Waste is any step or action in a process that is not required to complete a process (called “Non Value-Adding”) successfully. When Waste is removed, only the steps that are required (called “Value-Adding”) to deliver a satisfactory product or service to the customer remain in the process.
In any business, the greatest enemy of profitability is waste-- typically of time or money. In lean manufacturing, waste is any expense or effort that is put forward which does not transform raw materials into an item the customer is willing to pay for. There are 8 types of waste in Lean Manufacturing. Seven of the eight wastes are production process oriented, while the eighth waste is directly related to management’s ability to utilize personnel.
4. Lean =Systematically Eliminating the Waste
VALUE
ADDED
Non-Value Added
• Overproduction
• Inventory
• Waiting
• Motion
• Transportation
• Defects
• Extra Processing
• Underutilized People
Typically 95% of time the product is within the plant is non- value added
8 WASTES
5. What is Waste
Process owners are always looking for ways to prevent waste. Waste is an action or
a step in a process that does not add value for the customer.
There are eight major types of waste, and any one of them could cause you to lose
both efficiency and money.
The word “Lean” is originated in 1940's, when Toyota used the lean techniques
within its manufacturing environment.
Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese industrial engineer, started his career working with
Toyoda Spinning and with Toyota Motors later in his career, he rose through the
ranks within the organization.
According to Ohno, Lean approach is a step by step reduction of waste (called
"Muda" in Japanese). There were initially 8 types of lean wastes.
Identifying and removing them is the key to delivering value to the customers.
8. Defects
One of the most easily recognizable wastes in lean manufacturing
is the production of Defects. Examples of Defects in manufacturing
include waste such as scrap parts, products that require rework, or
assemblies that are missing details. Defects are often considered to
be one of the most significant manufacturing wastes because they
can actually lead to the generation of additional wastes such as
Overproduction, Transportation, and Excess Processing.
Some causes:
•Poor quality controls
•Poor repair
•Poor documentation
•Lack of standards
•Weak or missing processes
•Misunderstanding customer needs
•Uncontrolled inventory levels
•Poor design and undocumented design changes
9. Overproduction
Of all the 8 wastes, Overproduction has, by far, the most negative
impact on success. Overproduction occurs any time more parts or
products are produced than the customer is willing to purchase.
Like the production of Defects and subsequent Excess
Processing, Overproduction can also lead to the generation of
additional lean manufacturing wastes such as Waiting, Inventory,
and Motion, consuming vast amounts of time and resources
Overproduction may occur due to:
•Just-in-case production
•Unclear customer needs
•Producing to a forecast
•Long set-up times
•Engineering changes
•Poorly applied automation
10. Waiting
Waiting is a reference to inaction that adds cost to a product
being produced for a customer. This occurs because overhead
costs continue to increase during the time the product waits to be
transformed. When product waits, no value is being produced but
the cost of overhead operations continues to grow, which strips
potential profit from the sale. Waiting not only destroys material
and information flow, but also generates excess Inventory.
Causes can include:
•Unbalanced workloads
•Unplanned downtime
•Long set-up times
•Producing to a forecast
•Insufficient staffing
•Work absences
•Poor process quality
•Poor communication
11. Non-Utilized Talent
The only lean manufacturing waste that is not
manufacturing-process specific, but rather manufacturing
management related, is Non-Utilized Talent. This type of
manufacturing waste occurs when management in a
manufacturing environment fails to ensure that all of their
potential employee talent is being utilized.
This can typically be seen with:
•Assigning staff to wrong tasks
•Wasteful admin tasks
•Poor communication
•Lack of teamwork
•Poor management
•Insufficient training
12. Transportation
Waste caused by moving things around. This is less of a
problem in a business office than in a manufacturing plant,
since most of what white collar workers "transport" can be
sent by email for example. Otherwise, too much
transportation tends to increase costs, wastes time,
increases the likelihood of product damage and
deterioration, and can result in poor communication. In
general, transportation waste can be caused by:
•Poor plant/office layout
•Unnecessary or excessive steps in the process
•Misaligned process flow
•Poorly-designed systems
13. Inventory
Inventory is a manufacturing waste because it is value that is
being held at a cost. In the most literal sense, Inventory is
valuable product or material that is waiting either to be sold
to the customer or further transformed into something of
greater value. The entire time a product sits in Inventory, its
profit margin is reduced because overhead must be paid to
maintain the product in Inventory. Maintaining Inventory
requires the addition of Motion and Transportation wastes.
•Overproduction and buffers
•Poor monitoring systems
•Mismatched production speeds
•Unreliable suppliers
•Long set-up times
•Misunderstood customer needs
14. Motion
When Motion occurs, value is not added to a product or
material being manufactured. Motion can be either people
or machine, but is most often a human resource whose effort
and time are being wasted. Inefficient shop floor layouts, and
improper equipment can contribute to unnecessary motion. The
employee’s efforts are not only being wasted, but Motion can
also result in physical injury to employees which results
in even greater cost to the business. Motion waste is closely
related to wasted employee potential, commonly referred to as
Non-Utilized Talent.
Typical causes include:
•Poor process design and controls
•Poor workstation/shop layout
•Shared tools and machines
•Workstation congestion
•Isolated and siloed operations
•Lack of standards
15. Extra Processing
When products do not conform to a customer’s
requirements, the products must be repaired or
remanufactured to satisfy the customer’s needs. If the
customer’s requirements are not clear, more work may be
performed during the creation of the product than is
actually required, (such as fine polishing surfaces so they
look shiny), even though the customer did not request it.
Repairing, remanufacturing, and over processing are
examples of lean manufacturing waste referred to as
Excess Processing.
Examples include:
•Excessive reports
•Multiple signatures
•Re-entering data and duplicated data
•Lack of standards
•Poor communication
•Misunderstanding of the customer's needs
•Human error
16. Once Waste is Identifies
• Eliminate
• Simplify
• Streamline
• Minimize