Table of Contents
Introduction
A value stream map is supposed to show what actually happens between an order arriving and a product shipping. In practice, most value stream maps get drawn once, in a workshop, from memory, and then hang on a wall going stale as the real process quietly drifts away from it.
The Problem With Workshop-Built Maps
Memory is optimistic. A team in a workshop tends to draw the process as it is supposed to run, not as it actually ran last Tuesday when a machine went down and someone improvised a workaround that has been in place ever since. That gap between the documented process and the real one is exactly where waste hides, and a memory-based map cannot see it.
What Goes In
Process Miner, part of True North Solutions' agentic AI tools, takes a manufacturing ERP event log in CSV or Excel format: work orders, activities, and timestamps, plus your Takt Time data. No manual re-entry, no workshop whiteboard. It reads the record of what the system actually logged.
What Comes Out
The output is an interactive Value Stream Map built on that real event data, a Lean metrics dashboard, an anomaly report flagging where the process deviated from expected flow, and a whitepaper and slide deck with prioritized countermeasures ranked by impact. Every deviation in the anomaly report is traceable back to the actual timestamps that produced it, not an estimate.
Where the Sample View Fits
Before connecting a real ERP export, you can explore a sample flow view to see the output format and what an anomaly report actually flags. It is the same tool, running on illustrative data.
FAQ
What data does Process Miner need to start?
A manufacturing ERP event log in CSV or Excel format, containing work orders, activities, and timestamps, plus your Takt Time data.
How is this different from a value stream map built in a workshop?
A workshop-built map reflects what the team believes happens, drawn from memory and best-case assumptions. Process Miner reads the actual event log, so the map reflects what really happened, including the deviations and bottlenecks nobody wrote on the whiteboard.
What comes out of it?
An interactive Value Stream Map, a Lean metrics dashboard, an anomaly report, and a whitepaper and slide deck with prioritized countermeasures.
Can I see an example before running it on my own data?
Yes, a sample flow view is available to explore the output format before connecting your own ERP export.