In the first course, we introduced the idea of the eight wastes and the value to the organization when we eliminate them. In this module, we'll review and expand on those ideas. There are many ways to measure waste, including scrap, downtime, et cetera. It's important to note the significant effect that waste has on cycle time. It's been estimated that between 80 and 95 percent of the time the product is in a factory is non-value added. Gemba is the Japanese word meaning real place. In the world of lean, that is where value is created. That could be the factory floor or where service is delivered. A tool used in waste elimination is the waste walk. Often with a process map in hand or as the process map is being created, it's useful to walk the process to see where waste is. It's important to understand and to emphasize that this is not an analysis of employee performance or behavior. It's an analysis of the process. These are the three major questions that we need to ask when considering removing a step from the process. Does the customer care if we do this? Value analysis starts with the customer. Is it critical to quality? How do we know if the customer cares? Is the customer willing to pay for it? If the customer does not care, it is non-value added, but we cannot automatically remove every non-value added step. There are more questions we need to ask. If the process will not fail, you might be able to remove this step. But some steps, like testing or inspection, might still be necessary so the process won't fail. We do want to remove any inspection that is excess or redundant. Similarly, transportation and motion may be reduced, but not necessarily eliminated. Do we have control? There may be legal, regulatory, or other requirements that prevent you from removing a non-value added step. In these cases, there's not a choice except to keep the non-value added step. When looking for waste, these are good places to pay attention. Where a process is handed off from one department or function to another, there are often redundant steps, such as unnecessary inspections. The last thing that the first function does is inspect their work, then when it's passed off to another function, the first thing they do is inspect it again. We have to build confidence that our internal suppliers will give us what we need. Another common waste, but one that's hard to get rid of, is multiple approvals. Are they really all needed? You do need a system of checks and balances, but if you need six or eight approvals to get something done, perhaps you don't need them all. Finally, look at the eight wastes. As introduced in the first course, the eight wastes include producing more than you need; carrying excess inventory; unnecessary transportation and motion; extra or over processing - any defect is a waste; waiting by people or product is a waste; finally, not involving the entire workforce in improvement efforts means a loss of creativity and skill. This is a decision tree for determining whether steps in a process are value added or not and whether or not they can be removed. The first thing we need to ask is if the customer cares. If the customer cares, then this is a value added step and we should keep it. If the customer does not care, it is non-value added. But we need to ask more questions. Will the process fail if we remove this step? If it will, we need to keep it. If it will not fail, we can consider removing it. Do we have control? That is, are there legal, regulatory, or policy requirements for this step? If there are requirements, then we do not have control and we need to keep it. If there are no requirements, then we have control and we might be able to remove it.