Desktop Client: How do I add Necessary NVA (Business Value Add) time to my Lean VSM?

In general, Lean focuses only on eliminating waste or muda (Non-Value-Add or NVA) activities, and keeping Value-Add (or VA) activities. However, some people want to track the concept of Necessary Non-Value-Add (NNVA), also known as Business Value Add (BVA), which is activity that is 'required for the business' (e.g. regulatory or legal requirements) but that otherwise does not add value to the customer. While you want to seek to minimize or reduce BVA efforts, you may not be legally able to eliminate them.

This activity BVA or Necessary NVA can be tracked as NVA time. To track BVA in your iGrafx Lean VSM diagram, add your own BVA field to your Lean VSM file. You may save you new customization as a template if you want it available for all your diagrams.

To modify the currently open Lean VSM diagram, do the following:

Edit the properties of a Process box (or some shape that’s a Timeline Activity); e.g. by right-clicking and choosing Properties.
Click Setup
Click New, to create a new field.
Type a name, such as BVA.
Choose the Type as "NVA Time" [Do not use VA time, or the VA component of Processing time may not be correctly counted as VA time]
Click the Up button until the field is where you want it in the list of fields; e.g. between Total C/T (Processing Time) and NVA.
Click OK, to save and close the Setup Custom Data dialog box.

You can now enter “BVA” values that are counted as overall processing time. The time thus will count as NVA.

Alternately, you may consider making your 'BVA' (Necessary NVA) time counted as 'Processing Time', which is the sum of VA and NVA. However, please be aware it will be added to any VA, NVA, or Processing Time (by default this is labeled 'Total C/T' in the iGrafx Lean VSM template) you have entered elsewhere in the Properties of a shape.

To save your file as a template, from the File menu choose Save As, choose 'iGrafx Template' as the file type, give a name to your template, and click Save. iGrafx will prompt you about saving the template in your personal templates list (to be displayed by the File > New > From Template dialog box); say yes if you want your template saved in that special location.