UNPLANNED D.O.W.N.T.I.ME.

Unplanned work is your worst and most common waste and is tied to all other wastes as either the parent OR child of the other problems.

Any task, action, crisis, priority, or activity that interrupts currently planned work and priorities from continuing, and consumes time, talent, resources, and focus until the unplanned event has completed and left the area, is costly and wasteful.

Rework, remakes, conflict, bosses or customers interrupting priorities and plans, crises and emergencies, preventable failures, useless meetings, unplanned personnel vacancies, doing that 20-minute unscheduled task that turned into a 2-day project, missing parts or tools, lack of required information, zero inventory, backorders, failed to deliver, not meeting specification, no backups or files saved, wrong color, etc.

When a product or service does not meet the customer’s requirements and specifications. This results in rework, remakes, additional resources, returns, refunds, scrap, time, and more costs.

Is producing or providing more quantity than is required or can be delivered, or scheduling and demanding more than the process can deliver. Overproduction negatively impacts margins and creates waste and is a controllable cost.

People and machines should never be waiting on another process for something to do right now. Even during unplanned downtime, there is always something productive and profitable to do. 

Know your people and find a purpose for them. This waste occurs when people are “waiting” as well as when people are placed in the wrong task, job, project or responsibilities. Don’t waste talent by overlooking it or failing to seek it out.

The wasted cost of time, resources and effort required to move something from one location to another without adding any value to the product or service. From shipping costs to the energy, time and effort required for moving something from one bucket into another, transporting can become expensive and time consuming. 

Inventory is money. Excessive inventory has direct and hidden costs and risks, as does any lack of critical inventory. Managing inventory accuracy and replenishment is a critical process in any organization. Inventories include raw materials, Work-in-Process (WIP), finished goods, buffer inventory, supplier inventory, unplanned orders, rework, orphaned subcomponents, tools, scrap, etc. Inventories use space and can become lost, damaged, or obsolete. Inventory variances are costly and disruptive.

Is like transportation, but specific to human movements and ergonomics like reaching, looking and searching, bending down, moving something out of the way, changing tools, etc. Motion not only costs time in tasks, but it can also increases the risks of repetitive injuries to employees. 

Is providing more value than the customer requires. Better material than required (substituting a ribeye steak for a hotdog request), providing too much of a discount, absorbing credit card fees, or the cost of reworking a defect would exceed the base cost or time of a replacement.

Become a Honey badger. Use PDCA (Plan, do, check, act) to overcome bad habits and waste.

Discipline, training, and habits.

All activities should be properly planned, authorized, and scheduled before activities begin. Being busy is not the same as being productive or profitable. 

People are always busy doing useless and wasteful tasks that never move the ball to the goal line. 

Discipline prevents exceptions from becoming rules.

• Honey badgers eat dragons and take their treasure