Lean with 2 cups of Tea

This is the story when I visited one of my old friends after a long time.
After a chit chatting long about life and all, He asked me what is my job
profile? what do you do in your company?
I told him I am an Industrial Engineer and work as VSM consultant now,
He again put a question what is VSM consulting?
I told him VSM stands for Value Stream Mapping and it is a very
powerful tool of Lean. Helpful in eliminating waste and nonvalue-added
activities in an organization there by increasing productivity and
customer satisfaction.
Again, a question popped out "What is waste?"
This time I thought of giving him an easy example so he also starts
thinking in Lean way. I asked him let us make Tea and we shall discuss
more while drinking it.
We made Tea and sat in his balcony to continue our discussion on 8 type
of Lean Waste called "Muda" by Japanese
While making tea, we went nearby shop to buy milk. What if we had
gone too far to bring milk? we might have used a bike that requires
petrol and consumes time which is "transport waste".
What if we did not add right quantity of Tea powder or Sugar or Milk?
The taste gets altered which is "Defect"

What if we made tea in larger quantity more than two cups? The
remaining tea will get waste or you need to boil it again for next use but
its taste change which is "Over Processing"
What if I alone or you alone went to bring milk? One had to "wait" for
other to come which is again a waste.
What if we brought 1 liter of milk rather than bringing 100 ml? The
remaining milk had to be stored, In a fridge, I already noticed spoiled
milk of may be more than week. which is again a waste of keeping high
"inventory"
What if we got busy while keeping milk on a stove and forget to switch
it off? Then milk would have spilled due to over boiling also due to
spilled milk utensil and stove would get stained and dirty, which is due
to "excess processing" than required.
Meanwhile, I gave him empty cups to wash and told come back to sit in
the balcony. After he comes back told him this is a small motion which
interrupt our discussion. So, avoid unnecessary small "motions" which is
also one of Lean waste.
So again, asked him where were we, He was enthusiastically repeated 1.
Transport 2. Defect 3. Over producing 4. Waiting 5. Inventory 6. Extra
Processing 7. Motion and He asked which is the 8th waste.
This time I asked him a question. At a time when we were pursuing
Engineering who taught you cooking? Who taught you to make tea? He
replied, "You were the best cook among us". I told him that you

underutilized my cooking skills. So "Nonutilization of Skill/Talent" is

also the deadly waste of Lean.
and I continued... In this tea example identifying waste is simple but in
real time organizations struggle to identify these wastes and VSM is
proven method in identifying nonvalue-add or waste as it contains all
material and information flow towards making a product or providing
service.
He was impressed and asked to do VSM for his software development
process to reduce delivery time & lastly picked the 8th waste and asked
me to cook the dinner.