The 7 Wastes of Production

Taiichi Ohno defined the 7 types of waste that describe all activity that adds cost but not value. In a Lean Enterprise these 7 types of “Muda” are the target of an endless pursuit of waste elimination. Learning to see “Muda” all around you is the key to starting out on your journey of transforming your organization into a Lean Enterprise.

The 7 Wastes – “Muda”

Definition

Examples

Causes

Countermeasures

Over-|production

Producing more than the customer needs right now

Producing product to stock based on sales forecasts

Producing more to avoid set-ups

Batch process resulting in extra output

Forecasting

Long set-ups

“Just in case” for breakdowns

Pull system scheduling

Heijunka – level loading

Set-up reduction

TPM

Trans-
portation

Movement of product that does not add value

Moving parts in and out of storage

Moving material from one workstation to another

Batch production

Push production

Storage

Functional layout

Flow lines

Pull system

Value Stream organizations

Kanban

Motion

Movement of people that does not add value

Searching for parts, tools, prints, etc.

Sorting through materials

Reaching for tools

Lifting boxes of parts

Workplace disorganization

Missing items

Poor workstation design

Unsafe work area

5S

Point of Use Storage

Water Spider

One-piece flow

Workstation design

Waiting

Idle time created when material, information, people, or equipment is not ready

 

Waiting for parts

Waiting for prints

Waiting for inspection

Waiting for machines

Waiting for information

Waiting for machine repair

Push production

Work imbalance

Centralized inspection

Order entry delays

Lack of priority

Lack of communication

Downstream pull

Takt time production

In-process gauging

Jidoka

Office Kaizen

TPM

Processing

Effort that adds no value from the customer’s viewpoint

Multiple cleaning of parts

Paperwork

Over-tight tolerances

Awkward tool or part design

Delay between processing

Push system

Customer voice not understood

Designs “thrown over the wall”

Flow lines

One-piece pull

Office Kaizen

3P

Lean Design

Inventory

More materials, parts, or products on hand than the customer needs right now

Raw materials

Work in process

Finished goods

Consumable supplies

Purchased components

Supplier lead-times

Lack of flow

Long set-ups

Long lead-times

Paperwork in process

Lack of ordering procedure

External kanban

Supplier development

One-piece flow lines

Set-up reduction

Internal kanban

Defects

Work that contains errors, rework, mistakes or lacks something necessary

Scrap

Rework

Defects

Correction

Field failure

Variation

Missing parts

Process failure

Mis-loaded part

Batch process

Inspect-in quality

Incapable machines

GembaSigma

Pokayoke

One-piece pull

Built-in quality

3P

Jidoka