Waste is a challenge for every organisation, yet much of it goes unnoticed because it is built into the way a business operates day to day. A great deal of waste is absorbed into production costs, and suppliers that manage their internal processes well tend to be the ones that survive and prosper. Consumer preference for convenience and trend can also mean that a degree of waste becomes bound up in the product itself and the satisfaction it delivers. Reducing waste, therefore, begins with recognising where it occurs.
Changing consumer behaviour is a long-term societal issue, and without wider intervention or the economic pressure of genuine shortages, the most effective place for an organisation to focus is on what it can control within its own operations.
Why waste matters to productivity
The first step is to accept that waste exists and that it is a function of everyday working life. A significant proportion of what any organisation does adds little or no value in the eyes of its customers. An organisation can live with a degree of inefficiency, and the 80:20 rule often holds true, but as market-facing organisations know, wants and needs change, and new technology both helps and hinders processes and people. The underlying principle is that waste exists and will continue to grow without deliberate intervention, eventually leading to uncompetitive performance.
The eight key sources of waste
A useful way to begin a waste audit is to use the DOWNTIME approach, which identifies eight key sources of waste in any process:
- Defects — products or services that are out of specification and require resources to correct.
- Overproduction — producing too much of a product before it is ready to be sold.
- Waiting — waiting to start the next step or action of a process.
- Non-utilised talents — workers who are not efficiently or effectively engaged in achieving tasks.
- Transportation — moving physical or virtual items that do not add value from one location to another, and often back again.
- Inventory — any item, physical or virtual, that is sitting idle and not being processed.
- Motion — people, information or equipment making unnecessary movement due to layout, design or ergonomics, including searching for misplaced items.
- Extra processing — performing any action that is not necessary to produce the product or service the customer actually wants.
Turning the audit into action
From a waste audit of this kind, an organisation should be able to identify clear areas for improvement and increase its productivity. Adding a metric, a value or a key performance indicator to each area enables priorities to be set and change to be managed and embedded, rather than identified and forgotten. The aim is not a single one-off exercise but a culture in which reducing waste becomes part of how the organisation works.
How Professional Academy Supports Your Journey
Tackling waste is not a new challenge, but building a culture that consistently identifies and reduces it often benefits from structured support. Professional Academy delivers management and leadership training designed to help organisations reduce inefficiency, increase productivity and align their capacity and capabilities with market needs. To discuss how this could benefit your organisation, the team can talk through the options.
Find out more about in-company training or speak directly with the team.
