Muda: The 7 Wastes Of A Lean Life
In the 1990’s Toyota was a small car company. Today they are the largest in the U.S. Much of their success can be attributed to The Toyota Production System. Toyota’s philosophy was to create value and eliminate waste. Waste or Muda is described as the use of any resource that doesn’t provide value to the company or the customer. In order to eliminate waste, one must understand what waste is. Taaichi Ohno knew this was necessary and he identified the 7 wastes of industry.
- Overproduction
- Delay (Edit: Time)
- Transporting
- Over-Processing
- Inventory
- Motion
- Making Defective Parts
A friend of mine has the job of identifying wastes in operation and manufacturing using the lean principals developed by Ohno. He has learned from implementing these practices that they can also be applied at home and in our personal lives. He has shared his ideas with me and is allowing me to share them with you. Over the next couple of weeks will will cover each of the seven wastes in the Muda Series.
2 Comments on “Muda: The 7 Wastes Of A Lean Life”
I would definently not use ‘waiting’ as a waste. A better interpretation would be ‘time’. The definition of the wastes influence how one goes about identifying them, and time can be wasted without necessarily waiting.
I edited the definition in the body. The picture I borrowed and I’m not techno-savvy enough to know how to change it.