7 WASTES

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 DMAIC APPLICATION – MEASURE PHASE
• Accuracy / Bias
• Resolution / Linearity / Control
• Gage R&R
MEASUREMENT  Standard Operating Procedures
SYSTEM  Measurement Error Quantified
ANALYSIS
 MSA Validated and Approved

• Customer Requirements (VOC)  Data Collected per Sampling Plan O

I • Data Collection Plan  Process Control Review U
N
• OEE  Process Capability (VOP) T
P BASELINE
• Yield Calculations  Value Stream Map P
U MEASUREMENTS
• Descriptive Statistics  Refined Project Goals U
T
• SPC Charting T
S  Refined Financial Estimation
S
• Pareto Diagram
 Narrowed down PIV’s
• Fishbone Diagram
 Detailed Process Map
• Correlation Matrix IDENTIFICATION
OF PIV’s  Future State (Ideal) Map
• FMEA
(root causes – x’s)  Wastes Identified
• Brainstorming
 RPN’s are Known
• Spaghetti Diagram
 Remove Uncontrollable Inputs
• 7 – Wastes
• 5-WHY

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 The Seven Wastes
1.Defects
2.Overproduction
3.Excess Transportation
4.Waiting
5.Inventory
6.Excess Motion
7.Excess Processing

Use the acronym “DOTWIMP” as a mnemonic technique

There is a #8 that is occasionally taught and it is a source of opportunity in

front offices to the factory floor. We will discuss this later.
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 The Seven Wastes
Purpose:
A primary objective within Lean Manufacturing and DMAIC projects is to
identify waste and eliminate it. This module intends to teach people to “see”
wastes that are more obvious and seek out the hidden factory wastes.
These wastes can contribute to degradation in 5S and increase safety risks
among lost profits and possibly revenue and working capital.

Another form of waste that can be incorporated into this exercise is the waste
and underutilization of human resources and talent. Misalignment of employee
time impedes getting the best results. This can also lead to lower morale and
lower job satisfaction. Think of it as the…..“human being OEE”
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 The Seven Wastes
Waste occurs in very obvious forms to others that are not obvious. A team is
expected to evaluate each form of waste as they develop process maps and
begin to look for improvements.
Waste can occur within:
1. Services
2. Products
3. Transactional processes

Waste can occur within flows of:

1. People
2. Information
3. Products

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 The Seven Wastes
1) OVERPRODUCTION

The reason this one is discussed first in detail, is because it is the riskiest (and
often the most costly) form of waste, since the other waste also happen within
it. Overproduction can have defects, create more transportation, waiting, etc.

This means building an excess quantity of units or more than the customer
needs or is willing to pay for. This could be due to long set-up times, very long
lead times, and difficulties known at start-up. This is often done to cover an
underlying problem.

In terms of a service, this is the same as doing more than is required or that the
customer is willing to pay for. s to control.
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 The Seven Wastes
2) DEFECTS
For very obvious reasons, making the product right the first time is ideal and any
product that is defective, due to one or more defects, is an opportunity to
reduce costs and lead time.
Defects are products or services that do not meet the customer specification.
Defects always require some degree of additional attention, whether it they are
tracked, scrapped, reworked, or repaired. These options may result in more
waste or others of the seven wastes.
Remember to consider all the paperwork, confusion, and delays that might have
been associated with the scrap or rework.to control. Handling defects can
create more transportation, waiting, and some other forms of waste.
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 The Seven Wastes
3) EXCESS TRANSPORTATION
Manually moving stock to a staging area and dropping off material and picking
it back up to deliver to machine. The goal is to minimize the transportation and
people involved in moving material.

Transportation waste should be evaluated in the office and manufacturing floor.

Sometimes it is electronic waste in the corporate environment. Review
transportation waste of any materials (direct or indirect).

Transportation wastes add costs, lead time, and risk of getting damaged or
misplaced.

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 The Seven Wastes
4) WAITING
Downtime waiting for parts, components, raw materials, approvals, the
previous operation down in a cell, and paperwork.

