Welcome to the Value Flow Centre (VFC). Established in 2013, the mission of the VFC is to become recognised by academics and practitioners internationally as the leading centre of applied research, application and evaluation of Contemporary Operations and Management Paradigms (COMPs) that have in common an holistic approach to process and supply chain improvement and an emphasis on the importance of organising uninterrupted and unimpeded flow of ‘value’ to the downstream customer.
These COMPs include Lean Thinking, Theory of Constraints (TOC), Six Sigma and Agility. Indeed, it is from the two main common denominators of these COMPs that the centre derives its name.
Professor Mark Francis delivering his inaugural Professorial lecture
The first is their external focus and emphasis on the need to understand the customer’s conception of value as the key input to process design. Their second common denominator is the stress they place on the importance of maximising the flow (velocity or throughput) of work through the focal process as the key to delivering this value to the customer.
Professor Mark Francis
Director, Value Flow Centre
