As professionals, we always look for ways to work smarter, not harder. One of the core principles of Lean is the identification and elimination of waste - and trust me, it can make a HUGE difference in your productivity and efficiency.
In Lean, "waste" refers to ANY activity or process that does NOT ADD VALUE for the customer. For a more detailed explanation of the customer, see my article on The Voice of the Customer.
The 8 Types of Waste
1. Over-Production - Making more than is immediately required by the customer.
Example: Knitting 47 sweaters when you only know two people who might want one.
Professional examples:
- Printing handouts for 100 people when only 60 are attending the meeting.
- Creating detailed reports that nobody reads because they contain too much unnecessary information.
Personal examples:
- Making enough food for a small army when cooking for three.
- Writing overly lengthy emails to family members when a quick text would suffice.
2. Transportation - Unnecessary movement of materials, products, or information between locations (moving things around needlessly).
Example: Carrying a single paperclip across a massive office campus.
Professional examples:
- Moving products between multiple storage locations before final shipping or shipping items in partially loaded trucks or vessels.
- Repeatedly moving partially completed documents between departments located at opposite ends of the building instead of having an efficient workflow.
Personal examples:
- Not planning your route in advance and driving an extra 10 miles out of your way while running errands.
- Keeping your laundry detergent in the garage when your washing machine is upstairs, making you trek through the house for each load.
3. Inventory - Excess raw materials, work-in-progress, or finished products.
Example: Collecting so many shoes that you need a second closet just for footwear.
Professional examples:
- Buying excessive products that require large amounts of storage space.
- Routinely ordering months' worth of office and cleaning supplies, taking up valuable office space.
- Keeping outdated marketing materials "just in case," which clutter up storage areas and eventually become obsolete.
Personal examples:
- Hoarding clothes, books, or other possessions that you never use.
- Buying bulk perishable items that spoil before you can use them because they were on sale.
- Having so many cleaning supplies under your sink that you can't find what you need and end up buying duplicates.
4. Defects - Errors, rework, or corrections.
Example: Baking a cake so burnt it could double as a hockey puck.
Professional examples:
- Repeatedly having to fix formatting issues in a document.
- Having to redo a presentation because the initial requirements weren't clear.
- Sending out incorrect invoices because of a preventable data entry error.
Personal examples:
- Constantly having to re-do household repairs or DIY projects.
- Having to rewash clothes because you forgot them in the washing machine overnight.
- Needing to remake dinner because you misread the recipe instructions.
5. Over-Processing - Doing more work (adding extra steps or complexity) to a product or service that does not add value to the customer.
Example: Using a sledgehammer to hang a picture frame.
Professional examples:
- Requiring the over-involvement of people to review or examine an item when it may only take a few.
- Creating extravagant reports with unnecessary details.
Personal examples:
- Meticulously organizing your sock drawer when a quick sort would suffice.
- Ironing the back of shirts that will be covered by a jacket all-day.
6. Motion - Unnecessary physical movement of people within a process (the ergonomics and physical efficiency) of how people complete a task. Example: Dancing across the kitchen to grab a single salt shaker.
Professional examples:
- Constantly searching for misplaced tools or files on your cluttered desk.
- Having to constantly get up to use a shared printer that could be better positioned between team members.
- Searching through multiple poorly labeled digital folders across different drives to find commonly used documents.
Personal examples:
- Taking the long way around the house to get to a different room.
- Constantly reaching for high shelves or bending down low because kitchen items aren't organized by frequency of use.
- Walking back and forth between the garage and house multiple times while unloading groceries due to poor planning.
7. Waiting - Idle time when people, information, or goods are not moving.
Example: A sloth applying for a speed dating event.
Professional examples:
- Sitting in on lengthy meetings discussing information that could have been provided in an email.
- Customers waiting in a lobby or waiting room well beyond their scheduled appointment or standing in long checkout lines resulting in frustration and dissatisfaction.
- Having to pause work on a project because another department has not provided the necessary information or waiting for approval before being able to proceed.
Personal examples:
- Waiting in long lines because you didn't schedule an appointment or utilize online check-in options.
- Standing around watching the microwave when you could be doing other kitchen tasks.
8. Unused Talent - Not utilizing the full capabilities of your team.
Example: Asking a rocket scientist to sort recyclables.
Professional examples:
- Failing to delegate tasks that play to your employee's strengths.
- Having a tech-savvy employee spend time on basic data entry instead of process improvement.
- Not asking for input from experienced team members when planning new projects.
Personal examples:
- Not pursuing a hobby or creative outlet that you're passionate about.
- Not teaching your tech-savvy teenager how to program the Smart Home devices.
- Struggling with basic home repairs when your neighbor is a skilled handyperson who'd be happy to teach you.
Is There an Easy Way to "Remember" the 8 Waste?
While there is an acronym that many practitioners may use (TIMWOODS) to remember the 8 types of waste, I align with Paul Akers' more intuitive approach. Rather than memorizing a predetermined sequence, it's far more valuable when you understand each type of waste and how they naturally flow into one another within your specific situation. This organic understanding allows you to spot waste more effectively and develop more meaningful solutions.
Paul Akers: How to NOT memorize the 8 wastes
The beauty of the Lean approach is that by identifying and addressing the types of waste, you can streamline your processes, boost your productivity, and free up time and resources for what really matters. It's all about continuous improvement—taking a critical look at what you're doing and finding ways to do it better.
So the next time you catch yourself or your team engaged in any of these wasteful activities, take a step back and ask yourself:
How can I eliminate any unnecessary steps?
How can I make this process more efficient?
By making waste reduction a priority, you'll be well on your way to unlocking your full potential, both at work and in your personal life.
