Eliminating Waste

The Seven Wastes — Known by the Japanese Term “Muda”

Overproduction

= Making more products or information than the next process
(the customer) needs right now.

Muda Meter: Worst of all wastes, why?

Evidence
- Parts sleeping

Causes
- Just-in-case logic
- Poor scheduling
- Misuse of automation
- Long set-up times

Transportation

= Transporting parts and materials around the plant (as observed from the "eyes" of the product)

Evidence
- Moving parts/products
- Moving information
- Poor communication
- Root cause not identified

Causes
- Long lead-times, long-term storage
- Poor plant layout
- Producing in large batch sizes

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Motion

= Any movement of people that does not add value to the product or service

Evidence
- Operator back injuries
- Sitting while working vs. standing & moving
- Poor part presentation
- Poor tool location

Causes
- Poorly designed process
- Lack of standard work methods
- Poor layout of factory or production line
- Poor workplace organization and housekeeping

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Waiting

= Idle people-time created when waiting

Causes
- Unbalanced work load
- Unplanned maintenance
- Upstream quality problems
- Imbalances in scheduling

Processing

= Effort that adds no value to the product from the customers' viewpoint

Evidence
- Observe product & people time

Causes
- True customer requirements undefined
- Overcomplicated paperwork
- Lack of communication
- Redundant steps
- Part washing
- Machine change-overs

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Inventory

Considered to be:
- Raw Material (RM)
- Work In Process (WIP)
- Finished Goods (FG)

From a purist's perspective, any Inventory can be considered to be waste. Since we have not yet developed a way to snap our fingers and make a finished product appear, we should seek the minimum amount of inventory required to maintain flow (without hiding things like defective machines or long changeovers).

Defects

In Products, People, Information

Product Defects - making bad parts, scrap, and doing rework
People Defects - any safety concerns
Information Defects - Creating a feature the customer never wanted

Evidence
- Poor on-time delivery
- Product Scrap
- Rework
- Safety incidents

Causes
- Lack of in-process checks
- Poor quality materials
- Deficient planned maintenance
- Machine capability
- Poor product design
- Inadequate training & work instructions

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