Eliminating waste is an important part of process improvement and cost reduction.
To gain skills in process improvement using Lean, participate in Lean Process Improvement Training Course from pdtraining in Wellington, Auckland and other cities.
Organisations that know which areas to target for reduction/elimination of waste and acceleration of growth saves effort, time and money. The eight areas of waste that need to be looked into by organisations for elimination of waste include:
- Underutilisation of Talent
- Excessive Use of Inventory
- Unnecessary Movement of Human Resources
- Wastage of Time
- Unnecessary Transportation
- Wastage of Efforts Due to Errors
- Overproduction
- Over-Processing
Organisations that target wastage in these areas save reduce costs substantially, saving money and improving processes.
1. Underutilisation of Talent
Utilising the skills, talents and knowledge of human resources is indispensable for business growth. Organisations that provide the right opportunities for employees to showcase their talent encourage them to perform better. Creating an environment where employees can improve themselves and encourage others to better their performance is important. This improves productivity, encourages excellence, and enhances the quality of products and services.
2. Excessive Use of Inventory
Processes that use excessive inventory, can be eliminated without affecting the customer value should be removed. Use of excessive materials used in various business processes that do not add value to the product or service can be removed to save costs, reduce wastage of efforts, resources and time, and minimise storage.
3. Unnecessary Movement of Human Resources
Reduce the unnecessary staff movements during a process. Movements which do not improve the process, enhance the end product or service, or add value can be eliminated as wastage. Unnecessary movement of people lead to wastage of time, effort and money. Processes that have excessive movement of human resources can be reviewed and analysed with the aim to make the processes faster and more efficient by removing excesses.
4. Wastage of Time
Many organisations ignore time gaps between processes. Time wasted between processes where workers need to wait and move from one process to another not only wastes time, but also effort and resources. Eliminating the wastage of time reduces costs, improves efficiency of processes including making them faster.
5. Unnecessary Transportation
Unnecessary Transportation is the process of eliminating movement of products and materials from one place to another without affecting the resulting product or service. Unnecessary transportation means wastage of human resources, fuel and time, which can easily be eliminated, this will lead to the reduction of costs, making business perform more effectively and efficiently.
6. Wastage of efforts due to errors
Errors that cause wastage of time and resources can be eliminated through effective planning, analysis, investigation and rectification. If errors are predicted and corrected before they cause damage, the efficiency of processes can be improved tremendously. Incorrect information, false analysis and errors in judgment can be removed to eliminate wastage.
7. Overproduction
Excess production when it is not needed or before it is needed can lead to colossal wastage of resources, effort and time. Production processes must be reviewed to keep them in tune with the demand.
8. Over-Processing
When the end product or service is of a quality that is beyond the expectation of customers, it requires excessive use of resources leading to higher costs of production. Organisations can reduce costs and provide value to customers by eliminating over-processing.
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All public Lean Process Improvement Training courses include am/pm tea, lunch, printed courseware and a certificate of completion. Customised courses are available upon request so please contact pdtraining on 1300 121 400 to learn more.