Definition of waste in lean manufacturing perspective

Written By

Laurentiu Balan

The definition of waste in Lean Manufacturing perspective is “any activity that does not add value to the product or service”

Something deep inside of almost every person tells us that it is good to improve. It is better to move forward than it is to move backward. It is better to move faster than slower. Personal contribution to a relentless pursuit of perfection is perhaps the most exhilarating thing that can happen to an individual, followed closely by being recognized for that contribution.

The core idea behind Lean manufacturing is maximizing the customer value while minimizing waste, thereby achieving manufacturing excellence through the creation of more value with fewer resources.

Waste elimination – The goal in Lean

Through the elimination of waste along the entire manufacturing process, rather than in isolated points, companies are able to create processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, less time to produce higher quality and with lower costs than with traditional business systems.

Let’s start with defining what waste in Lean Manufacturing perspective is. The definition of waste in Lean Manufacturing perspective: “any activity that does not add value to the product or service”.

let’s dive deep into it.

What is value

An activity is considered as not adding value to the customer if the customer is not willing to pay more for it.

When you have your processes mapped, you will recognize which activities add value to the end product and which ones do not. Basically, value-adding activities contribute to the transition of a product from its raw to a completed state in the least possible time, at a minimum cost.

For one activity to be considered as value-adding, it needs to meet the following three criteria:

1. It moves the product downstream and helps it get one step closer to completion.
2. It is an activity that the customer would actually be willing to pay for.
3. The activity needs to be done right the first time. In other words, it does not require any rework, and neither you nor the customer should spend additional resources to make it better.

As it is defined, the waste in Lean Manufacturing, can be seen as obstacle which will limit us in business development, if they are not minimized or even eliminated.

How to categorize activities in lean perspective

The components of an activity or of work in general, consist of 3 types:

1. Activities that are adding value to the product or service, from customer’s point of view
2. Indirect  activities – these are not adding value to the product but are necessary
3. Activities that are non adding value are better known as waste

The goal is to maximize the proportion of value-adding time by minimizing or eliminating waste activities. This clear definition of waste is the key that makes the difference between value adding activities and activities that do not add value.

How to deal with waste in lean manufacturing

The activities that do not add value are waste. The key point consists in recognizing them, understanding their reasons, measuring or estimating the size of these wastes, and assessing the impact of improvement activities. From this point is the starting the improvement part: to reduce the wastes.

Production flow needs, from the planning stage, to aim at the achievement of the JIT – Just-In-Time level, by removing fluctuations in the processes. Fluctuations usually happen randomly. A machine breaks. A delivery is late. A customer buys a product (which, in itself, is not bad, but the irregularity in which it happens can cause problems). Other fluctuations are not random and may be, for example, cyclic like seasonality, or even planned like a not-leveled production plan. Any deviation from perfect monotony is a fluctuation. But let’s clarify it: you won’t be able to avoid all fluctuations.

By minimizing or even eliminating fluctuations, the flow will become more linear and constant. In the end, flow will become predictable, output therefore can be planned with certain level of trust that it will be delivered according plan.

The proportion of value adding activities will increase, the problems will become more visible and reaction time to solve them will become shorter. Eliminating waste is one of the most effective methods to increase the profitability of any business.  

Lean and MUDA

The 7 wastes were initially defined in the Toyota Production System and their identification originates in Japan, along with many other tools used in Lean Manufacturing. Japanese translation of the word “waste” is MUDA.

MUDA classification has been made by Toyota engineers Taiichi Ohno, and underlies the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. To eliminate waste, it is very important to understand what waste is, the types of waste and when and where we can encounter them.

Muda is waste, there are two more concepts which is said along with muda to achieve lean manufacturing muri and mura. Learn More

Lets continue…

Even if products are various from factory to factory, from company to company, the types of wastes are standard and we can find them in any company. For each type of waste, a strategy must be found in order to reduce or even eliminate the negative impact on the company and having as a result an improvement in the performance and quality.

At first glance, eliminating wastes from processes may seem simple and clear but in fact it is not so, mainly due to the conservative way of looking at them. The consequence of this approach is the decrease of the potential of eliminating the waste from the processes.

Eliminating waste from processes is the main goal in Lean manufacturing.

Find out more about wastes in lean in coming posts. Stay tuned.

Laurentiu Balan @laurentiubalan

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