Cutting Out the Clutter: How To Boost Business Efficiency and Profitability
In today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, competitive organisations are those constantly looking for ways to improve their operations, increase productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction. One effective way to achieve these goals is by reducing waste in the business (and no, we don’t mean taking out the bin!). The 8 Wastes of Lean framework is a proven methodology for identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities that can negatively impact business performance.
The 8 wastes are: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilised talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra-processing.
Identifying the wastes present in your organisation involves stepping back to look at your entire value stream, from raw materials to the finished product or service, to identify any non-value-adding activities or processes that can be eliminated.
Once you’ve identified the wastes, you’ll need to prioritise your improvement areas and create an action plan to track your progress. You might like to prioritise actions based on level of impact (for example the impact on customer satisfaction, quality, or profitability) compared to level of effort involved in implementation.
At home you put the bins out each week and identifying and reducing waste in your business is no different. So once you’ve educated your team on the 8 wastes and engaged them in identifying those, be sure to keep it top of mind by regularly reviewing results and creating a space for continuous improvement. This could involve implementing feedback mechanisms or conducting periodic reviews that actively involve your team in the improvement process.
If you want to find out more about each of the 8 wastes, how to identify them in your business, and how to engage your team in driving positive and profitable change, then register for our upcoming webinar. You will walk away with practical examples, insights, and process improvement ideas you can use in your business immediately.