Definition
The list that breaks the future state map into improvement activities with owners, dates and a way to verify them, sequenced by loop; it is the real deliverable of value stream mapping.
In detail
The two maps are only analysis; the plan is the commitment — the courseware says outright that the power is in the plan. It must state which loop each activity belongs to, who owns it, when it is done and what data will verify it, and it must line up with the annual objectives, or the kaizen weeks become a string of unrelated events. The order is not free: loops depend on each other, and doing the pacemaker loop before the supplier loop gives a very different result from the reverse. The plan is a living document, reviewed and updated, not an attachment to a report.
Example in practice
The team splits the future state map into four loops and lists nine activities: standard work and changeover at the pacemaker in the first quarter, supplier kanban in the second, each with an owner, a due date and the lead time it must reach.