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Manufacturers should evaluate processes to reduce hidden causes of waste.
aste, in lean terms, is any activity that does not add value to the product while costing a manufacturer money and resources. From active losses to missed opportunities, these wastes are so common in manufacturing operations that they are often overlooked. The different types of waste can be identified by their symptoms, as defined by the late Taiichi Ohno, the chief engineer at Toyota who was the architect of the Toyota Production System.
The original seven wastes, or muda, are transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing and defects. These are often referred to by the acronym "TIMWOOD." An eighth waste of underutilizing the talent or skills of workers was introduced in the 1990s when the Toyota Production System was adopted in the Western world. As a result, the eight wastes are commonly referred to as "TIMWOODS."
When manufacturers are able to identify the seven wastes, they can correct and prevent further loss of time, money and other resources.
Transportation
Any multistep production process has its logistical challenges, from transporting and receiving components from suppliers to transferring in-production items from one operational area to another. The longer and more circuitous the transit routes, the more likely they are to generate unnecessary and costly waste.
There is an expense of time, labor and equipment needed to physically move parts and products. In addition, each step in the transportation cycle follows its own discrete set of handling processes, which can increase the risk of delay, damage or theft. Manufacturers with long, complex material handling operations that connect multiple storage locations, remote suppliers, and distant factories must build in expensive, timeconsuming safeguards to mitigate the many challenges they face.
Even within a facility, moving people, tools, inventory, equipment and products from one functional area to another can be wasteful and hazardous. Poor workflow design and disorderly factory layout create needless gaps between operations. Bridging those gaps often means workers must lift and carry product or use mechanical transport, both of which can increase the danger of product damage or personal injury. When processes are not located as close to each other as possible or are not arranged in a logical operational sequence, people and products are forced to...