Lean is a way of running operations that takes waste out of the work, so more of what people do adds value for the customer. It grew out of the Toyota Production System. It isn't a toolkit, a piece of software or a one-week workshop. The tools (5S, kanban, A3 and the rest) only help when people use them every day to see problems and fix them.
Value is anything the customer would pay for: a step that changes the shape, fit or function of the product. Everything else is waste. Some waste is needed for now, like an inspection your customer requires. Most of it isn't needed at all.
There are 8 wastes. The easy way to remember them is DOWNTIME (some teams use TIMWOODS, same eight):
- Defects: scrap, rework and anything made wrong.
- Overproduction: making more, or sooner, than the next step needs.
- Waiting: people or machines idle for parts, approvals or information.
- Non-utilized talent: skills and ideas nobody asks for.
- Transportation: moving material that doesn't need to move.
- Inventory: stock sitting between steps or in the warehouse.
- Motion: walking, reaching, bending, searching for tools.
- Extra processing: more work than the customer needs, like entering the same data twice.
Taiichi Ohno, who built the Toyota Production System, called overproduction the worst of them. It creates the others and hides them under piles of stock.
Your action for today
Pick one area. Stand there for 15 minutes and watch. Write down every waste you see, using the eight letters as your checklist. Don't fix anything yet. Just see it.
Here's a free waste walk checklist to print and take with you:
Waste walk checklist (TIMWOODS)