Find out what the seven types of waste according to Lean Manufacturing are and how, thanks to Mapex’s MES solution, you can get a little closer to eliminating them.
Industrial companies are constantly, and now more than ever, looking for ways to improve their processes, increase productivity and reduce costs.
In this context, the Lean Manufacturing methodology – and, at the same time, the elimination of waste and non-value-added activities – has become a great ally for many companies that want to be more efficient and profitable.
In this article, we explain what we mean by waste and describe some of the features of the Mapex MES solution to put an end to this problem.
What is waste in Lean?
Waste, or “muda” in Japanese, is any operation or task that does not add value to the product or the end customer, but consumes resources. Identifying and eliminating these unnecessary activities is essential to optimize production processes in any organization.
There are several types of waste, from excess inventory and waiting times to unnecessary movements and defects. To a greater or lesser extent, they all jeopardize the long-term sustainability of the business, the quality of production and, ultimately, the level of customer satisfaction.
The Lean Manufacturing philosophy has identified seven specific categories of waste. Below, we describe each of these wastes and tell you why our MES solution is a very useful tool for eliminating them.
7 types of waste
1. Transportation
Transportation is necessary in any production process, but excessive or inefficient transportation is considered a form of waste. Not only does it mean that we are taking longer and wasting more time to manufacture a product, but we are also increasing the chances of losing or damaging materials or potentially causing an accident or injury to a worker.
Taking advantage of Mapex’s Material Request package can be a good solution to reduce excessive transportation. Thanks to this functionality, companies automate the procurement process and, in this way, are able to speed up the transfer of finished products to the warehouse or semi-finished products to other production processes.
For more information, read this article.
2. Inventory
Having excess stock, product and materials that are not being processed brings with it many disadvantages for an industrial company: the need for extra storage space, tied-up capital that does not generate any profit, less capacity to react to changes in demand, etc.
With an MES solution such as Mapex, which integrates with other systems such as WMS and ERP, companies have real-time information to manage their different types of inventory much more efficiently: raw material, WIP, finished product, maintenance parts, etc.
3. Motion
This type of waste occurs when workers’ movements are unproductive. In the vast majority of cases, this waste is associated with poorly defined processes, personnel not having up-to-date information where they need it, etc.
Implementing and making good use of an MES platform is key to reduce unnecessary motions as much as possible. It is a tool that allows standardizing processes and digitizing and centralizing all the documentation in the plant. In addition, it provides operators, supervisors and other managers with real-time data to improve and speed up their decision making.
For more information on the benefits of paperless information management in the factory, check out this article.
4. Waiting
Waiting waste is the time lost as a result of an inefficient work sequence or process. Unscheduled stops, machine setup times, bottlenecks or delays in material provisioning at the line are some of the causes of this waste.
At Mapex, we can help you reduce waiting times to a minimum in your industrial company. Our MES system automates the capture of data directly from the equipment and allows you to detect in real time bottlenecks and unscheduled stops, as well as to know their causes.
Our platform also provides you with the information you need to implement continuous improvement actions and reduce changeover and machine setup times.
In addition, with the Material Request package, you can establish a communication flow between the shop floor and the warehouse, thus avoiding long waits caused by procurement problems.
5. Overproduction
Producing more than demanded or producing something before it is needed is a malpractice according to the Lean Manufacturing philosophy. It is clearly wasteful, as we use financial, labor and raw material resources that should have been allocated to other operations.
An MES solution can help you reduce or eliminate waste due to overproduction. It is a tool that provides a global view of production processes and provides real-time information so that companies can detect inefficiencies and know exactly the real cost of manufacturing each product.
6. Over-processing
The objective of a production process should be to obtain the finished product without spending more time and effort than required. For this reason, overprocessing is considered a type of waste.
Process standardization is one of the best strategies you can implement to put an end to this waste. Mapex can help you take a step towards this simplification and improvement of processes by, for example, digitizing documentation (manuals, instructions, etc.) and the necessary checklists.
7. Defects
There are many factors that can cause quality flaws in products and, as a consequence, increase the number of reprocesses and decrease the level of satisfaction of our customers.
A lack of control in the production processes, poor preventive maintenance, or not having sufficiently trained operators to carry out their work are some of the most common causes of defects.
The Mapex MES system can help you put an end to this type of waste thanks to functionalities such as those highlighted below:
Real-time monitoring of defects and non-conformities.
Digitization of the management of the level of operator training.
Implementation of statistical tools such as SPC to monitor the variation of a process or production method, detect deviations and thus anticipate possible quality problems.
If you want to know more about how we can contribute in a very positive way to the elimination of some of these wastes in your factory, please contact us through this form.
