.       The Seven Manufacturing Wastes - A Primer 1. Over-production is highly costly to a manufacturing plant because it prohibits the smooth flow of materials and actually degrades quality and productivity. Producing more than what can immediately be sold (or shipped) tends to result in excessive lead times and a build-up of work-in-process (WIP) inventories. This, in turn, leads to a late detection of any quality defects, a decoupling of work centers, poor internal communications and utter confusion on the plant floor. The solution: schedule and produce only what can be immediately sold/shipped, and improve machine changeover/set-up capability. 2. Waiting. Whenever goods are not moving or being processed, the waste of waiting occurs. In most facilities, products spend more time in queue (a non-value-adding activity) than they do in actual production (value-added). Much of a product's lead time is tied up in waiting for the next operation, usually because material flow is poor, production runs are too long and geographical distances between work centers are too great. 3. Transportation is wasteful because the movement of goods between work centers and the double-handling of work orders do not add value for the customer. They do, however, add significant cost to the organization. Excessive movement and handling cause damage and excessive distances between work centers inhibits communication and feedback on corrective action. Finally, material handlers must be used to transport the materials -- another organizational cost that adds no customer value. 4. Excess processing refers to the use of large, complex machines rather than small, flexible ones. Inflexible machines tend to result in poor plant layout because preceding and subsequent operations are located far apart. In addition, they encourage high asset utilization (over-production with minimal changeovers) in order to recover the high cost of this equipment. The solution: invest in smaller, more flexible equipment, if possible, and create manufacturing cells (or work cells). 5. Excess inventory tends to hide problems on the plant floor, which must be identified and resolved in order to improve operating performance. Excessive inventories increase lead times, consume productive floor space, delay the identification of problems and inhibit communications. By achieving a seamless flow between work centers, many manufacturers have been able to slash inventories and the costs associated with them, and improve customer service. 6. Excess motion refers to the ergonomics of plant personnel at the work center. Excessive bending, walking, stretching and lifting is physically tiring, wastes time, presents a safety hazard and lowers productivity. Jobs with excessive motion should be analyzed and redesigned for improvement with the involvement of plant personnel. 7. Product quality defects directly impact the bottom line and include scrap, rework and the costs associated with quarantining inventory, reinspection, rescheduling and capacity loss. Not surprisingly, the total cost of defects is often a significant percentage of total manufacturing cost! Through employee involvement mechanisms and a focus on Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), there is a huge opportunity to reduce defects at many facilities. .