Kind of Wastes

According to David Magee and Liker different kinds of wastes in a process can be categorized in following categories. These wastes reduce production efficiency, quality of work as well as increase production lead time:

1. Overproduction – Producing items more than required at given point of time i.e. producing items without actual orders creating the excess of inventories which needs excess staffs, storage area as well as transportation, etc.

2. Waiting time – Workers waiting for raw material, the machine or information. is known as waiting and is the waste of productive time. The waiting can occur in various ways for example; due to unmatched worker/machine performance, machine breakdowns, lack of work knowledge, stock outs, etc.

3. Unnecessary Transport – Carrying of work in process (WIP) a long distance, insufficient transport, moving material from one place to another place is known as the unnecessary transport.

4. Over processing – Working on a product more than the actual requirements is termed as over processing. The over processing may be due to improper tools or improper procedures, etc.

5. Excess Raw Material - This includes excess raw material, WIP, or finished goods causing longer lead times, obsolescence, damaged goods, transportation and storage costs, and delay.

6. Unnecessary Movement – Any wasted motion that the workers have to perform during their work is termed as unnecessary movement. For example movement during searching for tools, shifting WIP, etc.

7. Defects – Defects in the processed parts is termed as waste. Repairing defective parts or producing defective parts or replacing the parts due to poor quality is the waste of time and effort.

8. Unused Employee Creativity – Loosing of getting better ideas, improvement, skills and learning opportunities by avoiding the presence of employee is termed as unused employee creativity.

9. Energy Consumption - Through time, it became more and more important to rationalize the consumption of energy, giving great advantages for the consumer and the environment, being the decrease of energy costs the most attractive benefit for the consumer. There are numerous ways and techniques for a more efficient energy use, like the replacement of conventional luminaires with more efficient ones, dimensioning a capacitor for the control of the reactive energy, micro production, cogeneration, etc.