{"id":1189,"date":"2012-12-31T18:11:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelogisticsoflogistics.com\/?p=1189"},"modified":"2015-10-20T13:46:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T18:46:33","slug":"understanding-lean-and-the-8-wastes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelogisticsoflogistics.com\/understanding-lean-and-the-8-wastes\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Lean and the 8 Wastes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding lean and the 8 wastes is important for all operations people including logistics and supply chain folks.<\/p>\n

The concept of lean (and the 8 wastes) originated in the manufacturing sector where it was first recognized that eliminating waste in the system led to much bigger profits.\u00a0 Henry Ford and his team at Ford Motor Company discovered lean along with the assembly line, even though they\u00a0didn’t\u00a0necessarily use the term lean.\u00a0 Dr. Taiichi Ohno and Toyota really perfected and popularized lean through their creation of the Toyota Production System (TPS).\u00a0 \u00a0The fine folks at Lean.org<\/a> provide a brief history of lean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of different definitions for lean, but my favorite is below.<\/p>\n

Lean Defined:<\/b><\/h3>\n

“All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash.\u00a0 And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value added wastes.”<\/em><\/p>\n

– Dr. Taiichi Ohno, Father of the Toyota Production System, 1988<\/p>\n

Value Added Defined:<\/b><\/h3>\n

Value Added activity is any activity that shapes or transforms a product to meet customer requirements \u2013 What the customer is willing to pay for!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 8 Wastes Defined:<\/b><\/h3>\n

Over time, lean practitioners have created the following 8 types of non-value added wastes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Overproduction<\/b>.\u00a0 Producing items earlier or in greater quantities than needed by the customer.\u00a0 Producing earlier or more than is needed generates other wastes, such as overstaffing, storage, and transportation costs because of excess inventory.\u00a0 Inventory can be physical inventory or a queue of information.<\/li>\n
  2. Waiting (time on hand).<\/b>\u00a0 Workers merely serving as watch persons for an automated machine, or having to stand around waiting for the next process step, tool, supply, part, etc., or just plain having no work because of no stock, lot processing, delays, equipment downtime, and capacity bottlenecks.<\/li>\n
  3. Transportation or Conveyance.\u00a0 <\/b>Moving work in process (WIP) from place to place in a process, even if it is only a short distance.\u00a0 Or having to move materials, parts, or finished goods into or out of storage or between processes.<\/li>\n
  4. Over processing or incorrect processing<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0 Taking unneeded steps to process the parts.\u00a0 Inefficiently process due to poor tool and product design, causing unnecessary motion and producing defects.\u00a0 Waste is generated when providing higher quality products than is necessary.\u00a0 At times extra \u201cwork\u201d is done to fill excess time rather than spend it waiting.<\/li>\n
  5. Excess Inventory<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0 Excess raw material, work in process, or finished goods causing longer lead times, obsolescence, damaged goods, transportation and storage costs, and delay.\u00a0 Also, extra inventory hides problems such as production imbalances, late deliveries from suppliers, defects, equipment downtime, and long setup times.<\/li>\n
  6. Unnecessary Movement.<\/b>\u00a0 Any motion employees have to perform during the course of their work other than adding value to the part, such as reaching for, looking for, or stacking parts, tools, etc.\u00a0 Also, walking is waste.<\/li>\n
  7. Defects<\/b>.\u00a0 Production of defective parts or correction.\u00a0 Repairing of rework, scrap, replacement production, and inspection means wasteful handling, time and effort.<\/li>\n
  8. Unused employee creativity<\/b>.\u00a0 Losing time, skills, improvements, and learning opportunities by not engaging or listening to your employees.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Bottom line<\/b>:\u00a0 Implementing lean thinking and eliminating the 8 wastes can dramatically reduce costs and improve profits for manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers.\u00a0 Find and eliminate the 8 wastes in your organization.\u00a0 Start with small steps and focus on continuous improvement.<\/p>\n

    Questions:<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 Has your company implemented lean? \u00a0Is understanding lean important at your company?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Understanding lean and the 8 wastes is important for all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[713],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-services"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.thelogisticsoflogistics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Depositphotos_8604655_xs.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"joelynch","author_link":"https:\/\/www.thelogisticsoflogistics.com\/author\/joelynch\/"},"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding Lean and the 8 Wastes - The Logistics of Logistics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understanding lean and the 8 wastes is key for all operations pro's. 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