The Eight Wastes

Identify the 8 Wastes existing in any process

The 7 Wastes (MUDA)

I can here you asking yourself, what is he on about? This is supposed to be about the 8 wastes and he starts off talking about 7. Well dear reader, don't despair all will be revealed.

Originally it was developed by Taiichi Ohno, the Chief Engineer at Toyota.

MUDA, or the seven wastes, apply in equal measure to both the manufacturing and the service sector of the economy.

The approach is geared to increasing productivity by reducing the wastes that result in reduced profits and / or loss of competitiveness.

The discipline describes the main forms of waste so that each can be examined, and if they exist, they can be addressed and removed.

In short it is a technique that makes the areas of potential waste much more visible.

The original seven identified wastes were as follows:

Overproduction
Waiting
Transporting
Over Processing
Unnecessary Inventory
Unnecessary Motion
Defects (or errors)

The Classic 8 Waste Categories

Ohno originally only identified 7 wastes, however since then there has been extensive and significant debate around the issue, and many new potential forms of waste have been identified (most of which seem to simply be extensions of or reiterations of the original).

I personally believe that we should search for the 8 classic waste categories, which, to a greater or lesser degree, will all be visible within any process which we perform, as follows:

Defects
Overproduction
Waiting
Non utilised skills
Transfer / Transport
Inventory
Motion
Excess Processing

Lean, at its core is about the systematic and continuous identification and elimination of waste which will ultimately reduce our D O W N T I M E.

Jargon Buster

GEMBA: " Actual Place" or the place where all the real action occurs, that is where products or services are performed. This is where any transformational activity takes place.

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