Various Available Six Sigma Training
The eight elements of waste is the focus of the Lean Six Sigma Process. It has been proven that by simply removing these areas of waste, the company will actually improve quality. Below you will find what the Lean process considers wastes, and examples of each.
-Wasted Human Talent: This category includes any employee that is not pulling their weight, thus slowing the process down. It also includes anyone without a specific job function within the process.
-Defects: This can be products or processes that are not right. These obviously need solutions to fix them before they can be eliminated.
-Inventory: This is when there is to much work that is on a waiting pile. For example, If you are a doctors office and you have to many patients waiting to be seen at one time.
-Overproduction: Having too much of anything before it is needed can get in the way of efficient process operation.
-Wasted time: Waiting on product to arrive, idle time that could be better spent on various processes or activities. Having five employees standing around waiting to unload a truck that hasn't arrived is a good example.
-Motion: When you are moving people around and it is not necessary to do so. An example of this would be, when a clinic send a patient that has an appointment to triage. Instead the patient should be going straight to the exam room.
-Transportation: Ineffective transportation that moves people and products can be wasteful when it isn't needed. Imagine a warehouse using a forklift to deliver items across the factory to a truck, when the production line could be streamlined to deliver right into the truck off of the line.
-Process Waste: Process Waste refers to any that a company requires to be complete, however it has no impact on the process, product or service that the company offers.
By utilizing Lean Six Sigma and understanding the areas of waste, you are sure to improve the quailty of the product that is produced by you company.
