flevyblog

Flevy Blog is an online business magazine covering Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGY, MARKETING, SALES OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANIZATION & CHANGE IT/MIS Other

Dump the Waste!

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, The 8 Deadly Lean Wastes (114-slide PowerPoint presentation). To kickstart a Lean initiative, it's crucial that all employees can spot the eight types of waste, known as "muda" in Japanese. Recognizing waste is the first step in eliminating it. This helps you choose the right Lean methods (like 5S and TPM) for a more efficient organization [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Process Improvement, take a look at Flevy's Process Improvement Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

Sharpen your Competitive Edge by Eliminating Non-Value-Added Activities in your Organization.

Recession or boom, companies need to sharpen their competitive edge by applying Lean Management principles to cost reduction – that is, the elimination of non-value-added activities or waste from the value stream processes. 

Be Lean

In the Lean Management philosophy, all activities in an organization are grouped into two categories:

  • value-added (VA) activities, and
  • non-value-added (NVA) activities.

In the context of Lean Management, VA and NVA activities are viewed from the customer perspective. 

VA activities are those that bring higher value to products and services. Examples are answering customer queries, entering orders, ordering materials, laying foundation, creating codes, assembling parts, shipping of goods to customers, etc. 

Customers are willing to pay for these improvements which can change the form, fit or function of a product or service.

On the other hand, NVA activities are tasks that do not increase market form or function. 

Examples are filing, copying, recording, waiting, counting, checking, inspecting, testing, reviewing and obtaining approvals. These activities should be eliminated, simplified or reduced as much as possible.

By tackling waste from an end-to-end business process, not only can your company improve the value of its products and services, you can also achieve significant cost reduction, strengthen cash flow and emerge from the downturn with a stronger and more competitive profile.

Eight Types of Waste 

There are eight types of waste in a manufacturing environment.

Eight Types of Waste


Studies have shown that in a typical organization, some 90% or more of all activities fall into the NVA bucket.

Although the explanations and examples provided below may be more relevant for manufacturing industries, the concepts can be universally applied to service industries as well.

The eight types of waste are:

  1. Waiting – This is the idle time resulting from waiting for materials and information, email queues from customers, delayed shipments, lot processing delays, capacity bottlenecks, unbalanced workload, long setup times, equipment or system downtime and so on.
  2. Over-Processing – This results from unnecessary procedures due to undefined customer requirements, lack of effective communication, product changes without process changes, redundant approvals, making extra copies and excessive reporting.
  3. Defects – These are errors, mistakes, scrap, rework, replacements, re-inspection and re-testing. The causes are incorrect data entries, poor quality, weak process control, inadequate training, deficient planned maintenance and customer needs that were not understood.
  4. Excess Motion – Refers to any movement of people or machine that does not add value to the product or service. Common causes are poor plant or office layout, double handling, inconsistent work methods and poor workplace organization.
  5. Transportation – This refers to the transporting of parts, materials and files or documents around the plant or office. The causes are poor plant or office layout, widely spaced equipment and workstations and poor understanding of the process flow.
  6. Over-Production – This happens when you make too much, too early and faster than is required by the next process. The causes include unclear goals, excessive lead times, and outdated forecasts. Tip: You should reduce your batch size to match the rate of demand. Produce exactly to customer demand, not more.
  7. Excess Inventory – This happens when you have more inventory than is needed for a job. It is important to tackle excess inventory as it has a huge impact on cash flow. Tip: Review your materials purchasing strategy – where can you buy them at a cheaper price, in smaller amounts and can be delivered to you more frequently?
  8. Intellect – This refers to noutilizing the time and talents of people.Examples are not engaging or listening to employees in finding solutions; lack of information or best practice sharing across the organization; mismatched work functions with skill sets​.

Eliminate the Waste

The ability to find waste in your organization is the first step towards their elimination. 

The next step is to set up problem solving teams and enable them to reduce or eliminate the waste. A common problem solving technique is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach.

Involve your employees in problem solving or process improvement. If they know that they are an active part of the solution, they can identify sources of waste or savings that you might not be aware of. 

Do note that not all waste is of equal importance. You will need to identify the “right waste”– those that have the greatest impact on the business case or bottom line.

Continuous Process

For waste elimination to be successful and sustainable, an organization’s senior executives need to adopt a mindset that cutting waste to cut costs is an on-going journey of continuous improvement. 

It has to be a collaborative effort between management and employees. 

A common mistake for senior executives to avoid is to treat waste elimination as another one-off “tool” or quick fix. 

It is essential to manage waste elimination as a strategic change initiative that is aligned to the organization’s purpose, encompassing both people and process transformations.

79-slide PowerPoint presentation
This presentation is a collection of specific examples of the eight wastes of Lean, organized according to industry or function. They include: Manufacturing, Product Development, Healthcare, Financial Services, IT Services, Government (Public Sector) and Office (Administrative [read more]

Want to Achieve Excellence in Process Improvement?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Process Improvement. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

Process Improvement involves analyzing and improving existing business processes in the pursuit of optimized performance. The goals are typically to continuously reduce costs, minimize errors, eliminate waste, improve productivity, and streamline activities.

As we continue to deal with COVID-19 and its economic aftermath, most organizations will prioritize Business Process Improvement initiatives. This is true for a few reasons. First, Process Improvement is one of the most common and effective ways of reducing costs. As the global economy slows down, Cost Management will jump to the forefront of most corporate agendas.

