Elements of Waste

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 Well, Lean Six Sigma is all about reducing variation and waste.
• 00:10 Let's now take a few minutes to understand how waste limits process performance.
• 00:17 We will start by looking at the broad categories of waste.
• 00:19 Recall that Lean Manufacturing started in Toyota, so
• 00:22 the initial categories of waste were labelled with Japanese terms.
• 00:25 The first category is Muda.
• 00:27 This is wasted effort that consumes resources without adding
• 00:31 value to the product or service that is delivered to the customer.
• 00:34 This an easy category of ways to understand.
• 00:36 The second category is Mura, this is waste that creates an unevenness or
• 00:41 variability in the process flow.
• 00:44 Because of this effect there are resources sitting idle, waiting.
• 00:47 In addition the process must often put in buffers to act as shock absorbers in
• 00:51 the flow when the upstream process fails to complete as expected.
• 00:54 These buffers add cost and complexity.
• 00:57 The third category is Muri,
• 00:59 this is waste due to the overburdening of people or equipment.
• 01:04 The overburden puts stress on the process operation and
• 01:07 leads to mistakes and errors.
• 01:09 These then require additional work,
• 01:11 additional items to flow through the process, adding even more overburden.
• 01:16 Over the years, these three categories of waste have been expended into seven
• 01:20 categories which are used in Lean Six Sigma.
• 01:23 On the one hand, I don't want you to get hung up over classifying waste into
• 01:27 the correct categories, regardless of the category, eliminate it.
• 01:31 However, this is a favored area for questions from IASSC.
• 01:35 So, if you are planning on sitting for the exam,
• 01:37 be certain you know the seven categories and the differences between them.
• 01:41 Use the acronym TIM WOOD to help you remember these categories.
• 01:46 The first category, the T, is unnecessary transport.
• 01:50 In the manufacturing environment, this is the movement of parts and
• 01:53 materials into and out of stockrooms or between workstations.
• 01:58 From a Lean perspective,
• 01:59 any movement that is farther than the next workstation over is unnecessary movement.
• 02:04 This one becomes a little tricky in the administrative context.
• 02:08 On the one hand, data can often move from one process to another process or
• 02:12 system virtually instantaneously and with no effort.
• 02:16 Yet even to do that, the systems must be linked and
• 02:18 the date of transmission verified.
• 02:20 If the data or information must be re-entered manually from one
• 02:23 system to the next there's a huge waste of effort.
• 02:27 Key here is that the product service or information should always be moving
• 02:31 towards the customer and not just bouncing around internally.
• 02:35 The second item, the I, is high inventories.
• 02:39 In manufacturing, this is building more than is needed for a normal flow.
• 02:43 It's similar to another waste, overproduction.
• 02:45 But the difference is that high inventory waste is the cost and
• 02:48 effort of storing and tracking all the inventory in the system.
• 02:52 We'll talk about overproduction in a moment, but
• 02:54 it ties back to a building of a backlog.
• 02:55 The waste in this category is all the internal management that has no value for
• 03:00 customers.
• 03:02 Our third category of waste, the M,
• 03:04 is the unnecessary people movement, whether in manufacturing settings or
• 03:07 administrative settings, this is the waste of people walking around.
• 03:11 They may be looking to the next thing they're to process, or
• 03:14 they're going after someone for an approval.
• 03:16 Whatever the reason, while walking around they're not doing productive work.
• 03:21 The fourth of our seven categories, the W, is waiting.
• 03:24 This one is pretty easy to understand.
• 03:26 Just make sure you are thinking of it from the perspective of the product or
• 03:30 item being processed.
• 03:32 In a manufacturing environment, it is the product or component that has finished
• 03:36 the process in one step and is waiting to start the process in the next step.
• 03:40 Similarly, in an administrative context it is an item that is processed by one step,
• 03:45 waiting for the next step.
• 03:46 Think about all those things sitting in your inbox that you haven't had a chance
• 03:50 to work on yet.
• 03:51 The waste is both the unmet demand from the customer who's waiting for
• 03:54 the product or item to be processed, and often there are idle resources down stream
• 03:59 that could be producing the product or item if it had moved on to them.
• 04:03 The fifth of the seven is the first O, overproduction.
• 04:06 In a manufacturing context this is making product for which there is no demand.
• 04:10 In the context of administrative process it's processing information or
• 04:14 data without a request for the process to occur.
• 04:17 The reason for this category as waste is that while doing this processing for
• 04:21 which there's no immediate customer demand,
• 04:24 the process is not able to address the actual customer demand.
• 04:28 The sixth of our seven categories of waste is the second O, over processing.
• 04:34 This is different from overproduction, which was making too many of the item.
• 04:38 In this case, we are doing process steps that are not required by the customer.
• 04:42 In the manufacturing environment, this is often due to poor process design so
• 04:47 intermediate steps must be added for movement or stability reasons.
• 04:51 In an administrative process, this is unnecessary steps or
• 04:54 approvals within a process.
• 04:55 Often the over processing was added because of a quality problem at one point
• 05:00 in time and now there are extra redundant quality inspections or test points.
• 05:05 This wasted effort does not add value to the customer.
• 05:09 The final waste, that category is the D, which stands for correcting defects.
• 05:14 Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we shouldn't correct defects.
• 05:18 What I'm saying is that we shouldn't generate defects to begin with.
• 05:22 Because of defects, we have wasted effort, testing, inspection and
• 05:25 reworking product in the manufacturing environment and
• 05:28 process results in the administrative environment.
• 05:31 The waste is because we have to work on these items a second time
• 05:35 instead of doing it right the first time.
• 05:38 There is one other category of waste that l want to mention and
• 05:40 that is waste created by confusion and disorganized work environment.
• 05:43 Another methodology was introduced from Japan a few
• 05:46 years ago that captures this and is called 5S.
• 05:50 As l said,
• 05:50 this is waste that is creating confusion leading to inefficiency in the workplace.
• 05:55 It is called 5S because the five disciplines all start with the letter S.
• 06:01 First there is sort, which is separating items into the proper categories.
• 06:05 This avoids the confusion of trying to find something.
• 06:08 Next is straighten.
• 06:09 This is to organize the items that have been sorted into a logical flow for
• 06:13 the work at a workstation.
• 06:15 Following this is shine.
• 06:16 This means to clean the workspace, clean the equipment and other
• 06:19 items that you're using and doing proper maintenance so that it works perfectly.
• 06:24 Then it is on to standardize.
• 06:26 This discipline involves setting up processes and systems so
• 06:29 it is clear exactly what to do next and where things should go.
• 06:34 Finally, there is the discipline of sustain.
• 06:36 It's not enough to do this once in a while.
• 06:38 These disciplines are to become daily habits that are followed and maintained.
• 06:42 That often includes ongoing training, inspection and
• 06:45 audits to ensure that the practices are still followed.
• 06:50 The seven categories of waste and the 5S disciplines will be principles
• 06:55 that we'll refer to again and again at all five of the DMAIC phases.

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