A machine could be waiting for next job, because the current job is being
overproduced. It could be the part is waiting for something or the people
involved are waiting.

Once again, waiting can be a waste that occurs in a transaction too, such as
waiting for a requisition to be approved, or a purchase order, or a project that
requires a sequence of approvals.

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 The Seven Wastes
5) INVENTORY
Not all inventory is "bad" inventory. A properly sized Kanban or plan for each unit
will dictate the appropriate amounts of inventory at each phase of a value
stream. Moreover, the Kanban mins and max levels should be dynamic and
adjust as conditions change. It should be capable of looking forward for potential
outliers and using historical performance. Of course, if a business model exist
where all inventory is prepaid by customer and “none” is tied up as working
capital, then that is an ideal state. Most often, this isn’t possible.
Parts on hand that customer has not purchased yet due to cycle time and lead
time. Buffer stock used to offset variation in demand and production. Excess
inventory ties up cash, creates extra handling, storage, and may never be
recovered. This is a critical metric towards improving working capital.
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 The Seven Wastes
6) MOTION
Excess motion to adjust a machine, frame a house, make a sandwich, that could
be eliminated by rearranging layout, tools, and personnel. The motion may cause
unnecessary fatigue and long term injury. Proper ergonomics should be applied
when making adjustment to motion studies.

Only have the necessary tools, materials, paperwork at the operator

workstation. The less an item is needed, the further away it should be. A term
commonly used is POU - Point Of Use. Use shadowboards and other ideas to
keep most frequent needed items at the operator point of use.

This applies for desk jobs, machine operators, supervisors, and at home.
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 The Seven Wastes
7) EXCESS PROCESSING
This is different than the waste of Overproduction. This includes waste such as over polishing
parts, excessing painting, heating parts too long or too high of temperature, excessive
washing, redundant paperwork, excessive data collection, tumbling, turning, drying parts
longer than necessary.

Sometimes this opportunity is less obvious. Your team may find that is can reduce the
production of a part from multiple machines to one machine, such as putting two components
on at the same time, or redesigning tooling to create more complex stamping in one cycle.

The lack of integrated systems, lack of creative and innovative spreadsheets, conditional
formatting, validation, filtering, can all lead to over-processing when performing data entry or
other clerical and office jobs.

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 The Seven Wastes
Use the 7-Wastes thought process when making improvements to the process
map to help achieve the ideal state. Each of them are rather obvious when
studied individually however it is easier said than done which refers to actually
"seeing" the waste, identifying it, and eliminating it (or mitigate).

Before the GEMBA walk, creating the process map, or a value stream map,
teach the team members about the seven wastes. Teach them to “see” the
waste and moreover, dig deeper to find the hidden factory wastes.

More effective training will include creative examples in their workplace that
are not as obvious. Often, this training comes across as common sense but if
you can surprise them with examples, then the engagement should strengthen.
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 The Seven Wastes
Sometimes the waste is less obvious, found by accident, or may seem out of
scope. The team may be following a product during a value stream mapping
exercise and notice potential improvements such as:
• Lighting that can be converted to more efficient LED’s,
• A washer is spraying water when there are not any parts in it,
• A dryer is blowing hot air when there are not any parts in it,
• Warm air from machines, furnaces, or air compressors is being vented outside when it
could possibly be reclaimed and used to heat a building or working space,
• Gravity that isn’t being utilized as a free energy source when it could be to help the flow
of parts or components.
• Tools and Dies that aren’t completely used or that can be reworked
• Air compressor and dryer piping inefficiencies
Perhaps some of these are not x’s (inputs) that contribute directly to solving the gap in the Project “Y”, but many could be
downstream inputs. In any case, the company will likely appreciate any waste identification that can be eliminated.

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 The Seven Wastes – REFERENCE GUIDE
1.Defects
2.Overproduction (often the most severe)
3.Excess Transportation
4.Waiting
5.Inventory
6.Excess Motion
7.Excess Processing

Use the acronym “DOTWIMP” as a mnemonic technique

8. Underutilization and misalignment of human resources time and talent.

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