7 Wastes, Muda

Prévia do material em texto

The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 1 of 25 
 
 
 
 
 
The Shmula.com Guide to 
The 7 Forms of Waste 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 2 of 25 
 
Preface 
 This document, unlike other literature on the Toyota Production System or Lean 
Thinking, explains the concept of “waste” in the form of examples – many examples. The author 
finds that explanation through real-world examples is the most powerful way to teach and the 
most effective means for students to learn. This approach also aligns with Taiichi Ohno’s maxim 
of “practice over theory” – and that shall be our maxim also. 
 This document explains the concept of “waste”, shows waste in several real-world 
examples, and provides some insight into how to identify and effectively reduce or eliminate 
waste. 
 The intended audience for this document is as follows: 
• If you are a student learning the Toyota Production System or Lean 
Manufacturing. 
• If you are a practitioner of Lean. 
• If you are a researcher in the fields of Operations Management, Supply Chain 
Management, Logistics, and general business education. 
• If you are a graduate student in business school or in an MBA program where 
learning about process improvement or continuous improvement is part of your 
core studies. 
I hope that you find this document helpful in your study of Lean. 
Unless otherwise noted, Pete Abilla (www.shmula.com), is the author of the articles 
below. 
Enjoy and thank you for reading. 
Pete Abilla 
September 2010 
Salt Lake City, Utah 
http://www.shmula.com/ 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 3 of 25 
 
Introduction 
Muda (無駄) is a traditional Japanese term which means “waste”. One way to increase 
profitability of the firm is to fundamentally reduce costs. From a Lean perspective, this means to 
reduce or eliminate wastes. Fundamentally reducing wastes means to be more profitable. 
To properly understand waste, it is important to first clarify value and purpose. 
 Every process has a purpose. All the steps that lead to achieving that purpose are what 
we consider “value”. All the steps that do not support the purpose of the process is waste. 
 The concept of Muda or Waste is a key lesson in the Toyota Production System. Shigeo 
Shingo, the co-developer of the Toyota Production System observed the following: 
“…only the last turn tightens the bolt. All previous turns is just motion.”1 
Another way to describe waste is by categorizing our activities, like the following: 
There are 3 types of activities, 2 of which produce waste: 
 
A. Steps that definitely create value. 
B. Steps that create no value, but are necessary given the current state of the system. 
C. Steps that create no value and can be eliminated. 
 
(B) & (C) naturally create waste, of which there are 7 types: 
 
1. Overproduction: Producing more than is needed, faster than needed or before needed. 
2. Waiting: Idle time that occurs when co-dependent events are not synchronized. 
3. Transportation: Any material movement that does not directly support immediate 
production. 
4. Processing: Redundant effort (production or communication) which adds no value to 
a product or service. 
5. Inventory: Any supply in excess of process or demand requirements. 
6. Motion: Any movement of people which does not contribute added value to the 
product or service. 
7. Defect: Repair or rework of a product or service to fulfill customer requirements. 
One acronym that is helpful to remember the 7 Wastes is TIMWOOD. 
 
 
 
1
 A study of the Toyota Production System, http://tinyurl.com/269cvhh 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 4 of 25 
 
In what follows, you’ll read real examples of waste from various industries, processes, and 
fields in business. Specifically, you’ll read examples of wastes from the following: 
• 7 Wastes in Software Engineering 
• 7 Wastes in Medical Billing 
• 7 Wastes in Product Development 
• 7 Wastes in Paid Search Marketing 
• 7 Wastes in Customer Service 
• 7 Wastes in Affiliate Marketing 
• 7 Wastes in Human Resources 
• 7 Wastes and the Office 
• 7 Wastes and the Environment 
Suggested Reading: 
• Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking, Shigeo Shingo, http://amzn.to/9TSBJm 
• Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of PDCA, http://amzn.to/dpS9g4 
• Creating a Lean Culture, http://amzn.to/aETxnY 
• Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management System, http://amzn.to/cTWDri 
• The Toyota Kata, http://amzn.to/diFW2w 
• The Toyota Way Fieldbook, http://amzn.to/bhpB4A 
• The Toyota Way, http://amzn.to/cKg4tb 
• Lean Thinking, http://amzn.to/dtxLu5 
• Learning to See: Value Stream Management, http://amzn.to/cS9PEf 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 5 of 25 
 
