Shhhh… herein lies the secret! The secret of companies that have successfully practiced Lean Management; the secret of people and organizations that have figured out how to do more with less; the secret that delivers more value to the customer for less cost, time, effort and energy.
I recently read about the great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar and his story about the frog and boiling water. Basically, put a frog in boiling water, it feels the pain and it tries to jump out. Put a frog in room temperature water, slowly turn up the heat and the frog won’t sense the change. It is lured to its death by gradual change.
Companies, organizations and even we are somewhat like a frog when it comes to waste. If we see hundred dollar bills being thrown from our window, we would all stop to question the insanity. But a few pennies here or there may not be noticed. Our challenge is recognizing wasted time, effort and energy as cost or money before it kills our productivity and profitability. The secret to Lean Management is the elimination of this wasted time, effort and engergy or as they call it in Japan, Muda
While the theory and application of Lean Management originated in the Western hemisphere, it is Japanese companies that are known for its application and development. Muda is a Japanese term for waste made popular by Taiichi Ohno, an engineer with Toyota Motor Sales.
Taiichi is often credited with defining 7 Types of Muda; Overproduction, Waiting, Conveyance, Processing, Inventory, Motion and Correction. By Lean definition, Muda, or waste is anything that does not add value but consumes resources. Virtually any form of waste or muda can be placed in one of these 7 categories.
Consider your appliance repairman; he will need to generate a minimum amount of revenue each year to stay in business. If he must drive an extra 50 miles to your house, return for a failed repair attempt, or wait at a counter of a parts supplier for necessary components, the expense of his time will need to be covered. He may not bill you or another customer directly, but we all know that these costs will be absorbed through increased rates or fees in the course of his business.
In the future I will expand on the 7 forms of waste, plus an 8th form for larger organizations and how they might be eliminated. In the meantime, take some time each day to consider your actions. How much of your time is truly productive and how much is not? How much extra effort or energy to expend unnecessarily each day? How much extra tools, equipment or supplies have you accumulated that don’t benefit you or your customers?
When we open our eyes and truly see, we find that we waste more than we ever considered!
