From the course: Lean Six Sigma for a Sustainable Future

Lean Six Sigma and waste reduction

From the course: Lean Six Sigma for a Sustainable Future

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Lean Six Sigma and waste reduction

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- The founder of Toyota said, "Every defect is a treasure, if the company can uncover its cause and then work to prevent it across the corporation." The lesson that is conveyed by this insightful quote is that the elimination of waste in the production system can translate to a valuable treasure for the entire organization. Lean focuses on eight main types of waste. We use the acronym DOWNTIME to explain the waste. D is for defects. This could be waste created by rework, scrap, or incorrect information. Overproduction is the O. This straightforward example of waste is any production that exceeds what is needed. Waiting is the time wasted waiting for the next step in a process. Non-utilized people, this type of waste is simply underutilizing people's talents, skills, and knowledge. Transportation, this category of waste describes the unnecessary movements of products and materials. Inventory, this includes any excess product or materials. Then there's motion. This category of waste focuses on the motion of people. Are there unnecessary movements made by people in the course of creating your product or service? Excessive processing, is there more work or a higher level of quality than is required by the customer? Many of these categories are easy to apply to manufacturing, but they are just as relevant to teams that design products and services. A team working with Excel spreadsheets can demonstrate these types of waste just as easily as a manufacturing line. Defects can be found when people spell words incorrectly or mistype figures in a Word or Excel document. Overproduction can happen in spreadsheets where multiple people are doing the same things. Overprocessing waste can occur in spreadsheets where you need to look in multiple places to get information. Think about waiting. How long does it take you to get frustrated every time you open a document and it says it is waiting on the protection and enablement? The wastes are endless, and that is just in a spreadsheet. The eight types of waste described in DOWNTIME should be looked for and ultimately removed.

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