8 Wastes – What is it?

A method of categorising activities or Types of

Work that do not add value during the production
process. These activities are known as Waste.

Types of Work

Any process that changes the nature, shape or

Value Adding characteristics of the product, in line with customer
requirements

Non-Value Non-Value Adding, but unavoidable with current

Adding, but technology or methods.
unavoidable Any work carried out that does not increase product value.

All other meaningless, non-essential activities that do not

Waste
add value to the product you can eliminate immediately

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 Why Use 8 Wastes?

Discuss the benefits of using 8 Wastes

Safety: Reduces risks through minimising inventory, human movement, transport and
product processing

Quality: Seeks to eliminate defects and associated scrap or rework

Delivery: Improves flow through the business and optimises inventory levels

Cost: Profitability improved through elimination of wasteful activities, cash released by

reducing lead times and stopping over productions

People: Seeks to eliminate the underutilisation of human potential

Discuss the reasons for applying 8 Wastes in your organisation

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 8 Wastes – Purpose & Focus

The purpose is to identify and eliminate waste – so that products flow through the business.

Traditional
Improvement Focus Lean Principles Focus
• Work longer/harder/faster • Improve the Value Stream through eliminating Waste
• Add people or equipment

ValueAdd Waste

LEAD TIME

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 8 Wastes - Categories
95%

There are 8 key Categories of waste:

• Transportation
• Inventory Over Production

• M otion

• People (Creativity / Intellect)

Defects / Rework
Over Processing

• Waiting
• Over Production
• Over Processing
• Defects / Rework

Typically, less than 5% of activity is value-adding.

< 5%

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 8 Wastes of Production

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 8 Wastes - Transportation

Transportation of work-in-
progress or finished goods:

• Internal travel between

work stations
• Travel between business
units
• Travel between sites.

Transportation waste is based on

the following root causes:

• Poor factory layout

• Poor process planning with

unnecessary steps

• Wrongly aligned process flow

Insufficient communication tools

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 8 Wastes - Inventory

Inventory includes:

• Stock of raw material in stores

• Work-in-progress or
semi completed
products
• Finished goods without a
customer order

Root causes include:

• Overproduction
• Buffer exceeds need
• Lack of proper monitoring
systems
• Production speed not aligned to
demand
• Suppliers are not reliable
• Long set-up times

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 8 Wastes - Motion

Motion:

• Movement (people or
machinery) to pick, place, or
remove items affecting time
• Excessive or repetitive
movements may lead to a
safety issue

Root causes for motion waste

include:
• Poor factory and production line
layout
• Sharing of machines and tools
• Processes are not aligned and
result in motion overhead
• Work standards are not in place

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 8 Wastes - People

‘People’ Waste: Non Utilized Talent

• Not tapping into, and following

up on the ideas and thoughts of
the employees
• Underutilisation of human
potential

Not-utilizing talent typically occurs with:

• Assign employees to wrong tasks

• Tedious administrative work
• Lack of communication and
communication tools
• Poor management
• Inadequate training
• Missing teamwork

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 8 Wastes - Waiting

A process may have

stopped and be waiting
for:

• Equipment or tools
• Material deliveries
• Support to resolve
issues
• People to complete
the task

Also, people waiting for a

machine to complete its
cycle.

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 8 Wastes - Waiting

Root causes for waiting times can be:

 Unplanned machine downtime

 Long set-up and machine changeover times
 Inadequate staffing
 Absence from work
 Poor planning and process documentation
 Lack of communication tools

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 8 Wastes – Over Production

Over producing:

• Making anything more

than the customer requires

Over production is a
multiplier of the other 7
wastes

Root causes for overproduction

usually include:

• Just-in-case production
• Weak planning
• Long-setup and machine
changeover times

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 8 Wastes – Over Processing

Over processing:

• Anything more than is

needed to meet customer
requirement
• Performing an activity
that the customer is not
willing to pay for

Root causes include:

• Poorly designed processes

• Lack of standards
• Lack of communication and
proper communication tools
• Human error

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 8 Wastes – Defects (Scrap / Rework)

Defective work or product leading

to:

• Rework or repair

• Scrap and remake

Root causes for defects usually

include:

• The lack of sufficient quality

control processes
• Missing repair and documentation
standards
• Undocumented design changes
• Misunderstood customer
requirements

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 Who?

The team members involved include:

• Operations team members to be aware of and highlight wastes

• Operations leaders to identify and effectively manage the reduction

of wastes in their areas

• Manufacturing or production engineers to support identification of

wastes and facilitate improvements

• Quality to identify and lead problem solving of issues causing

defects, also to interpret the minimum standard required by the
customer

• Production planning to manage inventory and avoid

overproduction

• HR to minimise people waste through effective PDR processes and

deployment of skills matrices and training plans

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 Summary

There are 3 types of work:

• Activities that add value
• Activities that are non-value adding, but necessary
• Waste
There are 8 categories of waste (DOWNTIME)
• Defects / Rework
• Over Production
• Waiting
• Non Utilized People Talent (Creativity / Intellect)

• Transportation
• Inventory
• Motion
• Extra or Over Processing

Eliminating waste improves safety, quality, delivery and

profitability whilst maximising the potential of personnel

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