7 Wastes
Elimination of muda
Muda is a traditional general Japanese term for activity that is wasteful and doesn't add value or is unproductive or not useful in practice or others. It is also a key concept in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and is one of the three types of waste (Muda, Mura, Muri) that it identifies. Mura signifies wastes due to unevenness and muri signifies wastes due to overburden.
Waste as defined by Toyota’s president, Fujio Cho, is “anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts and workers which are absolutely essential to production”. The seven types of wastes identified are
1. Overproduction – Waste due to producing before customer requires or more than needed which often hides production problems.
2. Waiting time – Idle time in manufacturing because materials, information, people or equipment are not ready
3. Transportation – Moving the product adds no value but increases the risk of damage and delays.
4. Inventory – Raw materials, WIP and finished goods block up capital and also run the risk of damage, obsolescence.
5. Overprocessing – Complex processing, using of expensive resources which can be reduced, processing beyond user requirements
6. Motion – Unnecessary movement in workers and equipments adds no value but wastes time
7. Product defects – Defective products are rejected by customers and have no more than scrap value.
Elimination of these wastes are important since they add no value but impose time and cost penalties. These wastes also show inefficient production. Further excess inventory can block up working capital. In today’s competitive business environment, minimizing these wastes are important. Toyota has led the way with its lean manufacturing techniques. Minimizing of all kinds of wastes is an important goal for the company. Other organizations too are learning the importance and working towards reducing all non-value adding activities. Reducing these wastes creates environmental benefits also e.g. by
Muda is a traditional general Japanese term for activity that is wasteful and doesn't add value or is unproductive or not useful in practice or others. It is also a key concept in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and is one of the three types of waste (Muda, Mura, Muri) that it identifies. Mura signifies wastes due to unevenness and muri signifies wastes due to overburden.
Waste as defined by Toyota’s president, Fujio Cho, is “anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts and workers which are absolutely essential to production”. The seven types of wastes identified are
1. Overproduction – Waste due to producing before customer requires or more than needed which often hides production problems.
2. Waiting time – Idle time in manufacturing because materials, information, people or equipment are not ready
3. Transportation – Moving the product adds no value but increases the risk of damage and delays.
4. Inventory – Raw materials, WIP and finished goods block up capital and also run the risk of damage, obsolescence.
5. Overprocessing – Complex processing, using of expensive resources which can be reduced, processing beyond user requirements
6. Motion – Unnecessary movement in workers and equipments adds no value but wastes time
7. Product defects – Defective products are rejected by customers and have no more than scrap value.
Elimination of these wastes are important since they add no value but impose time and cost penalties. These wastes also show inefficient production. Further excess inventory can block up working capital. In today’s competitive business environment, minimizing these wastes are important. Toyota has led the way with its lean manufacturing techniques. Minimizing of all kinds of wastes is an important goal for the company. Other organizations too are learning the importance and working towards reducing all non-value adding activities. Reducing these wastes creates environmental benefits also e.g. by