1. Overproduction is the act of making more product than necessary and completing it faster than necessary and before it is needed. Overproduced ­ product takes up floor space, requires handling and storage, and could result in potential quality problems if the lot contains defects.

2. Overprocessing is the practice of extra steps, rechecking, reverifying, and outperforming work. Overprocessing is often conducted in fabrication ­ departments when sanding, deburring, cleaning, or polishing is overperformed. Machines can also overprocess when they are not properly maintained and simply take more time to produce quality parts.

3. Waiting occurs when important information, tools, and supplies are not ­ readily available, causing machines and people to be idle. Imbalances in workloads and cycle times between processes can also cause waiting.

4. Motion is the movement of people in and around the work area to look for tools, parts, information, people, and all necessary items that are not available. If a process contains a high level of motion, lead time increases, and the focus on quality begins to decrease. All necessary items should be organized and placed at the point of use so the worker can focus on the work at hand.

5. Transportation is the movement of parts and product throughout the facility. Often requiring a forklift, hand truck, or pallet jack, transportation exists when consuming processes are far away from each other and are not visible.

6. Inventory is a waste when manufacturers tie up too much money by holding excessive levels of raw, work-in-process, and finished goods inventory.

7. Defects are any quality metric that causes rework, scrap, warranty claims, and rework hours from mistakes made in the factory.

8. Wasted human potential is the act of not properly utilizing employees to the best of their abilities. People are only as successful as the process they are given to work in. If a process inherently has motion, transportation, overprocessing, overproduction, periods of waiting, and defect creation, then that is exactly what involves people. That is wasted human potential.

Summary:

Lean and visual factory can help you reduce these eight wastes and by doing so will create a much more productive and profitable company for all.