Why should you consider the 7 Wastes Programme? In your business, any process (what you do) either adds value, or waste to the production of an item or service and, because these activities are under your control, elimination of any waste is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability for your Company.

1. Seven Wastes Introduction

2. Seven Wastes
 In any business processes (what we do) either add value, or waste to the
production of an item or service.
 Waste elimination is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability in
businesses.
 To eliminate waste it is therefore important to fully understand exactly what waste
is and where it can be found.
 Toyota, the Japanese automobile manufacturer, after years of work to remove
waste identified the following seven wastes as the most prominent ones.
 A simple model has been developed to identify the wastes that have a high value
combined with ease of implementation
2

3. What are the 7 Wastes
1. Overproduction
2. Waiting
3. Transporting
4. Processing
5. Inventory
6. Motion
7. Defects

4. Seven Wastes
1. Overproduction
 Producing more than needed or to produce it before it is
required
 'Just in Case' instead of 'Just in Time'.
2. Waiting (Inefficient use of time)
 Waiting for the next operation
– Material flow may be poor
– production run too long
– Distances between work centres are too great.
It is not unusual for a product/service to spend 99% of its time waiting.
4

5. Seven Wastes
3. Transportation
 Customers do not want to have to pay for transportation between processes, so
this is a non-valued cost.
 Every transport event is an opportunity for damage/loss to occur
4. (Inappropriate) Processing
 Using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
 Are you using the right tool/process for the job?
 Are you using big expensive high precision equipment when simpler tools would
suffice?
 Are you using the right person for the job?

6. Seven Wastes
5. (Unnecessary) Inventory
 Work in Progress (WIP)
 A direct result of overproduction and waiting
 Reducing WIP allows the other problems/inefficiencies to surface
6. (Unnecessary) Motions
 Related to ergonomics and is seen in all instances of bending, stretching and
reaching.
 H&S considerations which in today's litigious society
are becoming more of an issue.
6

7. Seven Wastes
7. Defects
 Cost money either now or later and come directly from the bottom line.
• Internal defects found before sale and incur the costs of scrap, rework or
delays added to them.
• External defects which have been delivered to customers
» warranty claims
» onsite repairs
» potential loss of customer.
As a rule of thumb the cost of a defect increases tenfold for each production or
supply chain step.

8. Implementing 7 Wastes
• Pre-Activity
 Decide how to split the company into areas that will each look for wastes
 Select a team from across the company to champion the project
• First Meeting
 Explain the 7 wastes concept and answering any questions
 Identify where the greatest wastes are in each of the areas.
• Actions
 Teams tasked with sizing these and considering the ease of implementation to be
brought back to a second meeting

9. Implementing 7 Wastes
Second Meeting
 The team brings the information collected
 Information will be input to the model
 The three top areas agreed and the appropriate personnel tasked to create a plan
to address these in the next 8 weeks.
Third meeting
 Report on the progress to-date
 Identify the next three areas to address.

10. Case Studies
Client 1 - Turnover £4.5 million
• Identified £455,000 of potential improvement with 3 areas addressed which
delivered £200,000 annually
• Over-flat management structure
• Unbilled work
• Defect reporting system
Client 2 – Turnover £4.5 million
• Identified £1.4million saving
• Achieved £327,000 annual savings with an 8 week project

11. And Finally
7 Wastes is not a one off project but rather should become a way of
producing continuous improvement in any business.
Peter Henry Focus on Growth
peter.henry@focusongrowth.co.uk
Tel:01494 726467 Mob:07747 024577