Waste exists in every business, often hidden within daily operations. The 8 wastes of Lean—defects, transportation, waiting, motion, overproduction, over-processing, inventory, and human potential—reduce efficiency and increase costs across all industries. Once you understand what to look for, you can systematically eliminate these wastes and significantly improve your operational performance.
Waste elimination directly impacts your bottom line. While it might sound like an environmental initiative, Lean waste reduction is fundamentally about protecting profitability and improving operational efficiency.
These same 8 wastes appear consistently across industries—from software development to healthcare to construction. Every business has processes that deliver value to customers, and within those processes, waste naturally accumulates. The key is developing systems to identify and eliminate it systematically.
Industries successfully implementing Lean waste reduction include:
Defect waste is related to the time and materials spent doing something of poor quality and later fixing it or trashing it. Lean practitioners also count the inspection cost as part of this waste (although you shouldn't reduce inspection unless you've created perfect quality through mistake-proofing techniques).
Common examples across industries:
The waste of transportation involves moving inventory, people, tools, or other items more often or further than is necessary. Excessive movement can lead to product damage, unnecessary work, and exhaustion.
Key examples include:
Waiting involves customers, patients, or inventory sitting idle. Waiting happens when the person or item is ready for the next step, but the process is not prepared to accommodate them.
Common waiting scenarios:
The waste of motion involves the unnecessary movement of people or items within a work center. It is often the result of neglecting the 5s'.
Examples include:
Producing more of a product than can be consumed at the time creates the waste of overproduction. Making too much of something (or making it too early) creates other types of waste. Overproduction is of particular concern because it exacerbates transportation, inventory, and motion wastes.
Overproduction examples:
Over-processing means doing work that does not add value to the customer. Over-processing is resolved with simplification. Sometimes, in Lean, the best approach is to stop doing some things instead of figuring out how to do them better.
Common over-processing activities:
The waste of inventory involves storing products or materials that are not needed. Excess inventory results in a waste of space, and it wastes the cost associated with the physical inventory. Although it is a significant concern in manufacturing, it occurs in other sectors as well.
Inventory waste examples:
For a long time, the discussion centered around only the prior seven Lean wastes, but more recently, the waste of human potential has joined their ranks, and with good reason. It is probably the most common and most damaging type of waste that organizations encounter.
Signs of human potential waste:
Continuous improvement software can significantly affect organizations serious about finding and eliminating waste in all of its forms. Here's how it helps:
| Feature | Function | Business Impact |
|
Opportunity Capture |
Streamlined waste reporting and documentation |
Centralized identification and prioritization |
|
Standardized Work Documentation |
Current best practice |
Reduced process variation and errors |
|
Cross-Functional Collaboration |
Unified improvement platform |
Improved communication and coordination |
|
Progress Tracking |
Automated alerts and status updates |
Enhanced accountability and follow-through |
|
Impact Measurement |
Tying activities to business impact |
Quantifiable return on investment |
|
Success Recognition |
Employee acknowledgment and feedback |
Increased engagement in improvement activities |
Many organizations attempt waste tracking using spreadsheets, but this approach has significant limitations that prevent sustained improvement.
Spreadsheet limitations:
Software advantages:
We want to challenge you to find specific examples of each of the eight wastes of Lean within your organization. Some may be glaringly obvious, while others are more subtle and harder to find. When you identify waste, you also uncover opportunities for improvement and move closer to becoming a more efficient and cost-effective organization.
All industries can benefit from Lean waste elimination. While originally developed for manufacturing, these 8 wastes consistently appear across healthcare, software development, construction, education, and service industries.
Focus on wastes with the highest impact on customer value and operational costs. Pay particular attention to wastes that create cascading effects, such as overproduction, which can amplify transportation, inventory, and motion wastes.
Small businesses often achieve faster results due to their operational agility. Start with basic observation and documentation of waste patterns before investing in comprehensive software solutions.
Employees are essential for waste identification since they interact with operational processes daily. Establishing systems for employees to report improvement opportunities is critical for comprehensive waste elimination.
Key metrics include reduced operational costs, improved time to market, enhanced customer satisfaction, increased profitability, and employee engagement in improvement activities. Continuous improvement software simplifies tracking and reporting these measurements.