Free tool
Flow Check: See Where the Days Go
Most plants are busy, and most jobs still spend their time waiting. Flow Check takes one flow of four to eight steps, shows where the days go, and ranks the options worth funding first.
One flow of 4 to 8 steps, with weekly demand, touch times and a count of what’s waiting at each step at hand. Free, and nothing you enter is stored or sent.
Why use it
The work is quick. The waiting isn’t.
Every step looks busy, so the days a job spends sitting between steps go unseen. Queues build in front of changeovers, approvals and the slowest step, and lead time stretches while each step reports it’s on time.
“Jobs take weeks and the work takes minutes.”
Standard brackets get 84 minutes of work across 12.9 working days.
Caught byThe lead-time ladder
“One step always has a pile in front of it.”
When a step needs more time per unit than takt allows, its queue grows every shift.
Caught byThe constraint against takt
“The procedure says one thing and the floor does another.”
Redesign a step before you know how it runs, and you build on the wrong version.
Caught byThe practice check
“Work waits on approvals before it reaches the floor.”
Order entry, review and scheduling queues count toward lead time too.
Caught byThe office share
If any of these sound familiar, Flow Check puts days on each wait and ranks the options worth funding first.
Who it’s for
Put days on the waits before you ask for budget
Plant managers
Before a budget request.
Operations and CI leads
After a mapping session, to turn it into projects.
Production supervisors
When one step always has a pile.
Schedulers and planners
When releases outrun the floor.
Quality managers
When inspection keeps sending work back.
How it works
Three steps, one flow
Enter one flow
Order type, weekly demand and the time the flow is staffed to run, then four to eight steps with touch time and the units waiting in front of each.
See the ladder and the three largest waits
Lead time, how much of it is waiting, flow efficiency and the constraint against takt. Standard brackets: 12.9 working days, 12.8 of them waiting, and the largest wait is 4.0 days in front of Weld.
Take the ranked options and the one-page summary to whoever funds the work
Each option shows the days it can address, a cost band, the roles it touches and its PICK quadrant. Print it on one page for the budget conversation.
The method
Five checks from map to funded project
Each check runs on your own numbers. The examples come from Standard brackets, the sample flow in the tool below.
Lead time and waiting share
How many working days pass from release to ship, and how many are waiting?
Passes whenA WIP count agrees with the map, and flow efficiency reaches the typical figure for your kind of work in George’s 2002 table.
Why it mattersMost lead time is queue time. Flow efficiency is touch time over lead time (George 2002). Each queue counts as inventory lead time, units waiting divided by daily demand (Sousa, Dinis-Carvalho and Hines 2026).
Passes385 jobs on the floor at 150 a week gives 12.83 days, the same as the map.
Fails12.8 of 12.9 working days are waiting. Flow efficiency is 0.72% against George’s 10% typical for fabrication.
Constraint against takt
Can the slowest step keep up with demand?
Passes whenThe highest load, touch time divided by people and uptime, is at or under takt.
Why it mattersA step over takt grows its queue every shift, and nothing after it runs faster (Hopp and Spearman; Rother and Shook).
PassesWeld, the slowest step, needs 25 minutes a job against a takt of 30, 83% of takt.
FailsAt 35 minutes a job, Weld would make about 129 a week against demand of 150.
The three largest waits
Where do the most days go?
Passes whenEach project ties to one of the three largest waits and the days it holds.
Why it mattersAbad (2019) ties each project to its impact on the map, so the map drives the plan and stays current.
PassesWeld 4.0 days, Brake 3.0 and Laser 2.0, each with options tied to its days.
FailsStarting with Inspect’s 1.0 day while Weld holds 4.0.
Option order
Which option comes first?
Passes whenOptions run eliminate, combine, rearrange, simplify, then automate, and cheaper, lighter options rank first.
Why it mattersArt Smalley (LEI) sets this order so you take work out before you pay to automate it.
PassesAt the Weld wait, sequencing like jobs as a family at the Brake (combine, cost band 1) ranks first.
FailsFinite scheduling for Weld (automate, cost band 3) as the first answer.
Scoring
Is the option worth funding first?
Passes whenIt addresses at least 20% of the waiting at cost band 1 with low or medium effort: the Implement quadrant.
Why it mattersThe PICK chart sorts options by impact and ease, and Badiru and Thomas (2013) put numbers to it. Here impact is days addressed, and effort counts the roles touched plus training, approval and IT.
PassesSequence like jobs as a family at the Laser: up to 3.0 days, cost band 1, effort 2 (scheduler, operators), Implement.
FailsStopping early release into the Laser queue addresses 2.0 of 12.8 days, under 20%, so it scores Possible.
ScopeBuilt for one flow of 4 to 8 steps. A high-mix shop where one routing can’t represent the work needs a different approach (Irani, ISE Magazine 2021).
Try it
Check one flow
Open the example to see finished results, or enter one flow of your own.
Get started
Pick a starting point
Have your weekly demand, shift pattern, touch times and a count of what’s waiting at each step in front of you. Everything you enter stays in this browser tab. Nothing is stored or sent, and closing the tab clears it.
Common questions
Flow efficiency, waiting and where the methods come from
What is flow efficiency?
Flow efficiency, also called process cycle efficiency, is touch time divided by lead time, both in working time (George, Lean Six Sigma, 2002). Standard brackets get 84 minutes of work across 12.9 working days, which comes to 0.72%. Flow Check counts all touch time as value-adding, so treat its figure as an upper bound.
Why is my number so low?
Most lead time is queue time: a job spends far longer waiting in front of steps than being worked on. Published benchmarks disagree, and Gemba Academy notes that consultants differ on a world-class figure and reports manufacturing maps under 1%. Compare your number with your own next map, and start on the largest waits.
What’s the difference between touch time and cycle time?
Touch time is the hands-on time one unit gets at a step. Cycle time is how often a unit leaves the step, which also depends on how many people share the work and how long the step can run; Sousa, Dinis-Carvalho and Hines (2026) list mixing up these times among the common mapping errors. Flow Check asks for touch time and works out the load from people and uptime.
What counts as waiting?
Every unit sitting in front of a step, whether it waits for a machine, an approval or a decision. Flow Check turns each count into days as inventory lead time: units waiting divided by daily demand. Weld’s 120 jobs at 30 a day come to 4.0 days.
How does the WIP count check the map?
Little’s Law says lead time equals work in process divided by throughput (Hopp and Spearman, Factory Physics; Little and Graves). Standard brackets have 385 jobs on the floor and ship 150 a week, which gives 12.83 working days, the same as the map. When the two differ by more than 30%, Flow Check shows both figures so you can recount.
Why are there no default improvement percentages?
No well-sourced typical figure exists for how much any of these options removes, so you set the target. Each option shows the most it can address, the full queue days at that wait, and Flow Check projects a figure only from a target queue you enter. At the Weld wait, a target of 60 jobs projects 2.0 days removed.
Does this replace a mapping session?
No. The sit-down with the people who run the flow stays, because they know where work waits and why. Flow Check is a first pass that shows which waits to bring to that session and which options to score there.
Read the article: Turn Your Value Stream Map Into Projects the Plant Will Fund and Finish
Next step
Our fixed-fee site assessment reviews your floor processes, records and reports for one value stream and gives you a written report with its velocity ratio.
Then we carry the top projects through to results.
About the site assessment