7 Wastes of Software Engineering 
Written by Pete Abilla 
Transportation 
• Handoffs - Movement of product that does not add value. 
Inventory 
• Requirements - Product Requirements Documents (PRD), Story Cards - more material 
information than the customer needs 
• Completed code, but not checked-in 
• Completed code, but not documented 
• Untested code, Code in staging environment, but not in production environment 
• Code with overwhelming amount of comments /*comments*/ 
Motion 
• Task-Switching - Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• A evil-twin of Task-Switching is Multi-Tasking 
Waiting 
• Delay - Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Waiting for project approval 
• Waiting for resources 
• Waiting for change approval process 
• Waiting for product management or requirements 
Overprocessing 
• Extra Steps or Effort - effort that does not add value from the customer's perspective 
• Having to relearn what a function, class, or piece of code does 
• Having to refactor a piece of code when it already meets requirements 
Overproduction 
• More Stuff - Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• Featuritis or Feature Bloat: more features than the customer needs, wants, or asked for 
• Wrong Thing - Building something a customer doesn't want or does not use 
Defects 
• Bugs - errors, rework, mistakes, or is missing something necessary 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 6 of 25 
 
7 Wastes of Medical Billing2 
Written by Devin Cabanilla 
The bill processing and revenue stream in health care is particularly problematic, 
complex and expensive. More than a decade ago, a New England Journal of Medicine3 article 
estimated administrative costs of health care to be as much as $294 billion (Campbell, et al.), and 
it has only increased since then. 
The process begins when a patient makes an appointment and ends when a medical claim 
is paid by the insurance company. Countless staff and departments contribute to the flow of 
information and work to achieve payment for patient care provided. Every step in this lengthy 
process has the potential for administrative waste: excessive paperwork, back-and-forth 
interactions between provider and payor, nuanced contracts unique to each insurance company, 
and different forms and ways each payor wants to exchange information. It’s not surprising the 
hassle has led some doctors to refuse to accept certain forms of insurance payment at all. 
Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Patient Financial Services has done extensive work to 
evaluate the revenue stream and diligently remove waste from the system. Below are some of the 
common revenue stream wastes in most medical settings today, and many which the Virginia 
Mason team has helped reduce or eliminate through its continuous improvement work. 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value 
• Using electronic clearinghouses to transmit medical claims to different insurance groups. 
• Faxing and mailingadditional medical or insurance documentation between the patient, 
payor and provider. 
• Mailing claims in paper format, using courier services. 
Inventory 
More material information than the customer needs 
• Claims held in data systems pending queue transmission. 
• Mail correspondence from insurance companies notifying or requesting information. 
 
2 Written by Devin Cabanilla who conducts continuous improvement activities in insurance enrollment and billing 
database areas at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. He applies the principles of Lean Management (Lean 
Manufacturing) to his work in healthcare. Outside of work Devin enjoys BBQ, Starcraft, reading, and spending time 
with his wife and two toddlers. 
3 content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/349/8/768 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 7 of 25 
 
• Specialized staff who only work with specific payors. 
Motion 
Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• Claims channeled through redundant layers of system edits and checks at the provider 
source, clearinghouse and payor. 
• Emailing questions to multiple people with claim-specific or insurance-specific questions 
Waiting 
Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Waiting for forms, reviews, approvals and signatures. 
• Waiting for receipt of funds for claims aging beyond their original service date. 
• Waiting for payor review of a medical claim appeal. 
• Waiting for system upgrades and changes to be implemented due to new medical 
procedures. 
• Waiting for payors to amend or update payment routines for the patient or provider based 
on pending contract renewals. 
• Waiting on hold for customer services to obtain insurance information 
Overprocessing 
Effort that does not add value from the customer’s perspective 
• Checking the claim status for every patient balance outstanding via phone, mail and 
internet portal. 
• Receiving overpayment/underpayment, reprocessing the bill and re-pricing claim 
information for the payor. 
• Sending a claim multiple times when no response is received from the payor. 
• New medical procedure codes, retesting software and claim checks. 
• Asking the patient for existing information: insurance cards, address, relatives. 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• Generating multiple invoices/statements for the patient’s health care services. 
• Creating duplicate files in multiple folders within workstations and filing cabinets. 
• Recoupment efforts on low balance claims (e.g. $2 lab fees, $7 diagnostics). 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 8 of 25 
 
