The Ideal State is a reference to the absolute perfect condition.  One way to envision the ideal state of a map, process, product or service is to imagine that money, time and resources were not limited at all.  What would you create then?  Ideal state value streams are created many times to show the gap between the current state and the ideal state.  This can help teams to reaffirm they are in alignment and ensure that the progress made is on track.  

  Inventory waste is any unnecessary storage of materials, products or information.


Examples:

1. Excessive raw materials.
2. Unsold finished goods.
3. Excessive amounts of MRO items.
4. Information and data that is being stored but not used.
5. Excess supplies, including office supplies.
6. Emails sitting in inbox.

Causes of excess inventory:

1. Working to a push system or a forecast.
2. Unbalanced workloads.
3. Buying to many of items.
4. Batching
5. Inefficient or poor planning and scheduling.

Solutions:

1. Build only to demand where possible.
2. Stabilize processes and use six sigma techniques to minimize variability.
3. Remove waste from processes so that inventory (raw,wip,fg,mro) can be reduced.

Question:

  What types of Inventory do you notice at home, work or other places?  How do you think that inventory affects the organization?

​**Place answers in Comments** 

  Inventory carrying cost, carrying cost, or cost of holding inventory is most often described as a percentage of the inventory value.  The percentage is often unique to organizations and includes the amount of capital invested in inventory as well as depreciation, space occupied, insurance and opportunity.

Reference: Carrying cost of inventory:  Investopedia

  Inventory is listed as an asset on a firm's balance sheet and consists of the stocks or items needed to maintain production, support activities such as maintenance and repair, and provide customer service. Inventory typically is categorized based on its flow through the production cycle, using such designations as raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Maintenance, repair, and operating supplies also are stocked to support the functionality of the firm.

  For planning and forecasting purposes, inventory is classified based on the source of its demand as either independent or dependent. Independent demand items are requested directly by the customer and thus must be forecasted. Demand for dependent items can be derived or calculated based on relationships to independent items, usually noted by higher levels in the bill of material.

Reference - Inventory (APICS OMBOK Framework 5.2).

  The icon shown above is used to visually display inventory on a value stream map.  This symbol also represents places in a value stream where the flow of material/information is stopped (wait points).