TIMWOOD

The seven wastes of manufacturing can be difficult to remember, but the acronym TIMWOOD makes it easy. Each letter in the acronym represents one of seven wastes:

Transport: Unnecessary movement of goods, equipment, and people. Results in time wasted and materials are more likely to be damaged.

Inventory waste: There are different views as to whether or not excessive inventory should be included in these wastes, as inventory (no matter how much) is considered an asset. Having too much inventory, however, can lead to longer lead times, damaged or defective products, and inefficient use of capital. Trying to maintain excessive inventory means reducing the amount of available storage space and utilizing extra resources just to manage it.

Motion waste: Unnecessary, dangerous, and complicated movements are wasteful; they can cause harm to employees, damage to equipment, or defects in the product.

Waiting and Delays: Waiting is often an easy waste to overlook. The time that is lost due to a lull in productivity is considered a waste. This usually happens when workers need to wait on material or when production is halted for unexpected equipment maintenance.

Overproduction waste: Did you know overproduction can lead to other types of waste while hiding the need for improvement? When production exceeds customer demand, facilities are left with excessive goods to store and manage.

Over-Processing: A product or service that has more features or capabilities than required or expected by the company would be considered over-processing. It is important for businesses to understand what their customer requires from the product and eliminate any tasks or processes that are not useful or necessary to those requirements.

Defects: Many consider defects to be the worst of the seven wastes. Characterized as products that do not meet company standards, these products must either be scrapped or reworked, thus adding costs to the operation but not adding value for the customer.