In my last blog, I talked about Value and non Value added work. The focus of this blog is non Value added work or Waste. Again, Lean is simply creating Value and eliminating Waste.
So, what is waste? It is the use of any resources (man, machine, method and material) beyond what the customer is willing to pay for. Taiichi Ohno identified ‘7’ forms of waste (plus one – the 8th waste, underutilization of people). An easy way to remember the 8 wastes is by acronym – TIM P WOOD.
Here are the 8 forms of waste:
Transportation:
Unnecessary movement of materials, equipment or personnel using resources between processes, departments or facilities is waste. In an office, it is the unnecessary transportation of documents or information. Often times, materials, supplies and information are moved several times before reaching the permanent location. All this movement is waste.
Inventory:
Any raw material, work in progress or finished material which is not needed now is waste. Excess inventory takes up space, may cause safety hazard and may become obsolete as the requirements change. In an office, excess data, unneeded files and extra supplies are waste. Having extra inventory means having more to do – more storage, more time to look, more time to transport and more processing.
Motion:
Any movement of a worker more than is necessary for the process is waste. All unnecessary motion is a form of waste. Inefficient layout and operating procedures are often responsible for extra walking, extra body movements and extra steps.
People:
Human capital that is not fully deployed or utilized is the biggest waste of all 8 wastes. People are the greatest asset of any company and yet, we fail to fully engage, utilize and use their talents to eliminate waste. Quite often, the most knowledgeable people got neglected when implementing new ideas and revising processes.
Waiting:
People or parts that are waiting to complete the job are waste. Waiting is idle time and it disrupts the flow. It adds no value to the product and certainly, customer is not willing to pay for it.
Over Production:
To produce, sooner, faster or in greater quantities than the customer requirements is waste. Often times it is driven by the ‘Just-in-case’ mentality. Overproducing doesn’t improve efficiency and it consumes resources. Overproduction is often called the mother of all wastes as it drives all other wastes – more storage, transportation, movement, waiting, over processing and so on.
Over Processing:
This involves redundant activities such as performing unnecessary work on the product, checking someone’s work, excessive reviews and multiple approvals.
Defect:
Producing material or work which doesn’t meet the standards. Reworking or redoing the defective work is clearly a wasteful activity. Doing so require more resources, disruption to the normal process, loss of productivity and customer dissatisfaction.
In many processes, as much as 95% of all activities are waste. So, how much of your time is spent in non value added activities, fighting fires, expediting, reworking or chasing HOT jobs?
The key is learning to recognize waste. Without seeing the waste, it can’t be eliminated. Challenging ‘status quo’ or ‘we have always done it this way’ mentality is the secret ingredient to a Leaner organization.
Until my next blog, be Lean…