MUDA - the elimination of waste
Waste is all arround us. Some of it is visible, much of it is not. Waste exists in many forms - waste materials by over ordering, wrong ordering, obsolescence due to unscheduled design changes etc. Slow running processes, long process set ups, over stocking, slow moving finished goods stocks etc. These costs can and often do account for 20% and often much more of sales revenue and experience shows that these costs can be dramatically reduced using the concepts of Lean Manufacture.
Thius course is designed to provide an appreciation of the impact of these costs on your work environment and to show how they can be eliminated.
We can also assist in the training of your personnel if we are asked to assist with the implementation of the topics covered.
Excerpt from David Hutchins new book Hoshin Kanri -The strategic approach to continuous improvement
The Seven Forms of Waste A few years before the “The machine that changed the world” was published Taiichi Ohno had published a book called “Toyota Production System” in it he had explained the main foundations of “lean” manufacturing. These principles guided the Japanese companies that were found to be “world class”. Taiichi Ohno devised 7 categories which cover virtually all of the means by which manufacturing organisations waste or lose money; these have become known as “The 7 wastes”. Waste is the use of resources over and above what is actually required to produce the product as defined by the customer. If the customer does not need it or will not pay for it then it is waste, this includes material, machines and labour. The Japanese word for waste is “muda” and is often used in books, training courses and by lean consultants to mean waste. The 7 wastes described by Ohno are:
1. Over production - Producing more than the customer requires. 2. Waiting - Waiting for upstream products or advice, information or assistance. - Excessive machine time/downtime 3. Transportation - Work in progress - Bad organisation - Double handling, poor handling - Moving items over long distances 4. Over Processing - Making more than the customer requirement - Doing more than necessary 5. Inventory - Stocks of parts or materials not being worked upon and stored between operations 6. Motion - Excessive walking - Searching for tools / parts 7. Scrap/Rework - Making defective parts - Re-work Others have included additional categories which include; - Untapped human potential
- Inappropriate systems
- Energy and water
- Pollution
Ohno’s “7 wastes” are a convenient way to classify the problems within a company which are causing the waste in first place, they do play a valuable role in tackling inefficiency and reducing operating costs.
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