![]() Tasks that require excessive motion should be redesigned to enhance the work of personnel and increase the health and safety levels. This includes walking, lifting, reaching, bending, stretching, and moving. ![]() The waste in motion includes any unnecessary movement of people, equipment, or machinery. Illustration of Inventory Waste ( LeanOp) Some countermeasures for inventory include: purchasing raw materials only when needed and in the quantity needed, reducing buffers between production steps, and creating a queue system to prevent overproduction. Manufacturing inventory waste could include broken machines sitting around, more finished products than demanded, extra materials taking up work space, and finished products that cannot be sold. In-office inventory waste could be files waiting to be worked on, customers waiting for service, unused records in a database, or obsolete files. As a result, more work will be needed to correct the defects. Excess inventory prevents detecting production-related problems since defects have time to accumulate before it is discovered. Excess inventory can be caused by over-purchasing, overproducing work in process (WIP), or producing more products than the customer needs. But having more inventory than necessary to sustain a steady flow of work can lead to problems including: product defects or damage materials, greater lead time in the production process, an inefficient allocation of capital, and problems being hidden away in the inventory. In accounting, inventory is seen as an asset and oftentimes suppliers give discount for bulk purchases. Often times it is difficult to think about excess inventory as waste. Illustration of Transportation Waste ( LeanOp) Some of the countermeasures to transportation waste includes developing a U-shape production line, creating flow between processes, and not over-producing work in process (WIP) items. ![]() In the factory, materials necessary for production should be easily accessible at the production location and double or triple handling of materials should be avoided. In the office, workers who collaborate with each other often should be close together. Additionally, excessive movement of people and equipment can lead to unnecessary work, greater wear and tear, and exhaustion. Excessive movement of materials can lead to product damage and defects. Waste in transportation includes movement of people, tools, inventory, equipment, or products further than necessary. In the following section we will examine each of these wastes in detail. As a result, the 8 wastes are commonly referred to as ‘TIMWOODS’. The 8th waste of non-utilized talent or ‘Skills’ of workers was later introduced in the 1990s when the Toyota Production System was adopted in the Western world. They are often referred to by the acronym ‘TIMWOOD’. The seven wastes are Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing and Defects. The original seven wastes (Muda) was developed by Taiichi Ohno, the Chief Engineer at Toyota, as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). In other words, waste is any process that the customer does not want to pay for. ![]() Waste is any action or step in a process that does not add value to the customer. Before diving into the 8 wastes, it is important to understand what waste is. Lean thinking aims to remove wastes from work processes. ![]()
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