WASTE ELIMINATION - Part 2

In part one we have seen the cause , effect and solutions on Transportation and Inventory wastes , in this post we are going to look in to some more wastes.

Motion :

Cause :

 As we have seen in my previous post the Transportation waste which deals with movement between processes, Motion is similar to transportation but it’s within a process, it may be between two machines or two work stations or between two departments. It’s a common waste both in manufacturing as well as service industry.

In manufacturing, motion is easy to see.  It occurs when a material, tool or person moves.  The shorter the movement, the faster the process will be and the more efficient the process.  Some activities naturally have large amounts of motion built into them.  For example, a warehouse pick operation requires an employee to visit different locations to fill orders.  If the worker visits locations randomly, the motion between pick locations can be huge.  If the pick routing is optimized, the worker will always move to the next closest pick location.  (Note: Some may consider this movement transportation instead of motion since the worker is travelling between operations.  For this example, the warehouse is defined as the work centre and the movement is defined as motion within the process.  Either view could be considered correct.)

In an office environment, motion is more subtle.  Work is often completed with a computer.  The motion isn’t a physical motion.  Instead, the worker must navigate complex file structures and computer programs that make it difficult to complete basic activities. Motion is typically a result of the physical design of a system.  Some architectures place essential elements far apart, requiring a machine or person to move between the locations.  In some cases, this is a result of efforts to make a process safe.  For example, an operator may be required to leave an area before cycling a machine so that the machine doesn't impact the operator.  In other cases, the designer didn't adequately consider motion when setting up the process.

In an office, motion can occur in a number of ways.  It can result for the organization of files and materials on a desk.  It can result for the computer file structure.  It can be due to a program with an unnecessarily complex navigation and interface.  The design of technology often creates added navigation as important information is stored in different places.

Effect :

Motion is the main reason for slowing processes, increasing worker fatigue and increasing wear and tear on equipment.  Motion also creates safety hazards as greater movement of equipment risks impacting workers, and greater worker movement can lead to increases in strains and other injuries.

In an office environment, motion slows work and increases frustration levels.  The amount of time spent jumping back and forth between programs can be substantial.  This motion adds no value, but slows the employee and causes the employee to have to stop and start their work repeatedly.

Possible Solutions:

If Motion waste has to reduce there is a requirement o designing machines and work stations to suite one piece flow which minimizes the movement of people working on that job.  

This often requires layout changes and is typically an early step in the adoption of lean.  One important element in reducing motion is ensuring that tools are available where they are needed.  This makes 5S a great program for reducing motion waste.  Tools and other essential materials are positioned for optimal placement and minimal motion.  All non-essential items are removed from an area.  The result is a work cell that is more productive with much less motion.

In an office environment, eliminating motion can be accomplished a number of different ways.  One of the easiest is through training.  Every computer program comes with shortcut key combinations that will speed productivity.  Most people know at hitting Alt-Tab on a Windows computer will change windows, or that Ctrl-C will copy text and Ctrl-V will paste it.  There are hundreds of shortcuts that can speed productivity and reduce motion.

Another step that improves productivity and reduces motion is changing the monitors employees use.  A study by NEC found large monitors or dual monitors greatly improves worker productivity.  With text editing tasks, workers completed 8-hours of work in 5.5 hours when switched they from a conventional 20” monitor to a 24” wide screen monitor.  Workers with spreadsheet tasks had similar gains when switching from a single 20” monitor to dual 20” monitors.  This means buying four employees a new monitor would yield as much additional productivity as would be gained by hiring another employee.

Redesigning computer programs and directory structures can also yield substantial results.  Many companies have adopted strategies to improve the usability of their systems with tools such as information dashboards.  These tools present information from a variety of sources on a single screen so an employee can quickly review and assess an entire process or project.  Tools like this greatly reduce the motion wasted by employees switching screens and looking up information.

Waiting :

Cause :

The most easy to recognise waste in any business entity is Waiting waste which is one of the most important waste in 8 Deadly Waste at manufacturing.

Eliminating time spent waiting has been a focus of manufacturing improvement activities since the industrial age started.  The motivation to eliminate wait time has been the driving force behind many of the other wastes.  For example, to eliminate any chance of an employee waiting, large queues of WIP would be accumulated throughout the production process.  Reducing wait time is an essential objective and important component of lean, but it is just one of the seven wastes.

When people think of wait time, most picture a worker in front of a machine waiting for material to arrive or for the machine to cycle.  This is one of the common types of wait time, but there are more subtle instances that are every bit as costly.  Wait times are a major challenge in supply chain operations, as companies must wait days or weeks to replenish raw materials.  Wait times also occur in many administrative functions, including the delays in the flow of information or approvals from one department to another, or the delay of waiting for an open position to be filled.

The most basic cause of wait time is an unbalanced process.  When one part of a process runs faster than a previous step, there will be waiting in the process.  Another common cause of waiting is when materials are not available.  This can be due to material handling processes not operating effectively or due to stock outs, as when replenishment inventory is out of stock with production.

