.
- Part consolidation: two lines that use the same part, or parts you marked as equivalents.
- Supplier alternatives: another supplier price already on file for the same part.
- Material and process substitution, standardization, and tolerance and spec review.
- Should-cost against a benchmark you supplied, teardown benchmarks, and make versus buy.
People still write every function. A named person approves, rejects or sends back every proposal, and nothing changes your records without that approval.
MaxValue CI Toolkit
Lean tools
Practical flow, pull, visual management, standard work and daily improvement, built on the value stream you already mapped.
A3
Theme, background, current condition, goal, root cause, countermeasures, follow-up, owner and status, linked to the engagement, the value stream and the project.
5 Whys
A problem, up to five whys and a countermeasure. Stop when you reach the cause. An unanswered why is never shown as a finding.
More Lean tools
5S auditIn development
Workplace organization scoring and action tracking.
Kaizen event trackerIn development
Event charter, agenda, team, actions, results and follow-up.
Standard work builderIn development
Work sequence, takt, cycle, standard work in process, safety, quality and key points.
SMEDIn development
Separate internal from external setup, plan conversion actions and reduce changeover time.
Takt time calculatorIn development
Available time and demand give takt time, compared with actual cycle time, with the gaps flagged.
Line balance and yamazumi chartIn development
Balance work across stations against takt.
Spaghetti diagramIn development
Trace the walking and material paths of the real work.
Kanban and pull system designerIn development
Card count, container and supermarket sizing, the replenishment loop and trigger rules.
Poka-yoke plannerIn development
Mistake-proofing opportunity, failure mode, prevention method and verification.
Visual management and andon boardIn development
Status, escalation, response and abnormality management.
PDCA trackerIn development
Plan, Do, Check, Act cycles, tracked to the end.
Gemba walkIn development
Observation at the place where the work happens, linked to the value stream.
Waste log (TIMWOODS)In development
Transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects and skills, logged against steps.
Heijunka board, OEE, TPM audit, skills matrix and hoshin linkageIn development
Leveling, equipment effectiveness, maintenance, skills and objective linkage.
MaxValue CI Toolkit
Six Sigma DMAIC tools
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, for defect, variation and quality projects. Each calculation checks its required inputs before it runs and shows its formula.
DMAIC project tracker
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. A person moves the phase; the tool never advances it on its own. The charter holds problem, scope, owner, sponsor, baseline and goal, and the goal stays blank until the sponsor enters it. Link Pareto studies, control charts, A3s, 5 Whys chains and actions.
Pareto
Rank categories by count, or by cost when your team types the costs. The tool shows the cumulative percent with its formula. Rows missing the measure are listed as excluded, not treated as zero.
Control chart (individuals and moving range)
Plot the points you typed or imported. Control limits are calculated from the standard constants and withheld until the series is long enough, with the reason shown. Limits are never typed over.
More DMAIC tools, by phase
DefineIn development
SIPOC, VOC and CTQ tree, stakeholder and RACI matrix
MeasureIn development
Data collection plan, check sheet, run chart, Gage R&R and MSA, Cp/Cpk capability, DPMO and sigma level
AnalyzeIn development
Fishbone (Ishikawa), histogram, scatter plot, box plot, cause-and-effect matrix, hypothesis test guide, regression
ImproveIn development
FMEA, poka-yoke, experiment planner (DOE), cost of poor quality, rolled throughput yield, countermeasure matrix
ControlIn development
Xbar-R, Xbar-S, p, np, c and u charts, published run rules, control plan, response plan, audit checklist, standard work handoff
MaxValue CI Toolkit
A guided experience, tool by tool
The toolkit walks a facilitator through each method step by step, so a workshop keeps moving and the records stay clean.
The same steps in every tool
Each tool opens on its Work tab, then the records, a detail drawer, the analysis panel and export. The Guide tab is always last.
A guide for every tool
Purpose, when to use it, the inputs it needs, the formulas, how to read a withheld result, and common mistakes: treating blank as zero, calling a cost-worth gap savings, or reading control limits on a short series.
Worked examples, honestly labeled
Guide examples use constructed figures labeled as examples. No client is named in a guide.
Named the way facilitators say them
VA/VE, VSM video capture, VSM current and future state, DMAIC, A3 and 5 Whys, Pareto, SPC, and import and export, in that order.
One shared record
Every tool reads and writes the same engagement, value stream and step records. Nothing is copied into a second table.
Your data, your workshop
Built for the conference room and the shop floor
Works with no Wi-Fi
The standard edition runs in the browser with no login and no network. A workshop in a conference room with no connection is the normal case.
Your data stays yours
Records live on the machine that captured them. Excel and CSV import and export, and a full backup that keeps the video, are how data moves.
No invented numbers
Every number is observed, imported, calculated from those inputs, typed by a person, tagged from video, or a labeled benchmark. Blank is not zero. The tools ship with no sample plants, yields or savings.
People approve
No Digital Assistant drafts a function, an idea or a number in these tools, and nothing changes your business records.
Every project counts
Every project makes the next one better.
When a person approves it, a closed project's A3, countermeasures and follow-up are kept in the MaxKnow knowledge base, so the next value stream and the next VA/VE event start ahead.
Today the records move by export and backup.In development A connected path sends a closed project's results to MaxKnow for a person to approve.
Who it is for
The people in the room
Lead facilitator
Opens the engagement, runs the workshop, tags the video and exports the pack.
CI analyst
Imports the tables, checks that blanks stayed blank, and builds the Pareto and the chart.
Executive sponsor
Reads the A3 and the DMAIC phase, and sets the goal.
Process owner
Confirms the current-state steps and accepts the countermeasures.
Operator or subject-matter expert
Supplies the real step, the real time and the defect notes.
BMA operating partners
Facilitate the events and coach Lean on the floor. Backed by 18 C-level operating partners with 800+ years of combined experience.
Questions
MaxValue questions
What is MaxValue?
MaxValue and the MaxValue CI Toolkit are the continuous-improvement and quality tools in MaxKnow, which works with Microsoft 365. They cover MaxValue VSM for value stream mapping from video, VA/VE, Lean and Six Sigma work, used with BMA coaching on the floor.
Do they replace our existing systems or our statistics package?
No. Your existing systems stay the systems of record, and the tools do not write to them. The tools help a facilitator run a workshop and keep the records.
Do we need an internet connection or a login?
No. The standard edition runs in the browser with no login and no network, and keeps its records on the machine that captured them.
Where does our video go?
The recording stays on the machine that captured it. It leaves that machine inside a backup file you choose to make, and in no other way.
Will the tools tell us what we will save?
No. Savings are amounts your team enters, as estimates or validated amounts. A cost-worth gap or a mapping time is never turned into money. BMA's VA/VE client work has typically delivered 10-25% product cost reduction; that is a track record of past work by people, not a promise or a forecast.
Which tools are available, and which are in development?
VA/VE (function analysis, cost and worth, ideas and savings tracking), VSM video capture, VSM current and future state, DMAIC, A3 and 5 Whys, Pareto, the individuals control chart, and import and export are in the core set. Everything marked In development on this page is specified and not yet in the core set.
How do results reach the rest of the business?
A closed project's countermeasures, A3 and follow-up become a captured learning in the MaxKnow knowledge base once a person approves it, so the next project starts from what this one learned.
Discovery session
