Muda — 7 Wastes of Lean

The 7 Deadly Wastes (muda)

as defined by Taiichi Ohno (Toyota executive, 1912-1990)

8 Types of Waste

In recent years, various authors and experts have expanded the list to their own version of
'the 8 Wastes of Lean', with the 8th waste being one of the following:

8. Under utilized human potential — skills, talents, and creativity

8. Unsafe or unergonomic work conditions

8. Confusion — any uncertainty about the right thing to do.

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downtime

8 Wastes of Lean: Downtime

If you speak English, then

this Downtime Acronym might help you remember the 8 Deadly Wastes

 

If English is not your preferred language, then see our instructions for how to translate all of your Systems2win lean training into any language.

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muri

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office

Office Examples
of the Muda 7 Types of Waste

Office Examples of the 8 Wastes of Lean

Defects

Products, services, or information that are wrong, incomplete, or late

Office examples: Data entry errors. Missing information. Other types of order entry or invoice errors. Any error that gets passed downstream — only to be returned for correction or clarification. Engineering change orders. Design flaws. Employee turnover. Absenteeism.

Overproduction

Making too much, or too soon

Goal = Deliver exactly what the customer wants exactly when wanted.

Office examples: Printing extra copies. Printing paperwork (that might change) before it is needed. Processing an order (that might change) before it is needed. Storing extra copies in redundant filing systems. Emails to people that don't need to be cc'd.

Waiting

Waiting for anything... tools, equipment, materials, people...

Office examples: Slow computer speed. Downtime (computer, fax, phone...). Waiting for approvals. Waiting for information from customer. Waiting for clarification or correction of work received from an upstream process.

Non Value Add Processing

Any process steps that do not add value — from the perspective of the customer

Relying on inspections, rather than designing the process to eliminate errors. Extra information. Re-entering data into multiple information systems. Making extra copies. Generating unused reports. Expediting. Unnecessarily cumbersome processes (think financial statement period end close, expense reporting, the budget process...)

Transportation and Handling

Any unnecessary movement of the thing being processed

Office examples: Movement of paperwork. Multiple handoffs of electronic data. Approvals. Excessive email attachments. Distributing unnecessary cc copies to people who don't really need to know.

Inventories

Piles of anything. Parts, supplies, emails, paperwork, archives...

Purchasing or making things before they are needed (think office supplies, literature...). Things waiting in an (electronic or physical) In Box. Unread email. Any form of batch processing (maybe transactions, reports...)

Motion

Any unnecessary movement of human workers

Walking to copier, printer, fax... Walking between offices. Central filing. Searching for missing information. Shifting back & forth between computer screens. Scrolling up and down computer screens. Shuffling through papers.

Eschewed Human Potential

To eschew means
"to purposely avoid"

Employing only people's backs, and not their minds.

Restricting employee's authority and responsibility to make routine decisions. Having highly paid staff do routine tasks that don't require their unique expertise. Not providing the business tools needed to perform and continuously improve each employee's assigned work. Not trusting your people to stop production to stop and fix a problem (jidoka). Not trusting your people to be responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance, and organization of their own work area. Not trusting people with a flat organization structure of largely self-directed teams. Not expecting (and measuring) every person to contribute to continuous improvement.

Unsafe or unergonomic work conditions.

Anything that has potential to harm anyone. Office work conditions that cause carpel tunnel, eye fatigue, chronic back pain... Conditions that compromise the health and productivity of workers in any way.

Confusion. Anything that causes uncertainty about the right thing to do.

Confusing goals. Confusing metrics. Confusing instructions. Missing pieces. Lack of training, coaching, support. Missing or confusing systems.

See more training for Lean Office

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How to eliminate the 7 forms of waste

Consistently-designed Word and Excel templates — with online training for dozens of field-proven lean methods

to identify and eliminate deadly wastes

Use your online training

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muda

Muda: Type one vs. type two

Waste is further categorized as:

1) Type one muda — pure waste

Pure waste. Adds no value and can be eliminated immediately.

"That's embarrassing. Let's stop doing that."

2) Type two muda — non value add

Adds no value, but is required for the way things are currently done.

Examples: inspection, paperwork, and most of the above types of deadly waste

 

 

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user

User-defined types of waste

See the online training for your

• Process Observation template (Observation.xlsx)
• Yamazumi template (Yamazumi.xlsx)
• Standard Work template (StdWork.xlsx)
• Value Stream Mapping template (VSM.xlsx)

 

      

Download free trial

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how

How to use your

Lean Waste Walk template

aka Waste Walk template, 8 Wastes template, or 7 Wastes template

Find and open your template

If you don't yet own a license, you can download your free muda template now.

(and this Muda template has no expiration — you can use it for the rest of your career as a free gift)

Save your working document

following the usual document storage and naming conventions established by your leaders

Open a Blank Sheet

Or... Insert Sheet

As an alternative to opening a stand-alone document (as instructed above),

you also have the option to Insert Sheet into any other Excel workbook.

If English is not your preferred language

Switch to your language, just like every Systems2win Excel template.

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Now you are ready to start observing

Muda Lean Waste

Print your Muda Observation sheet

Observe

There are many ways to observe waste. Here are two popular methods.

Option 1) Stand in a Circle

Your sensei uses chalk to draw a circle on the floor, and gives you the instruction to stand in that circle for a specified amount of time (perhaps a half hour, perhaps a half day...)

and then discuss the types of waste that you observe, and your ideas for how to reduce the wastes you observe.

Option 2) Waste Walk

Launch your team

using the same tools and systems that you use to launch every process improvement team.

Train your people

using the training on this page, and your Muda template.

Ensure that everyone is very clear about your Operational Definitions for what is and is not waste,
perhaps using your Operational Definitions template. (Op_Def.xlsx)

Observe

Usually in pairs.

Be sure to follow the common courtesies taught for any type of Process Observation.

Discuss

Return to the group, and facilitate discussion about what was observed, and ideas for how to reduce wastes.

Lay out a Plan

Make a plan to implement your chosen counter-measures.

You could add columns to your Muda template

perhaps columns for Ideas, Approvals, Validation, etc.

Get Results

If you're not going to follow up to get results,

then why start?

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Return to Quick Start Training to quickly learn how to start using your new templates to identify and eliminate the deadly 8 wastes in your processes