Topic 37.2

During my tenure running the lean process improvement program I learned a great deal about the 'flow' of

work and the multitude of types of waste in an organization. There are the obvious wastes such as scrap material or re-work but the real waste is waiting, waiting for real work to arrive at your station.  That can take the form of material or products in production environments but even more loss-ridden is the waste related to waiting for information to make a decision, waiting for information for a design element, waiting for approvals, etc.

Many organizations believe that they have the best people.  Some organizations might but it's a feel good platitude to stress the 'best.'  The majority of organizations have a mix of people, good, average and those who hopefully are improving.  With a rigorous employee-driven process improvement program those same employees will be able to eliminate the majority of waste through repetitive Kaizen events.  The best organizations are those that are the best at improving their own processes