How do you measure the impact of waste reduction on productivity and quality?

1 Types of waste

Before you can measure the impact of waste reduction, you need to identify the types of waste that exist in your process. Lean manufacturing defines eight types of waste, also known as muda, that can affect your productivity and quality. These include overproduction, which is producing more than customer demand or before it is needed; waiting, which is idle time between processes or activities; transportation, which is moving materials or products unnecessarily or inefficiently; inventory, which is storing excess materials or products that incur costs and risks; motion, which is unnecessary or excessive movement of people or equipment; defects, which are errors or faults that require rework or scrap; overprocessing, which is doing more work than required or adding features that the customer does not value; and skills, which is underutilizing or misusing the talents and capabilities of your employees. By recognizing and eliminating these types of waste, you can streamline your process, optimize your resources, and increase your value.

2 Waste reduction techniques

There are many techniques and tools that can help you reduce waste in your lean manufacturing process, such as value stream mapping, 5S, kaizen, poka-yoke, kanban, and just-in-time. Value stream mapping is a visual tool that maps the flow of materials and information from the supplier to the customer, highlighting value-added and non-value-added activities and sources of waste. 5S is a method that organizes the workplace into five stages: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain to eliminate clutter, improve efficiency, and maintain order. Kaizen is a philosophy and practice that involves continuous improvement through small and incremental changes, involving everyone in the process. Poka-yoke is a technique that prevents or detects defects by designing error-proofing mechanisms or devices into the process. Kanban is a system that controls the flow of work by using visual signals to indicate the status and availability of materials or products. Just-in-time is a strategy that synchronizes production with customer demand to reduce inventory and overproduction. By applying these techniques and tools, you can eliminate waste, improve flow, and enhance quality.

3 Waste reduction metrics

To measure the impact of waste reduction on productivity and quality, you need to define and track some key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics include cycle time, throughput, lead time, inventory turnover, scrap rate, rework rate, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. By monitoring and analyzing these KPIs, you can quantify the benefits of waste reduction on productivity and quality and identify opportunities for further improvement.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?