Seven Fatal Sins Of Waste |
Posted: May 30, 2019 |
You might not see a mountain of garbage but waste is more than the things in our trash bins. They not only limit our resources but also rob us of productive time. Here are some ways we can take back our precious resources. In this article, managers get valuable insight about managing waste and avoiding the loss of important resources. Devised by Taiichi Ohnos, lean manufacturers follow the principles of Six Sigma to manage waste. Waste are elements that have no incremental contribution to consumer satisfaction. The seven fatal sins of waste are: (1) defects, (2) overproduction, (3) waiting, (4) transportation, (5) inventory, (6) movement, and (7) processing. Defects lead to useless or less useful output. These errors in production cost us our precious resources and cost us even more to repair or replace. Oftentimes, defects are due to inadequate resources or materials, poor quality monitoring, and unclear process mapping. Developing a standardized quality monitoring system helps prevents defects. Building employee competence up to the standards also prevent occurrence of defects. Overproduction is often the quiet waste and sometimes goes by without awareness of the industry. It might even be mistaken as a strength thinking that a company that produces a lot is just super-productive. Managers might even perceive it as having “buffer stock” for cases of last-minute requests. The costs of overproduction include undesirable extra mileage for machinery and costs of storing and warehousing. Unnecessary losses might also be incurred for overproduce that are sold at discounted prices or simply written off as loss. Overproduction is often due to producing more than the demand or producing faster than required by the customer. Solutions for overproduction could include “just-in-time” and “just-enough” production systems. Waiting often results to unhappy customers due to delayed deliveries, unproductive workers, or idle equipment. Often, this is a product of poor communication or lack of synchrony among the different units of production. It can be solved using business process management that enables mapping and case-load planning of production units. Transportation waste is more than just the idle travel time but could also include the movement between people and information. Optimized input-output process ensures that time spent for a particular segment is not wasteful and that sequence of the process is carefully planned. Similar to overproduction, inventory waste refers to non-moving assets and products of the company. This is one of the most common wastes because it is often confused as something that is positive. However, shorter turnaround time is in fact more beneficial than storing stock. Movement is the wasteful motion of processes and people. This can be problem in space and ergonomics (e.g. having to go to a different for raw materials which causes an extra step system). Standardizing operations, streamlining processes, and building competence are all solutions to wasteful movements. Fortunately, these seven fatal sins of waste is not unpardonable. Using the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology of Rever Cycle, managers can examine and reduce waste in their companies bringing about flourishing of people and resources. If you want to know more about wastes, read the article on the 7 wastes here.
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