Lean Manufacturing and its 8 Areas of Waste Lean is used to describe organizations, business processes and functions such as manufacturing, distribution and supply chains that have a minimal amount of waste and maximum responsiveness. Lean manufacturing is a set of practices that are carried out to increase efficiency and effectiveness by reducing waste. It involves the never ending efforts to reduce or eliminate the non-value adding waste. These activities start with raw materials and finish with a completed product in the customers’ hands. Group50, a well-known lean manufacturing consulting company understands the change management process required to successfully implement lean programs that are both scalable and sustainable. They have a team of subject matter experts who understand the investigation, design and implementation of lean manufacturing and supply chain programs. Lean organizations and businesses exhibit waste in the 8 areas mentioned below: Transport and movement Waste in transportation includes the unnecessary movement of the products, equipment, tools and people. Movement of items more than required can lead to the unnecessary work, damage to the products and exhaustion. It also results in wasted efforts, energy and adding to the cost. Inventory
Inventory is often seen as asset because it is the value that is being held at the cost. Excessive inventory leads to the damaged products, inefficient use of capital and the longer lead time in the production process and defects being hidden away in the inventory. Excessive inventory is a result of over purchasing or over producing. Motion The motion includes the movement of people, equipment or machinery and when it occurs, it doesn’t add any value to the product being manufactured. Tasks or activities, in which too much motion is involved, must be redesigned to enhance the work and increase the health and safety measures. Waiting This waste occurs when time is lost as a result of a drop in productivity for example when production stops for maintenance or cooling down of the machinery or workers waiting for material or files waiting for review. It not only destroys information flow and material but results in excess inventory and over production. Overproduction This waste occurs when products are produced more than the customers are willing to purchase and it has the most negative impact on the success. Over-Processing of components It refers when products have more features than expected by the customers. Excess processing, remanufacturing and repairing are examples of over processing of components. Defects in products, services and business processes Defects are considered the worst of waste and usually occurs when any product don’t meet the company standards. Examples of it are products that need rework, scrap parts and assembles that miss the details.
Human resource It happens when the management of the company is not able to utilize the skills, expertise and experience of its employees. When the management doesn’t get involved with the employees on continuous improvement or is not able to influence them to change for better, is considered as a waste in manufacturing. Companies who embark on implementing lean manufacturing can hire Group50, a renowned lean manufacturing consulting company. By hiring their lean manufacturing consultants, you can typically expect 20-30% reductions in cost, 50% reductions in total inventory and 50+% improvements in quality. Contact them to understand your opportunities for significantly reducing waste, maximizing value and financial performance.