In the movie Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin plays a factory worker fired due to his inappropriate behavior. A certain scene shows an assembly line with three workers standing at a conveyor belt. Each one of them is performing a different task. As the conveyor belt rushes the production parts in front of them, it becomes clear that there is a well-defined takt time, not much movement, transport or waiting. It is a one-piece-flow, just-in-time assembly line with low levels of inventory.
Regarding the 7 types of Lean waste, it seems as this is quite a good setting.
However, taking a closer look, other types of waste can be identified. Intentionally or
unintentionally, they are often excluded from standard process analysis. These two types of waste are Overburden (Muri) and Variations (Mura).
Muri and Mura are as important as Muda (waste from non-value adding activities) and central in the Toyota Production System.
Why are so many companies focusing mainly on Muda?
Muda is where the dollars are, where money is wasted. It is the time consumed by doing non-value-added that keep us from doing the value-adding tasks. By reducing Muda, the number of employees, resources, space, and time can be reduced, which quite directly translates to saving costs.
It is tempting to look only at the surface and start eliminating Muda without considering the other two types of waste.
It would not be the first time that a company gets into the spiral of solely reducing costs. Dealing with Overburden and Variations may not give you the dollar savings in the short run, but their reduction too is fundamental for long term success.
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