Defects 
• Billing complaints for any reason from a patient are indicative of a defect. 
• System errors, such as corrupted data, miscoded system logic, data stream interruptions, 
create claim denials or halt flow. 
• Transcription errors where clinical information was not input correctly resulting in denial. 
• Registration errors when inaccurate demographic information was not received from the 
patient resulting in denial. 
• Unauthorized procedures, such as surgeries, procedures or inpatient stays requiring 
authorization with the insurance company prior or during medical services, or denial will 
occur. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 9 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes of Product Development 
Written by Tim McMahon 
4The first step in eliminating waste from New Product Development (NPD), and thus 
improving the process, is to learn to identify the eight wastes. By closely examining the entire 
NPD process from a Lean perspective, the opportunities to drive out waste and increase value 
will become obvious. 
Defects 
Defects are the result of executed processes that did not produce value. 
• Improper information on drawing 
• Missing views on drawing 
• Incomplete information 
• Product flaws resulting in missing customer expectations 
• Reworking product or processes 
Overproduction 
Waste from producing product that is not currently needed or product that is not needed at all. 
• Unnecessary documentation 
• Cost overruns due to excessive project time charging 
• Overlap of strategic and non-strategic projects competing for limited resources 
 
 
4 Written by Tim McMahon. You can connect with on his blog – leanjourneytruenorth.blogspot.com. Tim 
McMahon is the Founder and Contributor of A Lean Journey Blog. This site is dedicated to sharing lessons and 
experiences along the Lean Journey in the Quest for True North. The blog also serves as the source for learning and 
reflection which are critical elements in Lean Thinking. 
Tim is a lean practitioner with more than 10 years of Lean manufacturing experience. He currently leads continuous 
improvement efforts for a high tech manufacturer. Tim teaches problem solving skills, lean countermeasures, and 
how to see opportunities for improvement by actively learning, thinking and being engaged. 
Tim McMahon has been supporting the AME Northeast Region Board of Directors as the Social Media Lead. His 
role is to identify how to best leverage social media tools for increasing networking within AME's Northeast Region. 
Social media tools include LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Tim also works together with 
others on AME's Social Media Council to build AMEConnect, a members-only online networking site, and presence 
and content on the other Social Media sites. 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 10 of 25 
 
Waiting 
No value is added while people wait for product to process or product waits for people or 
machines. 
• Unbalanced workflow within the team 
• Time spent getting approvals 
• Dependant on the number of hand offs and task dependencies 
Non-utilized resources/talent 
The waste of underutilized intelligence and intellect commonly referred to as behavioral waste. 
• Underutilizing people’s knowledge and creativity 
• Uneven work flow resulting with some team members overburdened while other 
underutilized 
Transportation 
While the product is moving, no value is added to it. 
• Carrying, mailing, or even e-mailing documents stops the process 
• In an electronic system look at the number of hand offs where we pass something to 
someone else 
Inventory 
Inventory is the collection of unprocessed documents, data objects, and transactions queued-up 
between people and processes. 
• Drawings and specification - we invest time to make them, update them, and manage 
them 
• Collections of unprocessed information and data 
Motion 
Excess movement by people or equipment only consumes time and resources without producing 
value. 
• Efficiency of software – number of mouse clicks, number of routines, number of 
transactions 
• Frequently searching for drawings and other information on remote shared services like 
servers or printers 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 11 of 25 
 
