The eight wastes
Lean thinking names eight kinds of waste. Once you can see them, you will find them everywhere, in offices as much as factories.
About 5 minutes to read.
Key idea
Lean thinking grew up on factory floors, but its central question works anywhere: which parts of this work add value for the customer, and which do not? The work that does not is waste. Some of it is unavoidable for now, such as a legal check, and some of it is pure friction that has crept in over the years.
It helps to have names for the kinds of waste, because a named thing is easier to spot. Many teams use the memory aid TIMWOODS for the eight.
Wastes
- Transport: moving things or information about without adding value, such as files emailed between four inboxes.
- Inventory: work piled up waiting, such as two hundred unopened claims.
- Motion: people moving more than the work needs, such as walking to the printer for every form.
- Waiting: people or items idle, such as a nurse waiting for a porter.
- Overproduction: making more, or sooner, than anyone needs, such as reports nobody reads.
- Overprocessing: doing more than the customer values, such as three approvals for a small purchase.
- Defects: mistakes that need correcting, such as a wrong delivery address.
- Skills: talent not used, such as experienced staff copying data between systems.
Example: a hospital ward
Morning medication round
Walk a medication round on a busy ward with a notebook. The nurse crosses the ward to the drug trolley, back to a patient, back again for a forgotten item. A prescription is unclear, so there is a wait for the doctor. The patient’s own medicines sit in a locker nobody checked.
None of this is anyone being slow. It is motion, waiting and defects built into the layout and the paperwork. Moving the trolley, standardising where things live and confirming prescriptions the night before give the nurse back time for patients.