Foresee challenges in your business process.

Practicing a process becomes a challenge when it goes wrong and results that we don’t desire or anticipate. The lean methodology calls those unwanted elements in a circle “Wastes.” It happens in a process for many reasons, such as new suggestions, market changes, etc., making it difficult for us to understand where we are going wrong.

The lean methodology provides a way to understand the types of wastes which is DOWNTIME which is an acronym of

Defects: Information or products or services in a process that is inaccurate or incomplete. Example: Wrong entry in the system results in failed delivery to the customer.

Overproduction: Producing more within the process earlier than the next step in the process needs it. Example: Distributing emails and documents to many people in the organization relevant to very few.

Waiting: They are considered a noticeable delay in the process from one stage to the next. Example: Delay in the approval because the manager is on a business trip.

Non-utilized talent: Critical resources are not used when it is required in the process. Example: Office manager knows automation practices but engaged for regular office supplies management.

Transportation: Unnecessary flow or movement of materials or information TO and FRO in the process. Example: Sending emails between each department many times for approvals.

Inventory: Storing supplies or items more than required for the process to perform. Example: Buying many office supplies even while vendors provide same-day delivery.

Motion: Frequent people activities in the process which do not add any value to the business. Example: Opening up multiple applications and navigating various screens to find the required information to work.

Extra-Processing: Redoing things multiple times repeatedly which adds no value to the process. Example: Unnecessary filling of forms, documents, and templates with too many fields

Sometimes we don’t even identify the waste in a process because it is being ignored for a long time, or maybe, we did not realize that it was there in the first place. Waste costs money because it is unnecessary time, labor, or material in the process. Generally, waste occurs in a process that doesn’t provide a satisfactory outcome. In some cases, waste creates customer satisfaction issues because it holds up the process or introduces undesirable elements or defects in the end product.