It has been proven that Lean methods will improve efficiency, reduce cost, and increase the overall profitability of organizations. Although different variations of these methods have been applied to different industries, the fact remains, that, if implemented correctly, Lean methods work. The main problem remaining is the toolset used to implement lean. Today's organizations need to be very adaptive, and very dynamic in the way they react to consumer demand. Slow operational response will result in lost opportunities which translate into lost revenue, responding incorrectly can be disastrous.

Looking at the current static toolset on the market, it seems that you are forced to take multiple snap shots of the business at various points in time in order to identify the optimum solution. This snapshot method of analysis requires multiple iterations of re-capture and re-analysis of all  the constraints, products, services, inventory, and other variables, rendering the tools very restrictive and time consuming. Restrictive static tools leave the lean planner with many isolated and disconnected implementations to proceed with. An additional drawback encountered with traditional static lean analysis tools is there inability to easily plan the transition phase and the validation of the future state.

Dynamic tools provide the best of both worlds. For one, they provide a familiar value stream mapping environment through a graphical user interface, yet they are an interactive, almost immersive, design and optimization tool. Working in a dynamic environment provides an unprecedented ability to interact with the processes, people, material, and any other constraint relevant to the situation. As time progresses the and your operation is "producing" you will interact live with the animated flow. In this live environment  you will see  queues build up, inventory deplete, people move, conveyors transfer objects, etc... based on the situation guided by the simulation analysis you will make changes to processing capacity, labor requirements, flow, cell layout, material handling requirements, etc...  to optimize and design your future state. As an example, multiple value streams can be generated and compared based on different production schedules within minutes, a daunting task for static analysis. In addition to the visual analysis, all KPI data is available for on screen display through spreadsheets, graphs, gauges, and displays as well as available for export for additional statistical analysis.

Another key aspect of the dynamic toolset is the ability to validate the proposed improvement, decide on the best kaizen to implement, and most importantly, determine the proper plan to roll out lean throughout the organization. Therefore, each change is modeled and planned including its potential effect on all other operations that exist within the organization.

As an additional bonus, and with the help of bar coding and RFID devices, the ability of "Real Time Process Visibility" is an attainable task that is being utilized successfully by many companies.

Simcad Pro and the Dynamic Value Stream Mapper fall into the categories of a Dynamic Toolset which include dynamic value stream maps, dynamic value network maps, dynamic routing analysis, and real time process analysis.