Is Waste Shortening Your Life?

Taichi Ohno, considered the Godfather of the Toyota Production System, wrote 10 precepts for success.  #8 is: Valueless motions are equal to "shortening one's life."

It seems that Mr. Ohno meant this metaphorically.  That valueless motions are time that could be spent doing value-added motions.  In other words, how can you spend more time on your important work and less on everything else? By eliminating waste of course! But first, you must determine what adds value and what you can eliminate.

Value Work

• Definition: Activities that directly contribute to creating the end product or service the customer is willing to pay for, or directly support a business goal.
• Examples:
  
  • For a nurse: actions that help a patient heal or feel better.
  • For a lab technician: actions that directly support success of experiments and tests. 
  • For a software developer: writing code that adds features or improves functionality.
  • For a manufacturer: assembling parts that make up the final product.

Prioritizing Your Value Add Work

• Align company goals with adding value to the customer.  
• Teach everyone in the organization to identify and eliminate waste and provide positive feedback when it happens.
• Re-evaluate regularly - what provides value to the customer is a moving target.

Conclusion

Eliminating waste is the best method to allow you to prioritize the important work of adding value for your customers. Defining what is adding value comes first, then working to eliminate everything that doesn't.

What is your value add work?  How can you do more of it?  Send us a photo or shoot us an email at lean@trippnt.com.