Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt – The 8 types of muda examples and general solutions Part 2

3. The Waste of Transportation

Welcome back everyone. By now you have a general understanding of waste and have probably began to see and identify many examples of the eight types of muda. Now it’s time for us to look at each of the letters in Mr. Tim woods name with a magnifying glass. In this lecture, we will look at the details of the waste of transportation. By the end of this lecture, you will know what the waste of transportation is, what some of the more common causes of this type of waste are, and we will discuss some of the general solutions and steps you can begin to take to start removing transportation waste today. Before we get started, let’s first remind ourselves what the formal definition of transportation waste is.

Well, formally defined, transportation waste is any unnecessary movement of people, products, materials or information. Additionally, since transportation more often than not does not transform or add value at most levels of the value stream, we must remain aware that most forms of transportation are in fact muda. As an aside, most logistics can only be considered as value added to a value stream if the inventory is strategically placed to achieve sales.

However, in most cases, strategic set up of inventory is rather expensive and in fact, any inventory which does not support needed demand is considered waste. Some examples of the waste of transportation are moving parts across facilities, walking excessive distances to retrieve tools, parts or other needed supplies. And finally, when you have to retrieve or store information, files and data, there are many different methods by which you can use to calculate how serious the type of transportation waste is.

Some methods that we have used in the past are using a measuring wheel to gauge the distance, calculating the amount of time it takes to go and get something, mapping out the value stream with appropriate data collected, or by reviewing your line haul costs. Once you have an appropriate gauge of just how severe the observed transportation waste is, it’s time to start moving towards solutions. While there is in fact many different ways to solve or minimize the waste of transportation, some of the more common methods of correction that can be applied to the waste of transportation include the following when looking to remove transportation waste within your organization, a powerful technique that is often avoided is moving from a functional type layout to a cellular environment. The cell type layout can help to establish flow and keep supplies near the point of use. On a side note, moving materials to the point of use can be a solution in itself which oftentimes requires no investment other than time to move materials closer to the point of use.

As you can see here, cellular layouts can be established in shops, offices and many other industries. Another very common method of reducing the waste of transportation is to map the value stream out for the product family or the activities experiencing this severe type of waste. This can help you visualize the excessive waste and take the necessary actions to reduce or remove any unnecessary transportation. I’d like to touch on one more element of the reduction that pertains to transportation. That element is the cost element that many organizations incur as a result of logistics that are poorly designed. Please note though, that when seeking to reduce costs related to logistics, it is best not to just factor the line hall costs, but to look at the total cost of ownership.

Once this analysis has been done, some options like using three PL or four PL partners may be profitable way of reducing costs and utilizing your resources for core competencies. Well, now that you know what the waste of transportation is, it’s time to get a little hands on experience with transportation waste. On the screen you will see K and K’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich line. As you can see, Kay goes and gets the bread, then travels back to pick up the peanut butter before moving on to get the jelly. And finally a sandwich bag. Quite a process, isn’t it? In the handout section of this lecture, you will use a tool called a spaghetti graph to show the flow at KN’s. After you get done laying your noodles out, you’ll then calculate the distance of transportation. Once you have done this, you will then brainstorm and rearrange KN’s kitchen in an attempt to minimize the amount of unnecessary transportation that takes place. Well, good luck to you. Be sure to read the instructions and once you complete your activity, send the homework back to a coach for review. Now that wraps up our detailed look at the waste of transportation. It’s time for you to get to work. So until next time, keep on improving and we will keep on giving you solutions that ignite your power.

4. The Waste of Inventory

Welcome back everyone. By now you have a general understanding of waste and have probably began to see and identify many examples of the eight types of muda. In order to understand each form of waste at a more advanced level, we are going to look in detail at each of the letters in Mr. Tim woods name. In this lecture we will will look at the waste of inventory. By the end of this lecture, you will know what the different types of inventory are, the effects of excess inventory and some of the common solutions for reducing inventory waste. Let’s get started here by first reminding ourselves that inventory waste is any unnecessary storage of materials, products or information. Now specifically, inventory includes raw materials, work in progress, finished goods and MRO items that are used for supporting activities and operations.

One thing to keep in mind is that the type of inventory items something may be classified as depends upon where it lies in the value stream and what its purpose ultimately may be. A few examples of the different types of inventory waste are excessive raw materials unsold finished goods excessive amounts of MRO items information that is being stored but not used excessive supplies including office supplies and emails just sitting in your inbox. It is very important when seeking to reduce inventory that you are very cautious. Remember, the purpose of inventory is to support organizational strategy, operations, financial objectives and create a balance between efficiency, service and investment cost objectives.

Too much inventory can leave an organization starving with tied up capital and too little inventory can sometimes frustrate customers and drive them to other opportunities. Given those important purposes of inventory, we must be cautious that one action does not disrupt another. It is important to clarify that inventory can be seen as both an asset and a cost, but more than likely a cost. One of the reasons is that all forms of inventory require an investment with no guarantee of what your return on investment will be. Every piece of inventory which has no clear demand, causes you to risk obsolescence, damage, carrying costs and all with the possibility of never earning any type of return. For those reasons, we must understand how serious excess inventory is. We need to first ensure that we clearly understand every form of inventory. If you remember in the overview, we defined inventory as the unnecessary storage of materials, products, information and data.

