Let's now talk about waste in lean waste is a major concept of lean methods. Eliminating and reducing waste is the number one task for any lean initiative to your to define seven types of Moodle or as we call it, waste. One more was added recently, we see it as number eight. That gives us more focus on the people side of running lean initiatives. Number one waste is overproduction we already mentioned that lean favors to produce where anything gets produced or delivered only any time when it is needed. producing more is considered wasteful.
As you're sitting here today, you're generating waste in the form of unread emails in your mailbox. Inventory piles up and if not managed, it causes bottlenecks and delays in the processes. Moving any people or material around is considered a waste of time and energy. continuing to work in the old way, and not challenging how this process step adds value means that the process has higher cost and takes more time. Then if we think about more efficient ways of working, when we improve process, the first thing we need to look into is to identify and remove all unnecessary steps in it. These are all the actions that do not add any value to the customer.
For example, the customer does not care if we have many approval levels that cause a delay. All the customer cares about is getting these goods delivered on time. The more waste we have in the process, the more delays and costs we will have. Now let's look at motion. How many of you have had to go to the printer located on the other side of the floor to pick up a printed document. This is what lean defines as wasteful motion.
Pure time spent waiting means we do nothing but wait, and the process takes longer than it should. If we look at the overall process and get an understanding of what others are doing, and how we're all linked together, we should be able to challenge the time we spend waiting. The fact that defects are any currencies that show nonconformity to what the customer perceives as value. Having a clear definition that comes from the customer of what is a defect and what is not a defect helps identify the waste. The last one under utilize people refers to people potential and how it can be used in any lane. improvement initiative.
Lean advocates the involvement of everyone in the improvement efforts, from top management to ordinary stuff. People on the floor, who know their processes the best, and are best suited to think about ways to improve them. While top management gives the direction and vision of where we want to be, and guides people to get there. However, it is important to remember that people are the engine of any change, and they should feel responsible for it. But they need also to be empowered by management to take decisions regarding their areas of work. Now let's do an activity with regard to waste in lean, you will see a question on the screen.
Read the question, then pause the session and take a moment to think When ready, press the play button. who defines where It is the customer who defines what is waste and which activities add value. Why do we need to focus on waste? We must decrease or eliminate waste in order to improve the process flow.