Excess Processing 
Doing more than what is necessary to generate satisfactory value as defined by the customer. 
• Using software that has a function beyond what is needed 
• Product designs or processes that are too complex 
• Unnecessary steps in design process 
• Excessive number of iterations 
• Over-designed or over-engineered product 
The acronym I prefer for remembering the eight wastes is DOWNTIME since it symbolizes 
lost opportunity. Another one that works well for NPD is TOWISDOM where S is skills. NPD 
is one essential element in the growth strategy that is so critical in all companies practicing Lean 
Thinking. 
What examples of waste have you seen in your NPD process? How do you address the 
concerns, fears, uncertainties and misconceptions regarding Lean as it applies to NPD?Have you heard any of these myths before? 
• “Lean only applies to the factory. It won’t work in my area.” 
• “We can’t apply Lean to NPD because what we do is not repetitive.” 
• “Product Design is creative, based on discovery and innovation; Lean will remove all 
creativity by forcing us to work to standards.” 
• “Lean works well only on linear processes. Product Development is project-based and 
has multiple parallel processes and task dependencies. Lean is simplistic” 
• “Every task is executed differently on every project; you can’t implement standardized 
work on projects.” 
• “There is no ‘Gemba’ (visible production area) in product development because design 
teams are not co-located and much of the work is subcontracted.” 
• “Customer demand and Takt time are not relevant because there is no customer; we work 
to the project deadline.” 
 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 12 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes of Paid Search Marketing 
Written by Matt LeVeque 
5I’VE BEEN WORKING in the Search Engine Marketing industry for a while in various 
capacities and have spent the last 3 years working in an agency setting managing multiple Paid 
Search accounts. During this time I have come to learn that there is a significant amount of waste 
that goes into managing these accounts. Waste in Paid Search comes in many forms such as 
reorganizing campaigns and ad groups, waiting for 3rd party analytics software to work (and 
work properly), fixing of broken URLs and the list goes on. 
Waste in this industry, and any industry for that matter, is considered non-value added 
work that your company or your client is not willing to pay for. At Toyota Taiichi Ohno, one of 
the founding fathers of the Toyota Way, lean management system and the Toyota Production 
System, described the 7 Wastes of Production as “all activity that adds cost but not value”. 
For all intents and purposes, even though Search Engine Marketing may be perceived as 
a service, the reality is that what goes on behind the scenes is more like a manufacturing 
operation. We build Paid Search marketing campaigns, some times from scratch, that consist of 
various components just like manufacturing a product. Search marketers design and build these 
campaigns in order to serve ads when the end user requires them – very similar to the pull system 
used in lean manufacturing and at Toyota. 
This comparison might seem way off base for anyone not familiar with lean or new to 
Paid Search so let’s get to the subject of this article and talk about the 7 Wastes of Production 
and how they relate to the life of Paid Search Marketer. 
 
 
5
 By Matt LeVeque has over 10 years of website management and online marketing experience. He is currently 
working as the Sr. Manager, Search Marketing & Quality Services with ClickEquations, the industry leader in 
software-based search marketing that improves paid search campaign performance through intelligent 
automation. Matt Leveque is a Google AdWords Qualified Individual, a Microsoft adExcellence Member and a 
thought leader in quality search engine marketing topics. 
His view of search engine marketing is heavily influenced by quality principles, systems thinking and sustainable 
practices. 
Prior to his position at ClickEquations Matt was the Sales & Online Marketing Manager for Rath & Strong 
Management Consultants, the leading global provider of Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Organizational 
Development consulting & training. He is currently an active Senior Member of the American Society for Quality 
(ASQ), the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and the Information Architecture Institute. Matt’s 
extended professional profile can be found at LinkedIn. Matt publishes his writings at senscience.com/sem-blog. 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 13 of 25 
 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs right now. 
This can be related to things like duplicate keywords across multiple ad groups, too many ad 
creatives that make testing irrelevant or bidding on the same keyword with multiple match types 
at the same bid. 
Waiting 
Idle time created when material, information, people, or equipment is not ready. 
This one is my favorite because to me it’s the biggest contributor to waste. In this case idle time 
spent while waiting for 3rd party analytics tools to load or refresh and do so properly is #1 on my 
list. Other contributors to waiting are things like waiting for days until your agency rep calls you 
back, waiting for your client to make decisions and waiting for colleagues to review client 
deliverables. Recently Google AdWords has taken notice of the waste of waiting and will now 
dock you Quailty Score points for destination landing page load time. 
Inventory 
More materials, parts, or products on hand than the customer needs right now. 
This is similar the ‘too much too soon’ or ‘big bang effect’ of building out a new Paid Search 
account with more campaigns and stuffing the ad groups with 1,000’s of keywords – much more 
than necessary. Work in progress is related to the waste of inventory as well. Another form of 
inventory related waste as it relates to fair competition is the double and triple serving of ads that 
some companies and agencies get away with. 
Motion 
Movement of people that does not add value. 
Okay so we are not moving people, but in ’service’ related industries, the waste of motion 
includes things like searching your desktop or file folders for that excel file you used two months 
ago. Using multiple tabs in a web browser or having to take multiple steps in UI to make one 
small change is waste of motion. Throwing nerf-darts at your co-works is a HUGE waste of 
motion, but a hell of a lot of fun. 
Defects 
Work that contains errors, rework, mistakes or lacks something necessary. 
This is another big one. Inheriting a Paid Search account from another agency or in-house 
operation always requires rework. Reorganization of campaigns in a way that is logical so that is 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 14 of 25 
 