The most common causes of wait time are poor communication and poor decision making processes.  When employees do not have sufficient information and are not empowered to make decisions, wait time enters the process.  This cause of wait time is extremely common in administration functions.  The more bureaucratic an organization is, the more wait time due to slow communications and decision making.

Effect :

Waiting is pure waste as a resource goes unused.  This lost opportunity is easy to see, but is only one type of loss due to waiting.  Most companies will not allow workers to sit idly for long periods of time.  Even if the cause of waiting is not resolved, the company will usually seek to resume work.  The effect of waiting is therefore a change in the plan, and resources are deployed to less than ideal uses to avoid wait time.

Forced plan changes resulting from a desire to avoid wait time cause a wide range of the other problems.  One common example is when a raw material is out of stock.  The company cannot produce the product required by the customer.  Instead, the company overproduces the products for which raw materials are available.

Another common effect of wait time is to paralyze decision making.  When information is not available quickly, decisions cannot be made.  Often, this leads to missed opportunities.  By the time the information is available, the opportunity to use the information is no longer open.  Even worse, when information isn’t available and a decision cannot be postponed, people with make less accurate decisions.

Finally, wait time is a primary cause of inefficiency.  Every time an employee has to stop because they lack resources or information, they waste time shifting to other activities.  In today’s office environment, where an employee may work on dozens or hundreds of tasks every day, wait times can bog a person down and destroy productivity.  This type of wait time appears innocuous – a few seconds here, a minute there.  Over the course of a day, it adds up to hours.  Some researchers have estimated that the average office worker is unproductive more than 35%.  Others have estimated that unproductive time is the much more pervasive, with value added time constituting only a small fraction of a worker’s day.

Possible Solutions:

Eliminating wait time is usually a straightforward process once the wait time is identified.  Eliminating bottlenecks is a typical strategy, as this allows for more balanced processes.  When wait time is caused by slow communications and decision making, the company requires structural change.  Systems need to be upgraded to ensure information reaches the people that need it.  The workforce needs to be empowered to make decisions so that individuals do not have to wait for a decision to arrive.

The most subtle causes of wait time are distractions that slow a worker’s productivity.  Eliminating potential distractions is an important step.  Often, the distractions appear to be essential.  For example, many employees set their computers to notify them when a new email arrives.  This notification immediately removes the employee from productive work and places the employee in a wait mode as the employee assesses whether they should act on the email now or later.  Some companies have instituted email-free times, when employees shut down their email programs and focus on a single task.  Tactics like this are common when implementing lean in an office.

Overproduction :

Cause :

Overproduction occurs when a company manufacturers a product before there is a customer demand. Overproduction can occur with individual processes or across the entire value stream. The result of overproduction is excessive inventory, higher capital requirements, high obsolete and excess inventory expense, and additional product damage.

Incentives can create an environment that unintentionally encourages and rewards overproduction. At the corporate level, the accounting policies will often incentives overproduction. This is a result of the way companies account for expenses. Materials, labor and overhead are allocated to finished goods as product is manufactured. This is designed to properly tie expenses to the products that generated the expenses. Because overhead expenses are fixed, when the costs are absorbed does not change the costs. The result of tying absorption to production independent of demand is a system that encourages overproduction.

Make-to-stock systems create overproduction by design. In a make-to-stock system, goods are produced in advance of demand. This is the definition of overproduction.

Forecasting errors will cause overproduction. Organizations that manufacture to a sales forecast instead of actual demand will have errors. The errors will cause too much of some products and too little of other products to be made.

Poor communication from customers can lead to overproduction as information about demand changes is not rapidly communicated to the production planners.

Poor quality can also lead to overproduction. When the quality of a process is unpredictable and uncontrolled, planners will schedule more production than is needed to ensure an adequate number of good parts make it through the process. When process yields are better than average, the number of good parts produced will exceed the plan.

Effect :

The most obvious result of overproduction is an increase in inventory levels. This occurs as the extra production must be stored until it is needed (or disposed of). There are a number of other problems and costs associated with overproduction.

In processes with bottlenecks, any overproduction of an item could result in a capacity or material shortage of another, more urgently needed item.

Overproduction will often increase motion and transportation waste as bigger lot sizes result in less efficient work cell designs and more movement to and from storage locations.

Overproduction will also increase the amount of obsolete and excess inventory that needs to be discarded. In a make- to-order environment, there should never be obsolete or excess inventory. Every item produced is earmarked for a customer.

Possible Solutions:

In the short run, companies can implement tighter controls on scheduling and forecasting to reduce variances and overproduction. As lean techniques are implemented, more significant changes can be undertaken. One major shift is from make-to-stock to make-to-order. As a company shifts to a pull system, overproduction is naturally eliminated since production is originated by customer demand.

Increasing communication between the company, suppliers and customers can also reduce overproduction as changes and demand are reacted to much faster.
Any activity that shortens lead times will allow for the reduction of inventory and a corresponding reduction in overproduction. Quality improvements will also allow for lower overproduction.

It is essential for a company’s incentives to be re-designed to minimize overproduction and excess inventory. As long as overproduction is rewarded, it will continue.