Identifying waste at your work
Kaizen is designed to eliminate waste in your organization. But what is waste? How can you identify wasteful processes? It often takes a keen eye to note the difference between a time-consuming practice and one that is needlessly wasteful. Here are four potential wastes that could be plaguing your business.
This waste refers to the movement of work. Whether it's the physical movement of a product through the assembly line at a factory or the practice of handing off a project to another department in the office, transportation is frequently one of the most wasteful processes within a business and often leads to errors and redundant work. Even the act of handing off work can go wrong if the incorrect people are involved with the transfer.
How much time do you spend being active but not actually doing anything? Motion can be a huge issue in two specific instances: incorrectly organized work areas and large workspaces. It refers to being active, but not actually accomplishing.
In the first example, and incorrectly organized work area can make a person have to reach for tools that are placed further away, lift parts (which could lead to injury), or search for missing tools. The latter example refers to workspaces where employees need to cover a lot of physical ground. Walking between floors or from one end to another to clarify tasks or other production-related activities can be wasteful. This is more prevalent in manufacturing settings, but could still apply to other work environments.
3. Inventory
Inventory is essentially backed up or multi-tasked work. To-do lists, product pipelines, spreadsheets – these are all ways that work can get backed up. By assigning work in this fashion, companies are ensuring that at any given time, a task is being placed on the back burner. This allows inventory to pile up between processes, and even as finished goods that are waiting to be sold to a customer.
“If you want to be able to see inventory like you do on the factory floor, you must make the lists, in-boxes, resource assignments and project pipelines visible in your workspace,” Business Wisdom Within adds.
Overproduction is when you create more parts, items, or work than is necessary. In other settings, it could be making too many lunches for school children or creating more brochures than necessary. Every action has a direct cost associated with it, and by exceeding that necessary limit, companies are wasting valued resources.
By identifying these four wastes at your company, you can set yourself on a path to eliminate them.