Programación

Taiichi Ono, a former executive at Toyota, identifi ed seven categories of waste.

Many in the Lean community consider there to be an eighth category—Underuti-lized People—that can have signifi cant importance to the development process.

The eight categories of waste are

◾ Overproduction: In overproduction, organizations produce more information or provide greater service than is needed, sooner than is needed either by the next process step or by the end user or customer. The impetus behind overproduc-tion is the impulse to “stay ahead.” Although this reasoning is commendable, it creates other problems and other wastes. For example, information is more subject to change and can even become out-of-date if it is processed too early.

◾ Waiting: Information or services can wait for numerous reasons, thereby imped-ing fl ow. To reduce the likelihood of this type of waste, organizations must focus on the necessary information itself or on the customer, not on the people performing the work. People can generally keep busy at all times. However, if a customer has to wait beyond an acceptable time frame, customer satisfaction will decline. If, for whatever reason, information must wait, other problems will arise, such as declines in customer service or a rise in quality-related issues.

◾ Transportation: Transportation refers to the movement of information or a service, either manually or electronically. Although it requires little physical

16 ◾ Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development: A How-To Guide for Streamlining Time to Market

effort, even the electronic transportation of information can be considered wasteful. The issue with transportation waste is not solely the time required, but the other problems that arise with each transfer. For example, the poten-tial for information to end up in another queue waiting to be processed increases with each transfer, as does the potential to lose information.

Quality tends to decline with each transfer of information.

◾ Nonvalue Added (NVA) Processing (or Overprocessing): NVA (or

processing) occurs when teams expend extra effort beyond what is actually needed by the customer. Extra steps or entire processes within the develop-ment process fall into this category, including many of the administrative activities performed in support of the development process. While it may not be possible to eliminate them all, at the very least, the amount of time and effort to perform them can be reduced.

◾ Excess Inventory: Excess inventory is more than the absolute minimum required to maintain uninterrupted fl ow of information or service. People will often “batch” development activities. Most often they do so because they believe that it is more effi cient. Sometimes there are real reasons to batch development activities, such as system limitations. The root causes for all such practices need to be addressed in order to allow for more fl exible processing.

◾ Defects (or Correction): This type of waste refers to the discovery and cor-rection of information or a service that has been processed incorrectly or is missing altogether. The correction and clarifi cation of information as it fl ows through a company can require tremendous effort and cost. To coun-ter this unnecessary expenditure of resources and effort, organizations must address the root causes for the lack of complete and accurate information.

Information or service “defects” simply cannot be allowed to continue and become the norm in any company.

◾ Excess Motion: Although organizations rarely consider this category when looking for ways to trim waste, excess motion by employees in the course of their work can, in fact, be a signifi cant waste category. For example, if employees need to consistently travel to different parts of the building in order to reach necessary supplies, they are likely to be less effi cient and less productive than they would be if the supplies were within easy reach.

◾ Underutilized People: In this instance, staff members are not using their full skills and abilities. People are often given very limited roles and responsibili-ties when, in reality, they can assume much more if the process has been designed effectively.

Lean Note

The application of all eight wastes to service processes may be a stretch.

The nature of many service processes does not typically allow for excess inventory (or batching) or even overproduction. Nonetheless, all of the others most certainly apply.

Identifying Development Waste ◾ 17

Although most people are now familiar with these waste terms, they may still have diffi culty in recognizing them in the development process, and some have contended that the terms do not apply to the development process at all.

Regardless of whether an organization develops a product, a process, or a service, these terms are, in fact, all applicable. Going Lean requires that people expand their existing, sometimes narrow, defi nitions for these now-common terms.

To assist the Lean practitioner in developing “eyes for waste,” Table 3.1 pro-vides select examples for each waste category. It is important to note that the eight wastes are fundamentally interrelated and may overlap; in other words, the examples below may fi t into more than one category.

Table 3.1 Development Waste Examples

Overproduction ◾ Completing design elements that are not needed for some time

◾ Including features that the customer does not see as a value (could also be included in nonvalue-added or overprocessing waste)

◾ “Over-engineering”

Waiting ◾ Approvals from superiors

◾ A lack of available capacity

◾ Input from customers

◾ System response time

◾ Completion of other design elements Transportation ◾ E-mailing information

◾ Multiple hand-offs

◾ Report distribution

◾ Circulating paperwork for signatures Nonvalue-Added

Processing

(or Overprocessing)

◾ Reentering data

◾ Extra copies

◾ Unnecessary or excessive reports or paperwork

◾ Redesigning something that already has been designed (i.e., reinventing the wheel)

◾ Most engineering support services Excess Inventory ◾ Filled in-boxes (electronic or paper)

◾ Batch processing transactions

◾ “Large” design releases

◾ Retaining documents beyond what is required Defects

(or Correction)

◾ Design errors

◾ Service failures

◾ Engineering change orders due to errors

◾ Not clearly understanding customer needs

◾ Missing or incomplete information

Excess Motion ◾ Going to/from printer, fax machine, central fi ling, and meetings

◾ Travel

Underutilized People ◾ Limited authority and responsibility for basic tasks

◾ Management “command and control”

◾ Not suffi ciently sharing knowledge

◾ Not involving suppliers early in the development process

◾ Not involving manufacturing early in the development process

18 ◾ Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development: A How-To Guide for Streamlining Time to Market

Clearly, this is a partial list; different organizations will produce different examples specifi c to their own development processes and corporate culture.

However, there are key wastes often found in development processes regardless of organizational context. We describe these key wastes next.