Ask Yourself: Value-Added or Waste?

This week, let's talk a little about waste. This word conjures different ideas in different circumstances, but for the purpose of this discussion, waste is defined as anything that doesn't add value to the end product. I'd like to focus on how eliminating waste in business can add up to big savings. MindTools lists 8 kinds of waste found in manufacturing and helps to apply them to other kinds of business.

Business: Potential Waste in the Process? What others can you think of in your work?

1. Overproduction: Are you providing more information or doing more research than is required? Do you spend unnecessary time formatting or running reports? 

2. Waiting: Do you spend too much time waiting for others to complete their work before you can do your part to add to it? 

3. Inventory (Work in Progress): Does your business process encourage "work in progress" to be left for completion at a later date? Do you have inventory with dust on it? 

4. Transportation: Could you combine deliveries or deliver things more quickly? 

5. Over processing: Do you unnecessarily work on things more than once? Are you having too many meetings about the same topic? 

6. Motion: In a team effort, how is the work passed from one member to another? Does everyone understand their role? Do people move between tasks efficiently? 

7. Defects: How often do you make or find mistakes? Do the same mistakes happen regularly? 

8. Workforce: Do YOU use your time wisely? Do you dedicate most of your time to activities that add value and are a high priority within the business?

Once you inventory these functions as they apply in your work, it makes sense to give priority to simple but effective changes. One of my favorite jokes, author unknown, uses this example to prove that it doesn't take a team of scientists or engineers to fix every problem and sometimes the answer is right in front of you, if you pause long enough to see it.

A CEO of a manufacturing facility is faced with a problem. His packaging machines have over a 10% failure rate and as a result his company is shipping empty boxes to their customers at an alarming rate, which is damaging their reputation as a vendor and threatening their relationships. They bring in an engineering company that, at a cost of over 5 million dollars, designs and implements a system that includes a scale in the production line that weighs the cartons as they pass, and if the carton doesn't weigh correctly, completely shuts down the line. A line worker then must then walk over, remove the empty carton, and manually restart the line. The system is implemented and after a few snags, the system is up and running. A couple of months pass and the CEO checks their error rates and sees that the new design system has a 0% failure rate - a statistical impossibility. He consults with department heads to find out the source of the information only to find out that the numbers are in fact correct. So he heads down to the packaging line to investigate further. Upon arrival, he sees someone has placed a fan on top of a chair and pointed it at the line - blowing the empty cartons off the line. He asks who did this, and one of the line workers admitted that he had done it because he got tired of walking over to remove the empty cartons and restarting the line.

Another humorous example, well suited to this discussion, shows how the vantage point of each member of the business team may detract somewhat from the overall purpose. Take special note of the last bullet.

Pessimist – the glass is half empty
Optimist – the glass is half full
Economist – this may be a good economic indicator or bad economic indicator
Accountant – go out and count it each month
Marketing Manager – it should have scotch in it
Sales Manager – this is the best hydrating water available, filtered by nature in an easy pour, see through container and its diet too
Customer Service Rep – we can ship half now and the other half is on back-order
Scheduler using ERP – you have to wait until we run the report to tell you what to do
Production Manager – fill it all the way up and add 10% more and go fill five more glasses while we can
Production Supervisor – can I drink it? It’s hot in here
Water-filler Operator – I’ll fill it to whatever level you want
Purchasing Manager – fill it all the way up with the cheapest water we can find
Inventory Control – when the new water comes in, make sure we maintain First-in, First-out (FIFO) integrity
Logistics Manager – I can’t ship a half full glass of water; that will cost too much. Wait until it is full
Quality Control – it is a clear, odorless liquid that we will run three hours of tests on
Safety Manager – where’s the MSDS?
Consultant – it is a glass that is half-filled with water
Scientist – it is a full glass with half water and half filled with air
Research & Development – we have H2O molecules that have thousands of uses
Lean Champion – the glass is twice as big as it needs to be
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