both cost efficient and effective toward growth can take months depending on the size of the 
account. Other Paid Search defects include broken destination URLs, landing page offers that do 
not match the ad creative, ad creatives that do not match search queries and keywords that are 
simply too broad to be effectively targeted. 
Overprocessing 
Effort that adds no value from the customer’s viewpoint. 
Overprocessing can almost always be attributed to extra steps added to manual work. Building 
Paid Search campaigns with multiple ad groups and keywords is a very manual process and so is 
most reporting on the success of these efforts. There are automated (see Pay-Per-Click 
Autonomation) ways to improve the waste of over processing. 
Another example of over processing in Paid Search or any similar marketing channel is not fully 
understanding client/user requirements or expectations. For example if a 3rd party analytics tool 
can have all the bells and whistles and even tell you the color shirt a user was wearing when a 
purchase was made but cannot make the simple export function work properly, the analytics 
development team produced more than was required by the Paid Search Marketer. 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value. 
This one is a little tricky for Paid Search. One example would be trying to build out a Yahoo 
Search Marketing account from scratch by trying to import the existing Google AdWords 
account. Because of editorial differences between the two platforms there can be a significant 
amount of waste in moving one campaign structure to another. 
Hopefully this clarifies the similarities of shop-floor production to cube-wall production and 
sheds some light on the types ofwaste to be aware of when taking on the responsibilities of a 
Paid Search Marketer. 
 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 15 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes of Contact Centers 
Written by Pete Abilla 
I recently bought a Dishwasher from Sears. My experience was terrible – numerous 
calls to customer service and a field operations team that wasn’t friendly to the customer. 
Here’s a timeline of my experience: 
 
That experience exposed a lot of waste in customer service operations, some of which I 
highlight below: 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value 
• [see Motion]. 
Inventory 
More material information than the customer needs 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 16 of 25 
 
• Abandonment Rate is a measure of how many customers are not willing to wait. The 
number of customers waiting can be considered inventory. The goal is zero inventory - 
or some manageable level based on workforce. 
Motion 
Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• Who enjoys being transferred from one customer service agent to another, to another, to 
another, to another? This unnecessary motion just adds to wait time, burden on the 
customer, and potentially loss of business or poor satisfaction. 
Waiting 
Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Waiting for anything - people, paper, machines, the FAX machine, copier, information. 
• Waiting for a customer service agent. 
Overprocessing 
Effort that does not add value from the customer's perspective 
• In my Sears poor customer experience, I was asked for my phone number, name, and 
address - 6 TIMES. 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• No, I'm not interested in your other services or products. Don't peddle merchandise to me 
- just please solve my problem. 
• I know customer service agents have a hard job - they are often the messengers getting 
blamed for the problems of the company. That's not fair. But, one type of 
overproduction is when the agent tells the customer how hard of a day he's had - the 
customer doesn't need to know you've had a hard day. Just please try to resolve the 
customer's problem. 
Defects 
• The reason why I'm calling in the first place - service wasn't done right the first time. In 
my case, it wasnt' done right the second time, third time either. 
• As a customer, being treated nice and respectfully is expected; when not, that's a defect. 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 17 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes of Affiliate Marketing 
Written by Porter Haney
6
 
 Affiliate marketing7 is an efficient internet marketing channel that monetizes web traffic 
through a revenue share. This relationship typically exists between e-commerce merchants and 
content sites, with a merchant paying a percent of sales generated by a specific site. 
In principle this arrangement is relatively simple. In practice affiliate marketing8 has become a 
complicated process of affiliates, merchants, and affiliate networks built to facilitate these 
relationships. Many of these systems can add undue wastes to an otherwise simple process. I'll 
highlight a few of these wastes and where one might be able to improve. 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value 
• The movement of ad creatives and feeds between multiple affiliate networks. Do you 
need more than one affiliate network? Can you post all creative assets in one place? 
Inventory 
More material information than the customer needs 
• The number of affiliate or merchant relationships maintained. Are they active? Are they 
producing? Are they representing your brand well? 
• The type and number of ad creatives maintained. Is anyone using them? Are they 
converting? Do you have IAB standard sizes? 
 
