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Another form of waste that can be incorporated into this exercise is the waste
and underutilization of human resources and talent. Misalignment of employee
time impedes getting the best results. This can also lead to lower morale and
lower job satisfaction. Think of it as the…..“human being OEE”
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The Seven Wastes
Waste occurs in very obvious forms to others that are not obvious. A team is
expected to evaluate each form of waste as they develop process maps and
begin to look for improvements.
Waste can occur within:
1. Services
2. Products
3. Transactional processes
The reason this one is discussed first in detail, is because it is the riskiest (and
often the most costly) form of waste, since the other waste also happen within
it. Overproduction can have defects, create more transportation, waiting, etc.
This means building an excess quantity of units or more than the customer
needs or is willing to pay for. This could be due to long set-up times, very long
lead times, and difficulties known at start-up. This is often done to cover an
underlying problem.
In terms of a service, this is the same as doing more than is required or that the
customer is willing to pay for. s to control.
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The Seven Wastes
2) DEFECTS
For very obvious reasons, making the product right the first time is ideal and any
product that is defective, due to one or more defects, is an opportunity to
reduce costs and lead time.
Defects are products or services that do not meet the customer specification.
Defects always require some degree of additional attention, whether it they are
tracked, scrapped, reworked, or repaired. These options may result in more
waste or others of the seven wastes.
Remember to consider all the paperwork, confusion, and delays that might have
been associated with the scrap or rework.to control. Handling defects can
create more transportation, waiting, and some other forms of waste.
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The Seven Wastes
3) EXCESS TRANSPORTATION
Manually moving stock to a staging area and dropping off material and picking
it back up to deliver to machine. The goal is to minimize the transportation and
people involved in moving material.
Transportation wastes add costs, lead time, and risk of getting damaged or
misplaced.
A machine could be waiting for next job, because the current job is being
overproduced. It could be the part is waiting for something or the people
involved are waiting.
Once again, waiting can be a waste that occurs in a transaction too, such as
waiting for a requisition to be approved, or a purchase order, or a project that
requires a sequence of approvals.
This applies for desk jobs, machine operators, supervisors, and at home.
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The Seven Wastes
7) EXCESS PROCESSING
This is different than the waste of Overproduction. This includes waste such as over polishing
parts, excessing painting, heating parts too long or too high of temperature, excessive
washing, redundant paperwork, excessive data collection, tumbling, turning, drying parts
longer than necessary.
Sometimes this opportunity is less obvious. Your team may find that is can reduce the
production of a part from multiple machines to one machine, such as putting two components
on at the same time, or redesigning tooling to create more complex stamping in one cycle.
The lack of integrated systems, lack of creative and innovative spreadsheets, conditional
formatting, validation, filtering, can all lead to over-processing when performing data entry or
other clerical and office jobs.
Before the GEMBA walk, creating the process map, or a value stream map,
teach the team members about the seven wastes. Teach them to “see” the
waste and moreover, dig deeper to find the hidden factory wastes.
More effective training will include creative examples in their workplace that
are not as obvious. Often, this training comes across as common sense but if
you can surprise them with examples, then the engagement should strengthen.
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The Seven Wastes
Sometimes the waste is less obvious, found by accident, or may seem out of
scope. The team may be following a product during a value stream mapping
exercise and notice potential improvements such as:
• Lighting that can be converted to more efficient LED’s,
• A washer is spraying water when there are not any parts in it,
• A dryer is blowing hot air when there are not any parts in it,
• Warm air from machines, furnaces, or air compressors is being vented outside when it
could possibly be reclaimed and used to heat a building or working space,
• Gravity that isn’t being utilized as a free energy source when it could be to help the flow
of parts or components.
• Tools and Dies that aren’t completely used or that can be reworked
• Air compressor and dryer piping inefficiencies
Perhaps some of these are not x’s (inputs) that contribute directly to solving the gap in the Project “Y”, but many could be
downstream inputs. In any case, the company will likely appreciate any waste identification that can be eliminated.