The types of waste (1): overproduction or reactive power

Logically we consider it wasteful to produce things that are not needed – a well-known example of this is the EU – Butterberg. But what about the indirect areas? The overproduction does not catch the eye and does not clog up storage capacities – but the principle is identical: (service) – services are provided for which there are no customers. The classic case in many companies is reporting or parts of it: maybe there was a manager who wanted special evaluations. The manager has long since left the company – but the evaluations are still being made. I recently experienced another case in a laundry: All the drivers’ delivery routes were printed out and archived there. It was only during a value stream mapping that it was discovered that nobody used these paper printouts because everything was available electronically. (In this case, by the way, the managing director stood by us during the meeting and took care of the disposal of the archived printouts).

Another type of reactive power is over-fulfillment. This can be a request for a quote, for example. The customer may only want an approximate price and delivery date of a product, but it contains detailed technical drawings and calculations, often seen in engineering in mechanical and plant engineering.

The easiest way to track down this type of waste is to ask about the buyer of a service. Who is the job for and what is really expected? If in doubt, this should be clarified directly with the recipient of the service or the ‘process customer’. This analysis can often clear out the area of ​​responsibility considerably and create scope for further lean activities.