The 8th waste - TPS (Toyota Production System)

What is the 8th waste in the Toyota Production System and does it really matter?

The 8th waste in TPS is when the management of a business in this case manufacturing, does not lean on their teams experience and abilities. They do not see themselves as a part of a team but as a part of a pyramid scheme that directs from the top down. As Toyota has shown us, this creates many limitations on the business as a whole and is very inefficient. There are times where a business needs direction from the top down, however, there are also many times where the business needs to rely on the experience and knowledge of the team as a whole rather than a few select individuals.

For example: When a local manufacturing company is launching a new product and they want to setup the most efficient way of shipping WIP between two plants. The product, in this case, was originally produced by a different supplier. They were using a large inefficient WIP rack that would only hold a few parts per rack. Only 8 of these racks would fit on a 53' truck and they would be shipped between plants. The system sounds fine but when we look at the value-add content within the process, we find that the system also includes waste.

Parts were being shipped from plant A to plant B. Plant B would remove the parts from the WIP racks and then ship the empty racks back to plant A. Plant B would also then continue processing the parts and then pack and ship the parts in a new container to the customer.

Plant B was shipping empty WIP racks back to plant A. Why? Is this necessary for the process to work correctly? Is this wasted money? Is this wasted labor? Is this wasted space? Plant B & A had to store and handle these large 2,400lb WIP racks. Plant A & B had to handle the large WIP racks on and off the truck each time.

We determined that the usage of the WIP racks was not necessary between the two plants. The process was modified to be as follows. Plant A would pack parts in the shippable container that would end up going to the customer. Plant B would remove the parts from the packaging without breaking down the container. Plant B would then process the parts and return them to the shippable container. Plant B would then mark that container as fully processed and ship it to the customer. This eliminated a number of things. First off, the extra WIP racks could be used internally at plant A without being shipped to plant B. Second, the amount of truck shipments between the plants was decreased by more than 50%. Third, the amount of handling was decreased by more than 25%. Empty racks were not being unloaded and then loaded onto trucks. You can not make money off of shipping an empty rack. ( There are cases where returnables do make a lot of sense. However, this is not one of those situations. )

In this case, if the upper management did not rely on their team to help provide constructive feed back regarding the issue, they would only have their own experience and knowledge to make decisions from. They may have never seen the problem that needed correction. They may have never saved money.

It is important to include your team and also use their knowledge and experience when improvements are needed within the manufacturing facility.