Wastes in an Organisation: Waiting
- Zeynep Yalcin Parks
- Jan 29, 2020
- 4 min read
I wrote about the eight most common wastes in an organisation in my previous blog post and explained the waste "Defects". My post on Overproduction waste can also be found here. This one is for the third waste of DOWNTIME: Waiting.
Definition: By dictionary definition waiting is the act of staying in one place or remaining inactive in expectation of something. Waiting happens when work has to stop for some reason. Whatever the cause is, a bottleneck needs to be cleared. In manufacturing waiting of the product can happen between stations or the end product might be waiting on shelves or in warehouse. Waiting for a previous process, product or information causes also staff to wait. In the office, waiting waste can include waiting for information or an email response in order to progress, an insufficient or broken equipment such as printer, the computer to load a program, having files waiting for review and ineffective meetings. In a production company office waiting can also cause waiting in manufacturing as equipment capacity can’t be managed well with poor or untimely information. In a service company delays in providing the service which is a waiting waste can cause customer dissatisfaction. Waiting ties up significant capital in many businesses and the cost of capital can increase the other costs throughout the organisation. When a product or a member of the staff is sitting, no value is being produced.
Possible Causes of Waiting: Common causes of waiting include but not limited to:
Waiting for approval or materials
Broken equipment
Long set-up times
Unbalanced workloads causing staff to wait or overwhelm
Producing to a forecast instead of a "pull" system where customer demands trigger for work to be done.
Insufficient staffing
Unexpected work absences
Poor process quality (unbalanced processes causing staff to wait or work less efficiently).
Time required for rework due to poor product quality
Poor communication, information or lack of them
Unplanned downtime (any unforeseen event that reduces return on investment by causing disruptions in quality, cost and cycle time).
Overproduction Waste (Extra material handling can cause use of resources and waiting waste somewhere else. My previous post on overproduction waste can be found here).
Inventory Waste ( to be explained in future posts).
Possible Impacts of Waiting: Consequences of above causes include but not limited to:
Loss of time
Cost of no added value time spent by the staff
Overtime at higher staff rates to compensate waiting
Increased inventory costs when products wait in the warehouse
Unused (idle) equipment and therefore loss of capital
Possible Solutions:
Provide adequate staff to handle the workload at the bottlenecks
Companies might often think they save costs by minimising staff numbers but when a closer analysis is done, hidden costs such as waiting waste are actually more costly than having properly staffed systems.
Re-design the processes to ensure even production flow. Takt time and Yamazumi boards will help ensure that the processes are better matched with regards to cycle times.
"Takt time" is the rate at which you need to complete the production process in order to meet customer demand. The formula is the amount of available time in the work day divided by the customer demand. The term Takt time drives from Japanese word takutotaimu, which in turn was drived from the German word Taktzeit, meaning clock interval. It establishes the pace or “drum beat” of the process.
A Yamazumi board (or Yamazumi chart) is a stacked bar chart that shows the source of the cycle time in a given Process. The chart is used to graphically represent processes for optimisation purposes. The Yamazumi board provides a mechanism to quickly rebalance a process when takt changes, and allows a visual indication of which operations are overloaded (beyond takt), and which are under-utilised. It is a great visual tool to show where delays, wastage and blocks are happening.
Improve machine reliability and quality using Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and quality tools.
Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a method of maintaining and improving the integrity of production, safety and quality systems through the machines, equipment, processes and employees. TPM was first developed in 1969 by Japanese automotive supplier company Nippon Denso Co. ( part of Toyota Motors) under the leadership of Mr. Seiichi Nakajima of the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM), Tokyo who introduced autonomous and preventive maintenance to machines as a part of improvement project. TPM was further developed and refined in Japan during the following decade, and reached America in the mid-1980s.TPM is especially important for companies with a lot of machines that involve high maintenance costs.
Apply a "Pull" system where customer demands trigger for work to be done
Standardise instructions and processes
Standardise training
Develop multi-skilled, flexible human resources so that people can respond quickly and be re-tasked to other areas as demand changes
Reduce overproduction and inventory to minimize transport and movement between and within operations.
Use visual methods of planning and have short daily meetings to ensure that everyone is clear what is required for the day.
Waste of waiting may be more difficult to notice within a process, as it may be overlooked or considered “necessary”. Whatever the case, this waste, like all other wastes, must be identified and eliminated. By eliminating or reducing waiting waste you will improve the productivity, reduce your costs and increase profit.
Zeynep Yalcin Parks is lead consultant at Derin Consulting. She helps organisations become better at achieving their purpose. She can help you find the wastes within your organisation and the right solutions to eliminate them .
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Get in touch: hello@derinconsulting.com.
Visit our website: www.derinconsulting.com. * Cover photo by Mpho Mojapelo on Unsplash.
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