Q37 - The seven wastes of Lean is a great concept and has been an eye opener for many professionals. Let us assume that a leadership/ business ownership team member asks you - What are some of the ways we can put this concept to good use in the organization?. What would you say? Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term.

Knowing and looking for any of the seven wastes and just working to eliminate them will not be as effective as making waste elimination part of an organization-wide Lean Transformation Programme. Having been questioned by the Leadership on the best uses of the concept of Seven Wastes, would use this opportunity to also present my proposal for Lean Transformation in my organization. Lean Transformation Program 1. Mission Statement a. Derive Lean Transformation Mission Statement from the Organizational Mission Statement b. Achieving the Lean Transformation Mission will take the organization closer to achieving its Mission 2. Objectives a. Derive lean Transformation Objectives (Quantified, Tangible) from the Mission Statement b. If the Objectives are fulfilled, the Mission will be achieved 3. Governance Structure a. Steering Committee b. Working groups c. Frequency of reviews d. Roles and Responsibilities e. Creation and Approval of Lean Roadmap 4. Steering Committee a. Responsibilities b. Authorities c. Targeted Savings d. Budget approvals e. Training plan f. Socialization Plan g. Plan for leveraging Technology h. Base-lining of current costs i. Target setting guidelines for Working Groups and Projects j. Norms for Rewards and Recognition 5. Working Groups a. Responsibilities b. Authorities c. Expenditure approvals d. Target finalization e. Norms for identifying Lean Transformation projects 6. Training of Trainers a. External or Internal training of In-house trainers b. Preparation of gamified training material, props, artifacts, audios and videos by these trainers for training other staff 7. Lean Awareness Sessions a. Plan for introducing all staff to basics of Lean Management b. Training to be done by trained trainers c. Weekly and Monthly Awareness Training coverage report vertical-wise and for the organization 8. Training in Lean Methodology a. Training of staff on Lean methodology including waste identification and Value-Stream mapping in batches b. Games and Exercises inbuilt in the training session c. Lean Project completion mandatory for certification after training 9. Socialization a. Roadshows, Standees, Posters, Videos b. Competitions and Quizzes with Prizes c. Sensitize all staff to become intolerant to any waste 10. Project Identification a. Lean Transformation project identification in all verticals b. Cross-Functional Lean Transformation Project team formation c. Identified projects to be reviewed by Vertical Working Group and cleared for kickoff 11. Project Execution a. Progress of Lean Transformation Projects in a structured manner b. Structured approach to executing Lean transformation projects by Waste Identification and Elimination including i. Scoping the project ii. Base-lining current costs for process being improved iii. Documentation of existing process steps in detail using appropriate tools like SIPOC, Process Maps iv. Preparation of Current State Value Stream Map v. Analysis of Current State VSM vi. Waste identification in Current Value Stream vii. Preparation of Future State VSM viii. Risk analysis through FMEA and other Tools, Control evolution and implementation ix. Kaizen blitzes to eliminate identified wastes x. Implementing the improved process after selective, controlled piloting xi. Preparation of (Now) Current VSM, comparing it with (Earlier) Future VSM and identifying further opportunities xii. Handing over the improved process to the Process Owner 12. Project Reviews a. Review by the Working Group at different stages and after different milestones b. Review by the Steering Committee after project completion c. Identifying opportunities for reading across and replicating Best practices in other verticals 13. Auditing of benefits a. Auditing of the benefits by Finance and validation of the same b. Lean Transformation Project Benefit validation report by Finance 14. Rewards and Recognition a. Recognition of project team members depending on benefits obtained and impact created b. Annual Lean Transformation Celebrations c. Embedding Lean Transformation in the organisation’s DNA 15. Continual Lean Transformation Programme Improvement a. Periodic review and audit of Lean Transformation Programme Methodology vis-à-vis audited benefits b. Leaning out the Lean Transformation Programme c. Continually improving the ROI of the Lean Transformation programme

Seven Wastes of Lean

Seven Wastes of Lean - in the lean philosophy all unproductive activities in a process / system can be clubbed under 7 categories. These are Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over Production, Over Processing and Defect. These can be easily remembered by using the acronym - TIMWOOD.

Alternately, these 7 can also be remembered using WORMPIT (Waiting, Over Production, Rework, Motion, Over Processing, Inventory and Transportation).

An application oriented question on the topic along with responses can be seen below. The best answer was provided by Mohan PB on 3rd November 2017.

Seven Wastes of Lean

seven wastes

Followers

November 3, 20178 yr

THE SEVEN WASTES OF LEAN

What is Waste in a process:

Waste is any step or action in a process that is not required to complete a process (called “Non-Value-Adding”) successfully. When Waste is removed, only the steps that are required (called “Value-Adding”) to deliver a satisfactory product or service to the customer remain in the process.

Type of waste in the process as per Lean methodology:

Waste related to Quantity:

Transport
Inventory
Over production

Waste related to People
Motion
Waiting
Over processing
Skill underutilization

Waste related to Quality
Defect

Based on my experience, I am giving the examples for each type of waste and solution recommended

1. Transport: waste is material or process movement that is not directly associated with a value adding process.

As Is process: In one of the engagement, to perform the monthly reward and recognition (R&R); team use to get the R&R certificate printed in Pune location (as per operation, having better control by maintaining the centralized process) and use to send the certificate Bangalore over office courier. Process owner use to sign it and send back the Pune certificate again using office courier.

Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Transport waste where Movement of certificate from Pune to Bangalore and back to Pune

Solution implemented: Get the Bangalore certificate printed over here in Bangalore and Pune certificate printed in Pune and get the digital signature of process owner.

2. Over production: Waste is producing more than needed

3. Inventory: waste is stock and ‘work in process’ more than the requirements

As Is process: in P2P process, Invoice clearing team use process job and logout at 03:00 AM IST, however the Indexing team uses to process till 5:00 AM IST. This job use to be in the Invoice clearing team queue next day.

Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Over production and Inventory waste where Indexing team is processing the more job and making it wait in Invoice processing team’s queue

Solution implemented: Performed analysis on volume flow from client and suggested multiple shift in Invoice processing team. By this, eliminated both Over production and Inventory waste.

4. Motion: Waste of motion is any motion of man or equipment that does not add value to product or service

5. Waiting: Waste of waiting is any idle time produced when 2 interdependent processes are not completely synchronized

As Is process: In P2P process, it was asked Indexing team to push the duplicate invoices to Invoice hold queue. And in SOP of team whore are handling Invoice hold queue were asked to trash the duplicate invoices.

Waste in the process: This is a clear example of both Motion and Waiting where unnecessarily duplicate invoice use to go to Invoice hold queue and wait there to get trashed

Solution implemented: Change the SOP of Indexing team where, if they see the duplicate invoice then trash the invoice immediately.

6. Over processing: Over Processing is putting more into the product than is valued by the customer.

As Is process: In segregation of duty (SOD) process, it was required to get the 5 layers of approval, before giving the application access to new joiners

Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Over processing waste where unnecessary approvals are placed and each approval had a TAT of 5 WD.

Solution implemented: Discussed with the clients and ensure that there is no business reasons for this multiple approval and removed the 3 layers of approval for new joiners.

7. Skill underutilization: Not using the full potential of individual

As Is process: In one of the engagement, client agreed for higher billing rate and demanded for experienced resource for there job. Due to this, company hired all the team members are SME level (by designation); however, they were required to do the processing of the job (analyst level job)

Waste in the process: This is a clear example of skill underutilization waste where experienced resources were asked to do the analyst level job i.e. processing the job with daily target.

Solution implemented: There was no solution deployed by me, however team suffered huge attrition within 6 months as team member were not exited with the job they were doing.

8. Defect: additional work performed on a product or service due to not processing job correctly first time

Most of my projects are around mitigating Defect and due to this, I am not giving any specific example for the same.

Conclusion: AS per me, in service industry, there is lot of scope for Lean improvements then pure Six Sigma projects. And also in Lean improvements elimination of 8 Waste in the process will be definitely low hanging fruits.

November 3, 20178 yr

Seven Wastes of Lean are as follows:

WORMPIT - Waiting / Over Production / Rework / Motion / Over Processing / Inventory / Transportation

1.Waiting : It is the Non Productive Time due to lack of Material, Manpower, Machine etc. This may be due to the Machine Break down, material unavailability etc.

2.Over Production: Producing more than Needed & Producing Faster than what is needed

3.Rework : Waste of Correction includes the Waste of handling & Fixing mistakes

4.Motion: Unnecessary movement of People & Equipment inside the Work area

5.Over Processing: These are the Process that doesnt add value. it may be due to Poor Product / process design

6.Inventory: Materials which are bought & invested, but not used or Sold

7.Transportation: Unnecessary movement of Material & information

Some of the Ways we can put this in good use are as follows:

- Over production helps us when there is an uninformed break down of the machine

- Rework helps us to correct our faults before it reaches to the customer. Once the small rework is not done in a part & if it reaches the Customer it creates big effects

-Inventory sometimes helps us when there is shortage in the outside market, so that we have ready stock in our hand

Thanks,

M.KARTHIK

November 3, 20178 yr

Removing wastes always help to improve process.

few examples:

1. Cross utilization of skills always help to reduce wait time where dependency of different departments are high.

2. Setting some alert like less digit while entering mobile no etc, always help to reduce rework.

3. Keeping a track on product and based on the requirements develop product always help to reduce over production.

8 yr8 yr Rohit Gandhi locked this topic

November 7, 20178 yr

The Question was regarding the approach to leverage the concept of 7 wastes & put it to use in an organization. This Q was somewhat open-ended and hence I was expecting the answers to range from an elevator pitch to a comprehensive governance approach. Let me say I was really happy with the responses as many of you inked your answers with your experience.

The three selected answers are by Mohan PB, Rajesh Chakrabarty, and Anirudh Kund.

Rajesh has provided his answer in a simple and business understandable language and touched upon the important aspects of an implementation approach for an organization.

Mohan has presented a complete Lean transformation program with 15 elements and detailing around what each one of them entails.

Anirudh has stated definitions of each of the wastes, provided specific examples and also ways to improve or reduce waste in these scenarios. This could be very useful in convincing a hands-on leader

While there are several other noteworthy responses, in my view these three are the better ones and the one by Mohan is the best as it is focused on the approach which was the core question. Congrats Mohan and all the best to everyone for the Excellence journey!