The
9th Waste? 2/7/15 7:36 PM
At work, I teach Lean manufacturing principles
and practice to the entire workforce. For
the team to identify waste, I also teach the classical seven. They range from
defects, over production, waiting, transportation, inventory, motion to extra
processing. Before joining the current
manufacturing environment, I have worked as a Black Belt at a hospital. There
also I was involved in the teaching and applying DMAIC to the entire
organization. Besides the classic 7, I
came across this huge waste- “non un-utilized people, or under utilized people.” It is so prominent in healthcare, that you
don’t even have to look for it, it is there.
To give an example, nurses doing the work of secretaries. According to the Toyota Production System, or
the foundation for lean, the fourth principle is “respect for people.” So, ‘wastes are eight.’
These days, I have been involved with
leading many kaizen events at work. I am
beginning to realize that there is another type of waste: communication. As they say in real estate, “location,
location, location,” in healthcare and in manufacturing it is, “communication,
communication, communication.” The
interaction between managers and team members are so crucial, sometimes it also
become big distractions. They can become
potential sources of waste. So, I call
it the 9th waste.
Whether it is formal conversation such
as team meetings, coaching and performance discussion, they can lead to this
waste. (especially, if the managers and
subordinates are not well versed in business communications) Any unnecessary informal communication such
as phone calls, instant messages, link, can be potential waste. Even though they may look necessary, in a
manufacturing environment it can lead to negative productivity.
Most of the time these interactions or
communication can go awry and they become a burden than productive output. As a result they fail to meet the lean
objectives of the organization. Whether
it is manufacturing or service or healthcare, everyone need to strive to
eliminate waste. Industries have transformed in the last 30 plus years. From being applying lean gave many companies
a competitive advantage to now-a-days lean is necessary for them to even
survive.
It is high time, we ought to address
the 9th form of waste, workplace communications and worthless
interactions. Awareness and
identification of this type of waste can reduce all other types of waste.
Lean Leadership
In manufacturing, we are tasked
heavily to reduce the eight forms of waste.
Eliminating waste or Muda, is key to the financial performance of a
company. The organizational performance can be affected by the ineffective communication
between the leaders and whom they lead. If the message from the top is not
clear enough, it can create confusion in the camp, which can produce waste in
the form of confusion, conflict and lack of commitment.
So, fi the management is serious about
eliminating waste, they ought to heed to the softer skills such as effective
communication. A 2013 study shows that,
35 percent of supervisors and 20percent leaders lack these skills. Accenture
2013 Global Manufacturing Study
How can we apply the 9th
waste in Process?
In order for us to eliminate workplace
communication waste, the first step is to treat it same as other wastes. One way to combat the issue is to standardize
the communication process. Like assembly,
the communication process can standardized also. Once it is stabilized, apply PDCA format,
standardize and systemize it.
Think of all the meetings that you
attended was ran without an agenda. If
someone fail to review the WHOs, WHATs, and WHENs of next steps, there can be
no commitment and, consequently, no action. Only when such an initiative in
place you will be assured what action items were assigned to whom and what to
work on.