6
 Porter Haney currently oversees online marketing at SwarmBuilder.com and publishes mountain adventure articles 
at FamousInternetSkiers.com. He's been involved with web marketing at Backcountry.com, Atomic Skis, and The 
Mount Washington Observatory. 
7
 Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or 
customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are 
rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has 
four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the 
affiliate') and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including 
affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors. Affiliate marketing overlaps 
with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. 
Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in 
some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as 
publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner. Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive 
traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search 
engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries 
a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies 
(wikipedia). 
8
 Affiliate programs include, Commission Junction, share-a-sale, clickbank, and other best affiliate programs, top 
rated affiliate programs. 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 18 of 25 
 
• The number of landing pages maintained. Do they match ad creatives? Could you get by 
with fewer landing pages? 
Motion 
Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• Switching between tasks: creative maintenance, commission audits, affiliate 
communications, internal reporting, tracking metrics, optimizing landing pages. Can you 
organize better? 
• Searching reports for missing data: sales, creatives, affiliates, conversions. 
• Searching feeds for missing information: products, descriptions, prices. 
Waiting 
Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Delays in communications with affiliates. Delays in affiliates pushing promotions live. 
Can you incent faster behavior? 
• Waiting for web analytics software, affiliate network software. 
• Waiting for new ad creatives, promotion events. 
Overprocessing 
Effort that does not add value from the customer's perspective 
• Merging network and analytic data. Do you need specifics, or just trends? 
• Paying manual incentives to affiliates. Can you automate? 
• Digging too deep into a specific affiliate or merchants problem or program. 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• Too many ad creatives, affiliates, merchants, reports, metrics, affiliate networks. Are you 
spending too much time in any of these categories? 
Defects 
• Errors in commissions, product feeds, internal / external reporting. 
• Discrepancies ad creatives and landing pages. 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 19 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes of Human Resources 
Written by Jim Baran
9 
Lean is a people system. Its design is business continuous improvement and respect for 
people every minute of every day. If this is true, my watch stopped 15 years ago. 
I’ve worked in and with human resources for the past 30 years. The last 15 years 
providing talent to hundreds of lean inspired companies. Regarding people processes it seems as 
if nothing has changed. The people processes in existence before lean have not changed because 
of lean.The goal of lean is to provide products and services to customers without nonsense and 
waste. The assumption that all human business is somehow HR business is mistaken. 
The reality is HR and lean organizations share in the consequences of a disengaged 
workforce. It is nonsense that these two factions rarely connect, collaborate, or participate 
together purposefully in the lean process. This disconnection creates knowledge resource waste. 
Instead of purpose and credibility, the workforce sees special effects. Respect teeters daily. 
Overproduction: Overproduction is waste defined as producing work or providing a service 
prior to it being required or requested. 
• Perhaps, overproduction in the human business of lean is best portrayed as over 
enthusiasm. To quickly get our arms around lean, we’ve built separate lean departments 
to coexist beside established HR departments. Each is independently managed. 
Common purpose is difficult to ascertain. 
• The problem with HR & lean not joined collectively is this: both exist because of people. 
Both produce to, not for people, at different speeds, different directions, and with 
 
9
 Jim Baran owns Value Stream Leadership. Jim has been a student of lean since 1985. VSL’s work includes: hiring 
lean inspired talent and helping companies better connect their existing talent so all interact and participate daily in 
the lean process. 
Jim’s background includes many years in manufacturing human resources leadership and talent project 
management. He connects with life through family and fly-fishing. 
• VSL Website: http://www.valuestreamleaders.com/ 
• Blog RSS feed: http://www.valuestreamleaders.com/index.php/blog/rss_2.0/ 
• The Lean Career Compass: http://bit.ly/311Aep 
• LeanBlog Podcast #88 – Jim Baran on Lean Talent Management http://lnbg.us/1CH 
• Twitter: @LEANVSL & @leancraftsman 
• LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/12UT21 
• Facebook Fan Page: http://bit.ly/bAF4nR 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 20 of 25 
 
