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If you run a social enterprise or are just starting your venture, chances are you don’t have a lot of extra time or money.  Using what you already have, you can make a greater impact.  How?  Finding and removing wastes.

8 Wastes

Your adventure starts here. The #1 goal of the Lean philosophy is to identify and remove waste.

Waste prevents you from providing quality customer service, it takes unnecessary time and spends unnecessary money. Waste also prevents your practice from generating additional revenue.

Below are the 8 wastes of Lean and you’re on a quest to continually find the waste and remove it. Your quality will increase, your time and costs will reduce, and you will have greater profits.

Meet TIM WOODS

TIM WOODS is a memorable acronym that can help you to remember the wastes.

Transportation

Unnecessary movement of materials and products.

Examples: Paperwork travelling between multiple people and locations. Items moved to a storage location prior to shipment to a store.

Inventory

Excess materials and products not being used

Examples: Abundance of supplies in supply room. Purchase of multiple software licenses, but not using them.

Tip: Let the cost of holding the materials be with the supplier.

Motion

Unnecessary movements by people (e.g. walking)

Examples: Traveling to multiple rooms for separate tasks, which may be able to be done in a single room. Walking a distance to the printer and then bringing the paper back to your desk.

Waiting

Idle time between steps within a process

Examples: Customers waiting for service. Waiting for a response in an email.

Overproduction

Production that is more than needed or before it’s needed.

Examples: Copies of reports sent automatically. Redundant information collected within charts.

Tip: Look at tasks done repetitively and ask if they are necessary or could be automated.

Overprocessing

More work or higher quality work than required by customer.

Examples: Giving customers more information that they require. Clarifying / double-checking tasks.

Defects

Errors caused by rework, scrap, and incorrect information.

Examples: Giving someone the wrong information. Errors requiring rework.

Skills

Under-utilizing people’s talents, skills, and knowledge.

Examples: Financial consultant responsible for social media updates.

Tip: Ensure that “the right people are in the right seats.”