That knowledge, combined with our new knowledge that there are raw materials, work in progress, finished goods and MRO. Forms of inventory should help you understand that inventory waste is all throughout the value stream. In fact, it has been said that in a supply chain, as much as 60% of the balance sheet can be tied up in inventory. With that amount of company funds tied up in inventory, I’m sure you can see how wasteful excessive inventory is. But how do we get so much inventory waste in our organizations. Well, inventory waste is a result of safety stock that is built up to protect from delayed orders and shortages, poor scheduling such as push type environments, and basing our scheduling on forecast which as we all know, are almost always wrong. The bottom line is any type of inventory that requires an investment and investments always cost something, but don’t always guarantee a return value. And that means waste. So what can we do to minimize and begin to eliminate the waste of inventory? Well, first and foremost, the flow of materials and information must be reviewed. By establishing a healthy flow, you can expect to eliminate many waiting points where inventory piles up.

Another added benefit of reducing inventory is that as waiting or queue points begin to disappear, the overall lead time of items and services will naturally go down as well. The next concept that will work in any work environment when it comes to lowering inventory is working based on real customer demand. What we mean specifically is to produce only what the customer is pulling for. And finally, mapping the value stream out and reducing other types of waste will reduce an organization’s need to carry and hold excessive inventory amounts. One particular type of waste that you can focus on is overproduction. By producing goods and services in accordance with the customer’s needs, inventory will naturally go down. Well, that wraps up our detailed look at the waste of inventory. So until next time my friends, keep on improving and we will keep on giving you solutions that ignite your power.

5. The Waste of Motion

Welcome back everyone. By now you have a general understanding of waste and have probably began to see and identify many examples of the eight types of muda. In order to understand each form of waste at a more advanced level, we are going to look in detail at each of the letters in Mr. Tim woods name. In this section, we will look look at the waste of motion. By the end of this lecture, you will know and understand the difference between motion and transportation waste. You will also learn why motion waste can be so dangerous. And finally, we will give you some of the more common solutions for reducing the waste of motion. Let’s get started by reminding ourselves that motion waste is any motion of people or machines that does not add value to the product, process or service in the eyes of the customer. With that said, motion waste is oftentimes confused with transportation waste. They are not the same.

The easiest way to identify the difference between the waste of motion and the waste of transportation is that transportation waste deal specifically with materials and information. While motion directly relates to people and machines, it is actually quite common for the two types of waste to go hand in hand. With that said, motion is oftentimes a dangerous waste that can result in injured employees, broken machines, or dangerous habits that can put long term strain on both machines and employees. Some of the more common examples of the waste of motion are excessive walking by employees and or people looking through toolboxes drawers and other types of bins to find the right tools or supplies, reaching too high or bending too low, twisting, excessive clicking and keystrokes on a computer and retrieving hard to find pieces of data and information.

While many of these examples probably sound all too familiar, understanding what creates motion waste is sometimes a journey in itself. The waste of motion is often caused by poor work layouts, like the functional environments we spoke about earlier and widely spaced out equipment. Another very common cause of the waste of motion is when ergonomics are not taken into consideration. Believe it or not, the maintenance man who sets up an area may not be the same height or have the same reach as the worker who will eventually be using the area. This often causes the worker to strain when reaching for things or work in awkward positions which wear on an employee’s body. There are, in fact, many different solutions when it comes to the waste of motion. One of the most effective ways you can begin reducing motion waste is by defining and establishing standard work practices in your organization. Standard work will allow you to see abnormalities and create optimal processes that reduce motion. Additionally, standard work characterizes the safest and best practices available while still allowing employees to review and improve necessary processes as they gain knowledge. Another very important principle when it comes to creating safe and comfortable working environments is that you should always include the people at the Gamba.

Whether you are laying out process flow or setting up an employee’s new desk, workers who do the work themselves will almost always know the safest and most efficient methods of getting a job done. Interacting and including these people from the Gamba will help ensure areas are set up with cross functional development and that all standards are as safe as they can be. One last method of reducing motion is to use automation and robotics to your advantage. Technology can oftentimes assist in creating a safer, repeatable and efficient environment. This, of course, should be your very last consideration when designing a process with minimal motion.

Waste well, that concludes our detailed view of the waste of motion. But before we go, let’s have a look at your homework first. As you will see on the screen, there are a few photos of people who may not be doing their activities in the safest, most efficient manner. Each of these photos has a box below them where you will first identify the form of waste in the photo and then write down some ideas about how these forms of waste could be removed. Be aware that you will certainly see more forms of waste than just motion in the photos, so be sure to document them when you complete the handouts. Please send them into a coach so we can review your hard work. And that wraps up this lecture. So until next time, keep on improving and we will keep on giving you solutions that ignite your power.