different expectations. Lean measures human performance with value creating rules and 
tools; HR measures human defects with complex ever changing laws. Skill development 
is overshadowed by justifications. 
• These disjointed mindsets are often interpreted by internal customers more with “if then” 
uncertainty than sustained value. Tribal customs remain in constant motion and conflict 
with expected and ideal lean transformation performance standards. Messy. 
Waiting: What are we waiting for? 
• What’s keeping HR and Lean from joining together to work on the human business of 
lean? Are we waiting for contract signatures to tell us we must work together to 
accomplish greater good? 
• Some lean inspired HR folks I’ve spoken with embrace and engage in lean activities 
often – not because they have to, but because they understand value is in the action. Lean 
thinkers seem to enjoy and spend much time “turning the lights on” in knowledge 
workers heads but almost no time in the heads of people who work with people 
knowledge daily. For years we’ve tried connecting HR & Lean through osmosis. The 
time to self-initiate is now. Any step closer to close the gap between these two groups is 
incremental improvement. 
Motion: If HR is more about recognizing flaws as to comply with laws, then people will often 
go through the motions to comply. Motions are not processes. If visible processes are 
constructed between HR and Lean then they can began to interact with each other daily and start 
learning from each other. We don’t need a judge to grant joint custody of the human assets 
inside a lean learning organization. 
Transportation or conveyance: There are usually no planned routes connecting lean knowledge 
and learning between the various people systems and processes lean learners travel. 
• It’s my experience lean is interpreted and practiced differently at every company. It’s 
supposed to be different because people, not plaques or certificates perform the work. 
• HR and Lean practitioners both depend on external sources to certify their knowledge 
credibility. HR utilizes the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM); Lean has 
assorted choices. All are portable. A few years ago, companies started certifying their 
workforces to measure lean learning and application progress (bronze, silver, chartreuse, 
etc.). Unfortunately, workforce certification is limited to the company you’re currently 
working for. 
• What collective knowledge transfers to those performing the work? Who earns more 
money, those certifying or those performing the work? Since both HR and lean share 
responsibility for a disengaged workforce, and lean knows no boundaries, does it not 
make more sense to have one collective body of knowledge than several? 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 21 of 25 
 
Overprocessing: Lean is about thought processes. 
• People don’t like being told one thing while witnessing something else taking place. Stop 
over processing minds and under estimating intellect by the representation of lean solely 
in context of creating customer value. Who are the customers of lean learning? What 
learning is taking place when employees see their factories dismantled, sold, and jobs 
disappearing? They hear learning is taking place but have to wait a year or more for 
feedback on a performance appraisal form that typically says nothing about people and 
lean and the skills that bind its progress. 
• Engagement? Try engaging HR and Lean first. Let them collectively work on modeling 
ideal Lean leadership behaviors. It should motivate more people to participate daily in the 
lean process, not question it. 
Inventory: 
• How many HR people does it take to change a light bulb? In non lean organizations it 
requires an army. One to evaluate the job, another to determine how much to pay the 
bulb changer, another to evaluate their attitude and performance, and yet another to 
weigh up what benefits the changer might receive for performing the work. Others 
deploy on ladder climbing training and work safety procedures. Still unsure, we rely on 
experts to assess whether the bulb changer has suitable behavioral capabilities to perform 
the work. If all fails, an entire legal team is on call to assess collateral damage. 
• In lean organizations, HR and lean join to provide information and skills flow that 
directly supports work being performed. The bulb changer understands everything about 
the work and all steps involved in doing it. What’s more, work combinations are 
practiced daily to improve timing, quality, and safety. Excess inventory is eliminated by 
losing a few experts and attorneys. Remaining “what-if” resources are deployed 
elsewhere to produce “can do”. 
Defects: This category of waste refers to the amount of processing required to correct a defect. 
• Lean in western cultures has been implemented for decades. I’ve spoken to thousands of 
lean leaders who are justifiably frustrated with responsibility for changing cultures 
singlehandedly. Lean was never intended to be implemented or led by one department. 
However, most companies practice it this way. 
• If future and ideal states of lean produce different mindsets, job designs and performance 
standards than those currently practiced, defects will continue to occur by default. 
• HR and Lean need to construct processes between them to eliminate defects caused by 
conflicting respect for people ideology. Without a visible process connecting both, our 
vision is more like a large retail parking lot where people are constantly backing into 
each other. We either need bigger mirrors, better signs, or fewer parking spaces. 
Connecting HR and Lean isn’t a blue sky proposal. A visible process to connect and skills to 
improve daily participation between these two groups is needednow. We’ve learned much from 
the founding fathers of lean. HR and Lean can start today by learning lessons from the past. 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 22 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes and the Environment 
Written by Pete Abilla 
Taiichi Ohno's Seven Wastes are not only relevant for business and profits, but also has 
an impact on our environment. This article attempts to highlight the impact the Seven Wastes 
has on the earth, environment [1. wonderful source, lean and the environment]. 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value 
• More energy use for transport 
• Emissions from Transport 
• More space required for work in process (WIP), increasing lighting, heating, and cooling 
demands and energy consumption 
• More packaging required to protect parts and components during transport 
• Transportation of hazardous materials requires special shipping and packaging to prevent 
risk during accidents 
Inventory 
More material information than the customer needs 
• More packaging to store work-in-process (WIP) 
• Wastes from deterioration or damage to store WIP 
• More materials needed to replace damage WIP 
• More energy used to heat, cool, and light inventory space 
Motion 
Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• Similar to the waste of Transportation, humans are often required to move material and 
environmental impact is made from the waste of motion and transportation. 
• Driving a car to work, back, school, and the grocery store, etc. 
Waiting 
Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Potential material spoilage or component damage 
• Wasted energy from heating, cooling, and lighting during production downtime 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 23 of 25 
 
