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In lean manufacturing, “waste” is defined as anything that doesn’t add value to a product.
“Value” in manufacturing is defined as anything that a customer would be willing to pay for.
So, waste is any cost incurred in a process that does not benefit the customer. Lean
manufacturing is centered around eliminating waste from manufacturing processes.
Lean practitioners commonly agree on 7 wastes (or muda, as they are referred to in the Toyota
Production System):
1. Transport
2. Inventory
3. Motion
4. Waiting
5. Overproduction
6. Overprocessing
7. Defects
These wastes were defined by Taiichi Ohno, father of the TPS. Some practitioners include an 8th
waste, unutilized talent. While the first 7 wastes are directly related to manufacturing processes,
the waste of unutilized talent is specific to manufacturing management.
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Eliminating the 8 wastes from a manufacturing value stream is the core of lean manufacturing.
Lean manufacturers should focus on building processes that make these wastes obvious so that
they can be addressed—and improvements can be made—immediately.
There are many tools and techniques within lean manufacturing that aim to reduce and
eliminate waste. Check out our guides to kaizen and gemba walks to learn more about
some of these techniques.
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