Discuss what you know on the lean thinking, system, and types of waste with giving examples
The lean thinking system refers to a business methodology whose main aim is to provide a new way of thinking on how to organize human activities to deliver more benefits to society as well as the value people while eliminating waste. Under the lean thinking system, there are seven types of wastes. They include; defects, overproduction, inventory, motion, overprocessing, waiting and transport.
Defects
This kind of waste is related to materials and time spent in doing something of low quality and later on scraping or fixing it. For example, wrong data entry, broken parts, and software bugs.
Overproduction
Overproduction entails producing more of a product than required or consumed. Production of too many products tends to exacerbate wastes of inventory, motion, and transport. For example, printing and filing irrelevant documents or preparing food that is partially eaten.
Inventory
This kind of waste entails storing materials or products that are not required at that particular time. Excess inventory causes other types of wastes such as waste of cost linked with physical inventory as well as a waste of space for storing unnecessary documents. A good example is the excess production of printed forms.
Motion
This waste involves non-essential movement of items or people within the workplace. Examples include; disorganized workplace or people searching for tools.
Overprocessing
Overprocessing involves doing tasks that do not add any value to clients. In lean, people can stop carrying out some tasks instead of figuring out how to perform them. For example, ordering irrelevant tests for patients.
Transportation
This type of waste entails moving tools, people or inventory over further distances than required. This can result in exhaustion, product damage or unnecessary work. For example, moving patients from one department to another.
Waiting
This type of waste involves patients or customers sitting idle. The process happens when an individual is ready for the following step but the process is not ready to accommodate them. A good example is patients in the waiting rooms.