I had lunch with an old friend of mine recently and the conversation turned, as it often does with me, to something about process and process improvement. We were talking about waste and how many times corporate rules and regulations get in the way and are just that... WASTE!! Anyway, as we talked about the topic of waste he related a story to me how years before when he was an apprentice in the nuclear power plant industry, he had observed that some of the rules and regulations were not so much meant to enhance safety as they were to ensure the survival of the labor union. As I listened to him telling the story, I thought to myself, what a great example of the various kinds of waste that have been identified in the Lean Six Sigma methodologies. In fact, I stopped him midway through it to ask him if he was kidding me. His reply was, "it happened exactly like I'm telling it to you". I'll narrate the story for you and then we will break it down and identify as many of the eight known wastes as we can.
Here is his story in his own words: I was working as an apprentice in a nuclear power plant a number of years ago. I had not been on the job but a few days and we were hanging some threaded stock from the ceiling that was used to hold various other things up. My boss said, "Brian, I want you to cut me a piece of threaded stock 22 inches long". Now, you have to realize that our tool room was several hundred yards from where we were actually working, so I headed off to the tool room. I hadn't gone far when I was stopped by another worker who wanted to know where I was going. I replied, "not that it is any of your business, but I am going to the tool room". He said, "I know you are new here but you are not allowed to walk anywhere if it is more than 100 yards away from where you are. You must wait and ride the tram. If you walk then you are putting the tram driver out of a job." So I went back to my area and waited for the tram to show up.
Of course I had to wait a little while for the tram, but it finally did arrive and I was able to get over to the tool room. I grabbed a piece of threaded stock, put it in a chain vice and proceeded to measure it. As I began to cut it with a hack saw another worker happened upon me and asked why I was doing that. I replied, "well, not that it is any of your business, but I am getting ready to cut this piece of stock". This guy informed me that union rules said that I must use a power saw for that job. I said, "I am only cutting one piece here not a hundred!" "I don't care" he replied, "you need to go check out an extension cord at the supply room and cut it with a power saw, those are the union rules."
As you might guess, the supply room was just far enough away that I had to wait for the tram again. Of course that involved some time, but finally I made it to the supply room. When I arrived I told the supply clerk that I needed to check out an extension cord. He disappeared into a back room and when he returned he had an extension cord in is hands. He then uncoiled it and inspected every inch of it and then coiled it back up. He indicated that I needed to sign for it, which I did and then I turned to leave. He said, "aren't you forgetting something?" I turned and said, "what do you mean?" "You need to inspect that extension cord" was his rather perturbed response. "You're kidding, right? I mean you just inspected it yourself!" "Well, that may be, but union rules say you have to inspect it too, so get busy." So I uncoiled the extension cord again and inspected every inch of it just like he had just finished doing not two minutes ago. Then I coiled it back up and went to wait on the tram to come pick me up.
After another wait for the tram, I finally got back to my tool room and hooked up the power saw. Then I measured and cut a piece of stock 22 inches long just like the boss told me to do. When I was finished I had to clean up my mess in the tool room. Then I needed wait for the tram again so I could take the extension cord back to the supply room.
Finally, after about an hour and a half I made it back to the work site and handed my boss the 22 inch piece of threaded stock. He climbed up the ladder to hang it. He then looked down at me and exclaimed, "This piece is only 22 inches long!" "That's what you told me to cut, so that's what I cut, 22 inches." His angry response was, "I meant two-foot-two inches not 22 inches!"
Some aspects of this story seem a bit funny, comical even, until you realize that this is life for many people in today's corporations. After nearly two hours of effort not one thing was accomplished, except the needless prolonging of the union's wasteful rules. Process, in one form or another, is necessary for everything we do. When a process no longer operates as it was designed, t should be repaired or replaced so that it yields a measurable output. I've heard it said that the definition of insanity is to continue doing the same things over and over again hoping to achieve different results. In this particular case the definition sure seems to fit.
The Japanese have a word for it... MUDA! It translates to our English word "waste" and that is what I thought about while my friend told me this story. In the quality method known as Lean Six Sigma, eight wastes have been identified. Although some other groups have come up with many more than eight, this is a good starting place when trying to remove clutter from a process. I have listed the eight wastes below. One way to learn them is to spell the name TIM WOODS, with the first letter of each type of waste:
Transport - Moving people, products & information
Inventory - Storing parts, pieces, documentation ahead of requirements
Motion - Bending, turning, reaching, lifting
Waiting - For parts, information, instructions, equipment
Over production - Making more than is IMMEDIATELY required
Over processing - Tighter tolerances or higher grade materials than are necessary
Defects - Rework, scrap, incorrect documentation
Skills - Under utilizing capabilities, delegating tasks with inadequate training
Inventory - Storing parts, pieces, documentation ahead of requirements
Motion - Bending, turning, reaching, lifting
Waiting - For parts, information, instructions, equipment
Over production - Making more than is IMMEDIATELY required
Over processing - Tighter tolerances or higher grade materials than are necessary
Defects - Rework, scrap, incorrect documentation
Skills - Under utilizing capabilities, delegating tasks with inadequate training
Now that we have all the different kinds of waste listed we can look to see how many of them can be identified in this story. When I matched this list to the story, I very quickly decided that all but two of the wastes were present! That, in and of itself, is a remarkable statistic. You don't often see that much waste in one place. Now you can begin to see why your electric bill keeps going up and up and up.
1. Transport - My friend had to ride the tram five separate times to accomplish his assigned task. There was a wait involved for each occasion. This clearly indicates a waste of transportation, time, people and products.
2. Inventory - Having to store extension cords in a separate place is a waste. Wouldn't it make more sense to have them available in the same place the saw is stored?
3. Motion - Having to go from one place to is certainly waste of motion at the same time it is wasting time.
4. Waiting - For the tram and the extension cord were both wastes.
5. The waste of "Over-Production" was clearly not the problem here as nothing was being produced.
6. The waste of "Over-Processing" was also not present.
7. Defects - In the end a defective product was produced. This is likely the result of several factors including poor communication. You would think that with all the rules in place that something as simple as translating a simple measurement would have been covered in there somewhere.
8. Skills - All the rules didn't allow for the best choices to be made which is another form of waste.
So there you have it... five out of the eight wastes listed in the Lean Six Sigma method are represented. I think that is truly amazing. I wonder how this particular facility got any meaningful work done under these conditions. It is never profitable or smart to operate under the assumption that because we have always done it a certain way, we should always do it that way. Whenever common sense gives way to dollars and cents, productivity will always be on of the first casualties. Waste is, and always will be the enemy of good stewardship.
Michael Willis is the Owner of Willis Process Consulting, LLC a business process architecture design, implementation and improvement firm specializing in both manufacturing and service process problems.
