How Wasteful is Your Workplace?

All workplaces experience Waste. Waste is any operation consuming money, time, room, energy, without adding value to the product and service bought by the customer. Whilst wasteful activities may vary from business to business, Lean theory describes 8 Wastes that are common for all sort of industries. Removing these wasteful steps in a process helps to improve overall efficiency in the organisation.

8 Wastes of Lean

There are 8 different forms of waste recognised in Lean thinking. Lean aims to reduce the 8 wastes. Waste comes in many forms and are part of most processes. They must be reduced or minimised. You can remember the 8 wastes through the acronym WOODMITS:

W – Waiting – Work is unable to progress because of waiting for people, relevant equipment or information
O – Overproduction – Making more than is required, or earlier than needed by the next process
O – Overprocessing – Performing unnecessary process steps that add no value from the customer perspective  
D – Defects – Something that can go wrong and does go wrong is a Defect  
M – Motion – The unnecessary motion of people around their work area  
I – Inventory – Too much work in progress and stock, excessive build-up of work between processes  
T – Transport – The unnecessary time spent transporting work, relevant equipment or patients in a given process  
S – Spaces and Skills – Inefficient use of space due to lack of storage or lack of design / ineffective utilisation of depth of skills, talent or resources

Download our Free A3 infographic which will help you determine how wasteful your workplace may be.

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