Learn more about the 8 wastes in Lean Manufacturing

The basic foundation of the Lean Manufacturing management philosophy is to combat waste. Simple, isn’t it?

However, it is not always possible to eliminate them. And when that happens, you must reduce them constantly, until your end becomes possible.

In this article, you will know the 8 Lean wastes that every organization should incessantly seek to extinguish. But that's not all! I will also tell you about practices and tools you can take to combat them!

But why should I fight such waste?

What an easy question! There are numerous reasons, but now I will exemplify two of them, for better understanding.

First, by continually eliminating the waste generated throughout the process, you can increase your level of competitiveness and therefore remain more sustainable in the market.

Second, this constant practice of mitigating and eliminating waste will become routine in your business, being rooted and practiced by everyone in the company.

It is important to note that within a company there may be only a single waste or a "cascade effect" of them. The event of a single waste within one process can be the trigger for the event of another, and so on.

Nevertheless, the problem in processing would be even greater, and much more difficult to counter. It’s not an easy situation!

So we decided to describe these wastes so that this perception of interdependence among them becomes clearer.

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Soon, no more curling, let's find out more about these 8 wastes

1. Extra-processing

This waste is about excessive processing, in addition to what the customer requests, i.e., failure to comply with a logical sequence of process operation.

The lack of standardization inhibits the effective management and control of a process, not adding value.

To eliminate this waste, you need to recognize what the customer needs, avoid rework, be careful about unnecessary activities, and implement standardized processes.

It's how the quality guru William Deming once said: "You do not manage what you do not measure-or control [...]".

Oh cool! But how do I identify which are the activities that add value and standardize the ideal sequence of operation?

There is a tool that can help you a lot: Value Stream Mapping (MFV), which aims to identify, from the point of view of the customer, which activities of the process add value or not to the product marketed.

2. Overproduction

In this waste comes that very common debate: quality or quantity?

This waste refers to producing in excess, that is, obtaining more outputs of materials or information than necessary.

What can this entail? More stock, more defects, more transportation, more movement, and so on ...

To combat excessive production there is the tool SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) - also called TRF (Quick Tool Exchange), which is a tool used to reduce the time spent with setup.

Then you may ask me: but what does this have to do with this waste? So think: "If I have a very slow set-up in my process, that is, an inflexible operation, I will want to produce as much of this product as possible before starting production of the next product."

And it is precisely this thought that SMED seeks to eliminate: more flexible processes result in more competitive companies.

With that, in this case, by answering the question, quality is more essential! For quantity can generate many superfluous materials, not generating quality for production.

3. Inventory

This waste you already know what it is, don't you? Yes! It is linked to the excessive storage of inputs, raw materials, intermediate and finished products.

Storing excess materials prevents the most effective discovery of problems arising from the production process, making it difficult to develop activities that seek to improve business performance. And it's always worth remembering, "stock is money suspended"!

To organize the movement and storage of materials in the process, the Kanban tool from Lean is the most indicated. In addition, of course, the production management system, the Just in Time, that is, production on demand, only produces what is needed.

4. Transportation

This waste is tied to the transportation of materials, employees, and information in the process.

It is worth remembering that all transportation is a waste because it does not add value to the product, however, it is often necessary for the process. Therefore, since it is a necessary evil, it must be minimized.

To counter it, you need to have all the components in hand, to choose the course well by analyzing the total costs and possibilities of work, and to seek the flow of a single product.

I indicate to help with the elimination of these wastes, a very effective tool: the 5S. But what is the function of this tool?

5S helps to create disciplined culture, identify problems, and generate opportunities for improvement.

5. Motion

This waste refers to the excessive and unnecessary movement of equipment or collaborators in the process. It is good to remember: walking is good for health, but not for the process!

If you spend a lot of time with these movements, time that could be spent differently, more productively, generating benefits for the company, and time is money!

There are some ways to eliminate this waste, through good work organization, and optimization of the layout, and especially, to leave the materials and tools near the place of accomplishment of the process.

6. Defects

This waste considers the production of defective products generated by the process, which are later reworked or scrapped. No need to comment on the seriousness of this waste, right?

Yeah! Nothing worse than doing a whole job, spending some time with it, and in the end having to do it all over again, generating expenses, as much material as resources, as labor.

To prevent it from happening by working on prevention rather than correcting the problem, there are 3 strongly recommended actions: adherence to CEP (Statistical Process Control), the use of devices Poka-Yoke, and the occurrence of events Kaizen.

7. Waiting

This waste refers to the inoperability of employees, factory machines, and other resources in the process. We know that each stage of a process has different capabilities.

And to manage and optimize this flow, there are 2 Lean concepts: Takt Time and Just in Time, which help organize and distribute activities, creating a workflow. In addition to producing just what is needed, at the right time.

8. Non-utilized talent

This is the last! But it is not less important than the others. This is a waste of intellectual knowledge and skills of collaborators who are not taking advantage of it.

Employees are sometimes treated as robots, which are programmed only to do that particular function. This is not interesting to the process. Encouraging human intelligence is one of the great strategies of professional motivation.

It is the role of the manager to identify the activities most suitable for each worker. In addition, always seek to motivate and develop employees. The company gains a lot in results when these professionals are motivated and are encouraged to propose ideas.

To facilitate this decision to be as effective as possible, the Competence Management program can help you.

Bye, waste!

You may find that these 8 Lean Manufacturing wastes are much more common than you thought. Yeah! And this reflects negatively for the company, as it can generate more costs, besides not generating as much profit as it should.

With this, you should take care of the whole process, try to see some waste, and try to solve it. The ideal is for the company to run with zero-waste.

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