ARTICLE

The 7 Wastes (Muda)

Identifying and eliminating non-value-added activities in your operations.

TIMWOOD

In Lean philosophy, waste is any activity that consumes resources but creates no value for the customer. The seven wastes were identified by Taiichi Ohno as the core of the Toyota Production System.

  1. Transportation: Unnecessary movement of materials or products.
  2. Inventory: Excess products and materials not being processed.
  3. Motion: Unnecessary movement by people (e.g., walking, reaching).
  4. Waiting: Wasted time waiting for the next process step.
  5. Overproduction: Producing more than is required by the customer. (Considered the worst waste).
  6. Overprocessing: Doing more work than is required (e.g., tighter tolerances than needed).
  7. Defects: Production that requires rework or scrap.