Overprocessing 
Effort that does not add value from the customer's perspective 
• More parts used or consumed per unit of production 
• Unnecessary processing increases wastes, energy use, potential human bodily harm, and 
emissions 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• More raw materials and energy consumed in making the unnecessary products 
• Extra products may spoil, become obsolete, requiring disposal, space utilization, 
emissions, human effort 
Defects 
• Raw materials and energy consumed in making defective products 
• Defective components require recycling or disposal 
• More space required for rework and repair, increasing energy use for heating, cooling, 
and lighting 
It's Your Turn 
What other examples do you have? Do you agree or disagree? What are your thoughts on 
Environmental Metrics, such as: 
• Scrap/Non-product Output 
• Materials Use 
• Hazardous Materials Use 
• Energy Use 
• Water Use 
• Air Emissions 
• Solid Waste 
• Hazardous Waste 
• Water Pollution/Wastewater 
 
 
 
 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 24 of 25 
 
The 7 Wastes and the Office 
Written by Pete Abilla 
Remembering that work that adds no value to the customer is how Waste is defined in 
Lean Thinking. Given that, there's a lot of Waste in the office. Indeed, some estimate that a 
significant percentage of total administrative costs is Waste as it is defined in Lean Thinking. 
Transportation 
Movement of product that does not add value 
• Transporting material or documents farther than necessary, or temporarily locating, 
filing, stocking, stacking, or moving materials, people, information, paper - wastes time 
and effort. 
Inventory 
More material information than the customer needs 
• Excess stock - more than is needed or wanted. 
• Unnecessary copies, extra supplies (more than is needed - beyond some safety buffer. 
Motion 
Bodily or mental motion that does not add value 
• Unnecessary work movements or extra motion to complete a task is waste. 
Waiting 
Idle time when people, material, information, or equipment is not ready 
• Waiting for anything - people, paper, machines, the FAX machine, copier, information. 
• Anything that causes a workflow to stop. 
Overprocessing 
Effort that does not add value from the customer's perspective 
• Unnecessary processing of anything increases wastes, energy use, potential human bodily 
harm, and can impact morale 
• Redundant steps - checking someone else's work, obtaining multiple signatures, or 
excessive reviews 
The 7 Forms of Waste www.shmula.com By Pete Abilla 
Page 25 of 25 
 
• The Annual Employee Review can be added to this; a more effective review is a weekly 
or daily - short feedback loops allows for learning and growth; annual employee reviews 
are largely unhelpful to the reviewer and the reviewee. 
Overproduction 
Producing more than the customer needs or wants 
• Extra of anything takes up valuable office space and wastes raw materials - paper, 
attention, etc. 
Defects 
• Having to do anything over because it wasn't done right the first time is waste