Secondly, a downturn typically unveils ineffective and broken business processes. Organizations that once seemed agile and focused during periods of growth may become sluggish and inefficient when demand drops off.

Lastly, COVID-19 has expedited Digital Transformation for most organizations. One of the quickest and most impactful forms of Digital Transformation is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Thus, we have included numerous RPA frameworks within this Stream.

Learn about our Process Improvement Best Practice Frameworks here.

Readers of This Article Are Interested in These Resources


178-slide PowerPoint presentation
Many organizations have jumped onto the Lean bandwagon to eliminate waste with the aim of creating customer value, improving quality, reducing costs and shortening lead time. To eliminate waste, we must first find or discover them. However, for many people who have become so used to their [read more]


 
5-page PDF document
 
 
5-page PDF document

About Allan Ung

Allan Ung is a management consultant at Operational Excellence Consulting, a consultancy that focuses on maximizing customer value and minimizing wastes through Lean Management. He is also a seller at Flevy. View his documents here: OEConsulting.

, , , , , ,



Complimentary Business Training Guides


Many companies develop robust strategies, but struggle with operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps. This presentation from flevy introduces 12 powerful business frameworks spanning both Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. [Learn more]

  This 48-page whitepaper, authored by consultancy Envisioning, provides the frameworks, tools, and insights needed to manage serious Change—under the backdrop of the business lifecycle. These lifecycle stages are each marked by distinct attributes, challenges, and behaviors. [Learn more]

We've developed a very comprehensive collection of Strategy & Transformation PowerPoint templates for you to use in your own business presentations, spanning topics from Growth Strategy to Brand Development to Innovation to Customer Experience to Strategic Management. [Learn more]

  We have compiled a collection of 10 Lean Six Sigma templates (Excel) and Operational Excellence guides (PowerPoint) by a multitude of LSS experts. These tools cover topics including 8 Disciplines (8D), 5 Why's, 7 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and DMAIC. [Learn more]
Recent Articles by Corporate Function

  

  

  

  

  

The Flevy Business Blog (https://flevy.com/blog) is a leading source of information on business strategies, business theories, and business stories. Most of our articles are authored by management consultants and industry executives with over 20 years of experience.

Flevy (https://flevy.com) is the marketplace for business best practices, such as management frameworks, presentation templates, and financial models. Our best practice documents are of the same caliber as those produced by top-tier consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte) and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Learn more about Flevy here.
  


OUR CORE OFFERINGS
Flevy Marketplace: Top 100
· Strategy & Transformation
· Digital Transformation
· Operational Excellence
· Organization & Change
· Financial Models
· Consulting Frameworks
· PowerPoint Templates
FlevyPro (Subscription Service)
KPI Library
Streams (Functional Bundles)
Flevy Executive Learning (FEL)
PowerPoint Services

FREE Resources

About Flevy
Management Topics
Marcus (AI-Powered Consultant)
Partner Program
LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
FAQ / Terms / Privacy / Blog
Contact Us: support@flevy.com



CONNECT WITH US!
       
TOP 100 TRENDING TOPICS
Acquisition Strategy
Agile
Analytics
Artificial Intelligence
Balanced Scorecard
Best Practices
Big Data
Breakout Strategy
Business Continuity Planning
Business Plan Financial Model
Business Transformation
CMMI
COBIT
Change Management
Cloud
Communications Strategy
Company Financial Model
Competitive Advantage
Competitive Analysis
Consulting Frameworks
Continuous Improvement
Core Competencies
Corporate Culture
Cost Reduction Assessment
Customer Experience

BROWSE BY FUNCTION
Strategy, Transformation, & Innovation
Digital Transformation
Operational Excellence and LSS
Organization, Change, & HR
Management Consulting

Customer Journey
Customer Service
Cyber Security
Data Privacy
Decision Making
Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Strategy
Due Diligence
ESG
Employee Engagement
Employee Training
Enterprise Architecture
Growth Strategy
HR Strategy
Hiring
Hoshin Kanri
ISO 27001
ITIL
Information Technology
Innovation Management
Integrated Financial Model
Kaizen
Kanban
Key Performance Indicators

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Business Strategy Frameworks
Case Studies
Consulting Training Guides
COVID-19 Trend Data
Digital Transformation
Financial Advising Services (FAS)

Knowledge Management
Leadership
Lean
Lean Manufacturing
Logistics
M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions)
Manufacturing
Market Research
Marketing Plan Development
Maturity Model
McKinsey PowerPoint
McKinsey Templates
Operational Excellence
Organizational Change
Organizational Design
Performance Management
Post-merger Integration
Pricing Strategy
Process Improvement
Process Maps
Procurement Strategy
Product Launch Strategy
Product Strategy
Project Management
Quality Management


Free Resources
KPI Library
Lean Management
Lean Six Sigma Training Guides
Marcus Insights
Operational Excellence

Real Estate
Remote Work
Restructuring
Risk Management
Robotic Process Automation
SWOT
SaaS
Sales
Scrum
Service Design
Six Sigma Project
Social Media Strategy
Strategic Planning
Strategic Thinking
Strategy Development
Supply Chain Analysis
Sustainability
Target Operating Model
Team Management
Total Productive Maintenance
Value Chain Analysis
Value Creation
Value Stream Mapping
Visual Workplace
Workplace Safety


Product Strategy
Small Business Owner
Startup Resources
Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning Process
Value Innovation Strategy


© 2012-2024 Copyright. Flevy LLC. All Rights Reserved.