Use a Critical Eye for Muda during your Gemba Walk

Muda

Muda is a Japanese word for “waste”, and don’t kid yourself into believing that your operation is so lean & mean there can’t be any significant waste going on. Waste comes in many forms; my definition of waste is simply “anything the customer is not willing to pay for’. Of course, hard wastes are easy to identify, scrap, rework, excess inventory, etc., but sometimes it’s the soft wastes that can undermine a business.

For example, during a recent best practices assessment I spent a few hours just observing the customer service department of a small manufacturer. This particular client uses their customer service folks to take new customer orders, manage delivery reschedules and handle customer return authorizations/customer complaints. The major observation was that while the people were extremely competent, the tools they had been given were extremely poor. The company had not placed a high value on the computers that customer service was given and when an executive received the latest and greatest, their old equipment was handed down to them. When taking a new order over the phone, the operator would need to access three different screens to complete the transaction while delivery reschedules required about seven. Due to the outdated computers and software, accessing each screen took an average of 12 seconds each time to load; all while the customer was waiting on the phone.

While 12 seconds may not sound like much, a quick upgrade in equipment resulted in the client saving about 1 ½ hour per week for each of their two customer service people. The collateral benefit was the reduced wait time & frustration customers experienced during the busy time of day when customers could not get through and speak with someone live the first time because they were helping other customers.

Muda is everywhere; it is the small victories that add up to big savings!