A 2002 workbook by daniel-t-jones and james-p-womack, published by lean-enterprise-institute. It extends the value stream mapping methodology introduced in learning-to-see (Rother and Shook, 1999) from the single plant to the extended value stream — the full chain of companies from raw material to end customer. The book won the shingo-institute Prize.
What this workbook does
learning-to-see taught practitioners to map the value stream within a single facility. Seeing the Whole maps the extended value stream: the multi-company supply chain as a single system. The core insight is that much of the total cycle time and waste in lean systems is hidden in the interfaces between companies — scheduling gaps, information delays, inventory buffers at company boundaries — that single-plant mapping cannot reveal.
What TPS concepts are being translated
The workbook translates TPS's systems perspective on flow across the supply chain. Toyota's production system depends on tightly coordinated supplier relationships — its kanban system extends beyond the Toyota plant into its supplier network. Womack and Jones formalize this as "extended value stream mapping," making the inter-company analysis as rigorous as the intra-plant analysis from learning-to-see.
The translation is particularly challenging because the extended value stream crosses organizational boundaries that a single manager cannot control. The workbook addresses this by framing the exercise as a collaborative diagnostic tool for supply chain partners rather than an internal improvement project.
Target audience
Operations managers, supply chain managers, and lean practitioners who have already implemented single-plant lean and are encountering persistent system-level waste at company interfaces. The lean-enterprise-institute published this as part of its workbook series, positioning it as a practitioner tool rather than a conceptual text.
Relationship to other key works
This workbook sits between lean-thinking (the conceptual framework for enterprise-wide lean) and learning-to-see (the foundational VSM workbook). It operationalizes the lean-enterprise concept from lean-thinking by providing a specific diagnostic methodology for the extended enterprise. The value-stream-mapping concept entry provides further context on the VSM family of tools.
Note on authorship order
The authors are listed as Daniel T. Jones and James P. Womack — Jones is the primary author. This reflects Jones's particular focus on supply chain and extended enterprise lean through the lean-enterprise-academy, while Womack's work centered more on the LEI in the US.