Classic Wastes

Classic Wastes hinder productivity. In a highly competitive world, it is impossible to offset lower productivity by raising prices to enhance the top line. Hence, it is necessary to build effective systems, and one of the ways to do that is to understand the ‘wastages’ and eliminate them.

Unlike the other categories of work, unplanned work is recovery work, which almost always takes you away from your goals. That’s why it’s so important to know where your unplanned work is coming from.

The Phoenix Project

Words like Muda, Muri, and Mura have been popular since the advent of lean manufacturing as an effective tool to enhance productivity in manufacturing processes. Recognized as the 3Ms of wastage in manufacturing, they are all related to each other in one way or another. The literal meaning of the three terms is waste (Muda), overburden (Muri), and unevenness (Mura). Let us now look at each one of them one at a time:

Muda

Muda refers to the wastage of unnecessary activities. It is said to occur when the organization’s time, money, and other resources are used without adding any value to the customer. The best practice for recognizing Muda is identifying the activities that need to be eliminated or at least reduced. Seven basic types of Mudas have been identified:

• Transportation
• Inventory
• Motion
  • Bending
  • Reaching
  • Searching
• Waiting
• Over-processing
• Overproducing
• Defects

Overproduction:

This kind of wastage occurs when the production output is much higher than the product needed for the next process or customer. Generally, overproduction is most common when the manufacturer adopts the mindset of ‘just in case’; however, this wastes production time, resources, and storage space. For example, consider the case if the customer decides not to take the product or the product spoils before the actual delivery.

Inventory:

Inefficient planning of inventory leads to further wastage. Once extra materials are ordered, there may be a possibility of wastage due to changes in product specifications, storage, and handling. Similarly, underproduction leads to stopped production and waiting!

Waiting:

Waiting describes time spent not working due to needless bottlenecks. While on the job, examples of waiting include wastage of the operator’s time in avoidable events like failure of equipment, late arrival of necessary tools, lack of trained staff, inefficient planning, and idle machine time. These events hamper production, delay delivery, and can even cause you to miss important deadlines. Moreover, just imagine you are paying people for sitting idle and waiting for things to fall in time.

Defects:

Defects and broken parts will surely make a customer unhappy. The company would then be busy solving problems, fixing defects, and paying the customer for the issues.

Motion:

Wastage is due to the unnecessary movement of parts and products between different processes and places. It generally happens due to inefficient work processes, non-standardized procedures, and untrained staff.

Over-processing:

Unnecessary performance of any process due to design failure or usage of poor quality tools and processes. It leads to a wastage of time, resources, and energy to produce products and generally results from unnecessary manufacturing steps, outdated processes, and methods.

Transport & Handling:

This Muda can be seen in shipping damage, packing material wastage, wasteful space utilization while loading trucks, and inefficient staff motions while lifting and handling materials and products.

Muri

Muri is wastage caused due to overburdening your machines and staff. It causes stress and pressure on your human and physical resources by placing unnecessary and unreasonable demands on them. Furthermore, it should be noted that Muri even leads to Muda by adding non-value-adding steps within the process. Some of the instances of Muri include working on processes without proper training, unclear instructions, lack of proper tools and equipment, and poor communication tools.

It is essential to eliminate or at least reduce Muri. Remember that a ‘penny saved is better than a penny earned.’ When the company stresses its resources, it hampers productivity and certainly impacts the bottom line in a bad way. Hence, it is extremely important to undertake all efforts to create efficient processes that help to maximize the yield without overburdening the staff and machinery.

Mura

Mura refers to a type of inconsistency or irregularity. This inconsistency can be witnessed in many parts of a production system, including material flow, uneven demands of the customer, fluctuating inventory, inconsistent quality of goods produced, uneven staff training, uneven workflow distribution, and erratic work schedules.

Mura leads to the accumulation of Muda, hampers the production schedules, inventory, and other wastages, and adversely affects the company’s profitability.

Effects of Eliminating the Classic Wastes on Quality

Elimination of wastes like storage, transport, and handling can help increase quality–even more so than some improvements to standard work, like standard worksheets.

Things like set-up reduction improve productivity and efficiency more than they do quality.

Lean Classic Wastes Videos

ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Classic Wastes Questions

Question: Correction, over-production, inventory, and motion are all examples of
(A) waste
(B) 5S target areas
(C) noise
(D) value-added activities

Answer:

A: Waste. These are all examples of waste. 5S is a framework for improving inefficiencies in the shop. And value-added activities are things a client would pay for, the direct opposite of the items lists.