7 Wastes of LEAN

Introduction

Lean is a set of principles that helps companies run more efficiently and with less waste. But it’s not just about cutting costs: Lean practices can also help create new revenue streams, boost productivity and morale among employees, and even reduce risks for your company. In this post, we’ll explore some of the most common ways that lean practices can improve your business—and why they’re worth implementing.

Overproduction is the process of making more product than is needed. Overproduction can be caused by poor forecasting, planning, scheduling, and manufacturing processes.

Waiting

Waiting is a waste. When you’re doing lean, waiting time is time that isn’t adding value to the product or service. If you’re waiting at your desk for five minutes while your coworker goes to the bathroom, that’s an opportunity cost of 10 minutes (5 + 5). That means if both of you were working together instead of waiting on each other—and if there was no chance for interruption from either end—you could have been doing something else!

Waiting can also be eliminated by reducing batch sizes and increasing workstation capacity (or even better: improving job sequencing), which will free up employees’ minds from thinking about what they’ve done so far in order to focus on creating value with every new step they take forward in their tasks.

Transporting

Reorganizing the layout of your factory is an easy way to reduce transport.

If you are transporting waste, make sure that it has been properly labeled and packed so that it is not damaged during transport.

Make sure that you have the right equipment for the job, such as wheelbarrows or tractors rather than trucks or cars if possible. This will save time and money on fuel costs!

Processing

Processing is the act of converting materials into a form that can be used in the next process. This includes machining, painting, assembling and testing. It also includes inspection and testing to ensure quality control.

Inventorying

Inventorying is a waste of time, money and space. It’s also a form of waste that can be eliminated by reducing the amount of inventory you need to keep. By reducing your inventory levels, you’ll increase efficiency in your business and reduce costs associated with storing items on hand instead of buying them outright as they’re needed.

There are several ways to reduce inventory:

Reduce the number-of-parts required for each item by having fewer components or parts per unit (e.g., less plastic beads versus more). This approach is most effective when applied to smaller items like screws or nuts; larger assemblies require more parts so this strategy may not work well for those types of products unless there are multiple suppliers offering competing options at competitive prices (which often isn’t possible). If possible try building prototypes first before moving into production; this will give you an idea about how much variation will occur between identical units made from different materials/configurations which can help determine whether these variations warrant additional testing after finalizing design specifications early on in development process so costs aren’t wasted later down road when prototypes become obsolete due changes made during production runs.”

Motion

Motion waste is the movement of people and materials. It’s not a waste because it doesn’t add value to the product, but it can lead to problems down the road if not managed properly.

For example, consider an assembly line where each worker has his or her own station with tools and supplies within easy reach. If someone falls asleep at their station during production time, they’ll have trouble getting back up again quickly enough for another task (which may need to be completed immediately). In this case, motion waste can be considered as a form of non-value added labor—and therefore something that should be avoided at all costs!

Defects

In a business, you want to reduce defects as much as possible.

Defects are a waste of time. If a customer is unhappy with your product or service, they could leave the premises immediately and never come back again. This means that they might not be able to get their money back from you because they had to leave so quickly! It also means that you don’t have the chance to fix whatever went wrong—and if something did go wrong (it probably will), then everything else about this interaction was rendered useless by one bad interaction!

Lean production practices can help you eliminate waste in your business

Lean production is a set of principles and practices to eliminate waste (as described above) in a process. It focuses on eliminating waste, not on reducing cost. Waste is any activity that does not add value to the customer, or create value for you as an organization.

Lean manufacturing can help you eliminate some common types of waste in your business:

e.g. Overproduction – Production too much product so it’s stored until it’s sold

e.g. Underutilized capacity – Having machines that aren’t being used at full capacity because they’re waiting for parts or materials

e.g. Unused space (i.e., areas where resources are not being used effectively) accounts for about 30 percent of all inventory in most industries and 60 percent in retailing (Baldrige). This type of waste costs businesses billions every year because it means fewer customers can buy their products (more than $1 trillion annually).

Conclusion

Inefficient processes cost companies millions every year by delaying sales and increasing production costs so they don’t make as much money per unit sold when compared with competitors who use leaner processes (Costello). The increased cost is due to less efficient use of labor hours spent on tasks that could be done more efficiently by machines instead.

Companies cannot afford any wasted effort or resources if they want to succeed financially in today’s competitive business environment where there is fierce competition among large companies who vie for market share against each other as well as smaller ones trying harder than ever before just because they know that even though one may get knocked down once again…they will rise up once again stronger than ever before!

A KANBAN Board is an effective tool that can help you to eleminate some of these major wastes stated above.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post on “7 wastes of Lean”. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesiate to contact us. We are always happy to hear from our readers!