The complete sequence of activities — both value-adding and non-value-adding — required to bring a product from raw material to the customer. taiichi-ohno thought in terms of the flow of materials and information through the entire production system, not just individual operations. james-womack and daniel-jones named this "the value stream" in lean-thinking and made "value stream mapping" a foundational lean analysis tool. Value stream mapping visualizes every step in the process, identifying where value is created and where waste (the seven wastes) accumulates. At Toyota, the value stream perspective drives decisions about make-vs-buy, supplier relationships, and factory layout. Mike Rother and John Shook's learning-to-see (1999) made value stream mapping accessible to practitioners and became one of the lean movement's most influential tools.