You have learned about lean manufacturing, and this concept of lean can be applied to service organizations as well.

Walk through each of the eight wastes for a service industry of your choice and relate an item to each area

Eight Wastes:

DOWNTIME Defects- mistakes that result in items being scraped or reworked

Overproduction- producing more material or information than is needed before it is needed

Waiting (Time)- waiting for parts, information or decision to be made

Not engaging people- no feedback from employees performing the daily routine work

Transportation- moving material does not enhance the value of the product to the customer

Inventory- material sits taking up space, costing money, and potentially being damaged. Problems are not visible

Motion- extra movement of the human body that does not add value to the product is waste

Extra processing- unnecessary non value adding work performed