Glossary

the time required to process one item

the parts or products that do not meet the design specifications and therefore must be scrapped or reworked

the movement of raw materials and parts within a manufacturing facility as they are assembled to generate the final products

the holding of inventory causes waste by hiding problems and inhibiting continuous improvement efforts

a customer-centric management approach that eliminates waste from production processes

the movement of people around a facility (i.e. walking) or at a workstation (i.e. reaching), which does not add value and can be minimized by facility layout and ergonomic workstation design

a kind of production flow in which parts are processed and moved one by one from station to station with no work-in-process inventories between workstations

the addition of features not needed by customers to products, causing unnecessary processing

producing more goods than current demand in anticipation of future demand to keep utilization levels high

transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects

the use of resources to move raw materials from supplier to factory or parts from warehouse to workstations is unavoidable but does not add direct value to the product

the time spent waiting for parts or labour does not add value when organizations fail to generate smooth schedules 

any activity or element that does not add value to a product or service