Waste (the Japanese word for waste is MUDA, and is used frequently in Lean Enterprise). "Waste is any human activity which absorbs resources but creates no VALUE". "Lean Thinking" James Womack, Daniel Jones - Published by Simon and Schuster. As the creators of the Toyota production system have stated, "the Toyota Production System is 15% production system and 85% the elimination of waste in business processes". Identifying and eliminating Waste in processes is one of the more interesting yet difficult aspects of the Lean transformation. We are so used to processing in batches and have grown so accustomed to controls that it is difficult for us to recognize the waste that is inherent in these old concepts. | |
 | 'Understand the different types of waste and get into the habit of pointing out examples of them every day.' |