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Wastes of Lean: How to Locate and Eliminate Them

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Meesa Watson
Wastes of Lean: How to Locate and Eliminate Them

Do you know what the wastes of lean are and how to control or eliminate them? You are in the right place. In this article, we will discuss ways to find lean wastes and manage them. Keep reading this article to learn more. 


When lean management principles are injected into a business, the business achieves growth at different stages. This is also helpful in making customers feel good for your products. 





Without lean management, improving efficiency and getting maximum output can be challenging. That is why lean leaders should upgrade themselves from time to time and learn lean methods. 


What is waste in lean management?


When it comes to waste in lean, it talks about all those things that are good to remove from the workflow stream without negatively impacting productivity. 


In other words, lean wastes are those wastes that are not valuable to the customer. Or there can be unnecessary steps in lean management that are considered lean waste. 


Further, there are many wastes of lean. When it comes to identifying lean wastes, the company wants to improve its manufacturing process by discarding or removing unnecessary things from the process. 


Moreover, let's have a look at some common wastes of lean. 


Transport


You might have noticed that things like tools, inventory, people, and products are transported from one place to another with no benefit or value to the company. If the people in lean leadership positions don't take care of these things, it will cause product damage and wear and tear to equipment. 


You can get rid of such waste with the help of an efficient workforce. Or you can get help from a lean consultant. 


Inventory 


While inventory is considered a company's asset, if it is more than you need, it can cause many issues. After all, companies often think of additional inventories to manage the high demand. But these inventories don't always help and create many problems. 


You can eliminate this waste by controlling your inventory purchase. Also, you can create a queue system for the same. 


Motion


As the name says, this is lean waste that includes moving goods and employees without any organizational benefit. This means that employees should have a working environment that allows them to work with minimal movement. 


For example, if a particular employee has to work with their colleague, they should have the facility to work closely. It will reduce the motion waste. 


Waiting 


If you want to see the effect of lean leadership in your company, you should know the status of the waiting time. This means that if an email is received, what is the response or approval time in your office. 


Overproduction 


Overproduction is one of the most significant issues for many businesses. You should not produce more products in the hope that customers will pay. 


If the customers don't pay, all the excess products will be considered a waste. 

To eliminate this waste, lean leaders should be strict and encourage production for received demands. 


Over-processing


Do you know what over-processing is? Over-processing is when a company uses its resources and employees' effort but doesn't deliver any output. Or if a company is not able to provide any value for the customers, they don't pay for it even after utilizing organizational resources and efforts. 


In order to eliminate this lean waste, the company needs to understand the work requirements from customers' viewpoints. 


Defects


During the manufacturing process, many times, companies have some defective products. While some defective products can be corrected again, sometimes, they are of no use. With that in mind, the management has to reduce the production of defective products. 


Conclusion


These are some common lean wastes one needs to keep in mind. After all, there are many ways to eliminate or reduce these wastes. 


A lean leader can reduce these wastes by implementing lean principles in the manufacturing process. Or one can go for lean consulting to eliminate lean waste. 


We at Lean Leaders Plus help you achieve your goals by introducing a culture of continuous improvements. We understand your current culture and combine people development with process improvement to achieve great results.  Visit the official site to learn more.

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