From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

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Reducing cost by reducing waste

Reducing cost by reducing waste

From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

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Reducing cost by reducing waste

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- In any company, there's a certain amount of waste. For example, in meetings, how much of your time is really productive? In fact, in your working day, how much of your time is productive? Time is important because your biggest cost might well be your people, which is effectively their time. And then, what proportion of materials are thrown away? And what's that costing you per year? Expensive resources like machinery, laboratories and even office space. What is their utilization? Are they used all the time, with no space wasted on piles of stuff that hasn't moved for weeks? There's a Japanese theory about waste, which says that there are seven types. Although I personally like a way to remember them that spells out the word downtime and adds an eighth one. And here it is. The D of downtime is for defects, which cost you money even if you find out immediately. The O of downtime stands for overproduction, making more…

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