If there is one enemy of business success, it is this: Wastefulness, inefficiency, and uselessness.

This is the definition of the japanese word muda, a household name in lean manufacturing circles but an infinitely valuable one for every business professional who learns to root out and destroy this sprouting cancer at every available opportunity.

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In lean manufacturing, the value stream is the sequence of steps that create value, for example, cutting, stamping, and painting. Any work that is not absolutely required to produce that value is muda.

Taiichi Ohno, the Toyota engineer who pioneered the Toyota Production System, which laid the foundation for lean manufacturing, stated it this way:

Notice that it is not a waste reduction plan, focus group, or meeting agenda. Rather, it is the relentless pursuit of absolute elimination. When muda is discovered the patient is sick and dying, it is an emergency that requires swift, decisive action, usually by the production floor personnel.

There are 7 types of muda commonly identified in lean manufacturing:

1. Overproduction
2. Waiting
3. Transportation
4. Overprocessing
5. Movement
6. Inventory
7. Making Defective Parts

An eighth type of muda is generally considered in modern lean manufacturing although it was not part of the original Toyota Production System:

1. Unused skills and knowledge

1. Overproduction

This waste refers to producing too much product. The overproduced volume must be transported, stored, inspected, and probably has some product you cannot sell. When you cannot sell the product the entire manufacturing process has been wasted. When product is overproduced, costs are incurred to store the product and the sales staff must work to produce discount campaigns to move it.

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In a traditional non-lean factory, large batches of raw materials are ordered and processed into large batches of finished goods prior to being sold. This allows for a large inventory that is available for unexpected orders. In lean, however, there are multiple assembly lines working in parallel that move the product from raw materials to finished goods rapidly, thereby allowing for the production of rush orders.

2. Waiting

This refers to workers that are not working, for any reason. Anything that is waiting for something is wasting a component of the process. Whether it’s the products being produced, the people producing them, or the machines on the factory floor, the process is improved by eliminating the act of waiting.

In a lean plant, each production station is designed so that the product spends no time waiting for the next or previous step.

3. Transportation

This is the waste of moving parts around. It can occur between processing steps, between processing lines, and also when product is shipped to the customer.

In a lean facility, the product moves from station to station on one continuous line of flow, which minimizes the transportation of raw materials as well as the product itself. Inventories between production stations are minimized and the movement of goods is not a significant part of the production process.

4. Overprocessing

This refers to the waste of processing a product beyond what the customer wants. For example, engineers that make specifications greater than the customer is willing to pay for. Also, choosing poor or inefficient processing equipment also creates this type of waste.

In a lean manufacturing plant, the value being provided to the customer is carefully assessed and the value stream mapped. That way it is clear to everyone what creates value and what is considered unnecessary, wasteful, or gold plating,

5. Movement

This is the unnecessary movement of people, such as operator and mechanics moving around looking for tools and equipment. It is very easy to overlook this type of waste because people are moving and active, but make no mistake it hurts the bottom line like any other muda does.

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Lean production facilities have highly standardized assembly stations. The workers at each station perform standardized work and all of their raw materials, tools and equipment are available when they need them.

6. Inventory

Lean manufacturing is famous for the concept of just-in-time production, whereby the raw materials are supplied to the assembly plant with a minimal amount of storage time prior to being processed. In fact, all storage is considered muda, as it incurs costs to purchase it, store it, and potentially scrap it when business needs change. But how do you ensure that you don’t run out of raw material and thereby shut down the entire factory’s production?

Since production volume in a lean manufacturing plant is achieved via multiple, parallel assembly lines, a delay in any one assembly line does not render the entire plant inoperational. If a critical raw material is obtained from an external supplier, however, that supplier must become lean as well, using multiple, parallel assembly lines to ensure there are no critical hiccups.

7. Making Defective Parts

Every manufacturing plant produces some scrap. Whether it’s the excess pieces from a cutting operation or the destruction of finished goods, the material that cannot be used represents a waste that must be minimized.

In a lean plant, every assembly station uses standardized work and the product is not moved to the next station until the work has been completed to specifications in a process called jidoka. Compared to a non-lean plant where large batches of one type of work are performed followed by a machine changeover to another product, the gains in quality have been demonstrably large.

8. Unused Skills and Knowledge

Although not part of the original Toyota Manufacturing System, modern lean manufacturing considers an eighth muda, called unused skills and knowledge. This muda includes the knowledge and skills that are present on the factory floor but are not being used to improve the production process.

Many production floors have workers that have knowledge and experience from other employment or from years on the job. They don’t always volunteer to improve the processes they are working on or see others working on. Therefore, the lack of utilization of this free source of efficiency is wasted.

Conclusion

The methodology of lean manufacturing specifies that the production line be continuously inspected for muda. This is an ongoing activity which is as much a part of the process as the production activities themselves. Everyone takes part. And this process of continuous improvement is called kaizen, one of the cornerstones of the original Toyota Production System which evolved into lean manufacturing.

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