Attacking Waste in Knowledge Work

There are 7 types of waste, according to Taiichi Ohno. Attacking these 7 wastes is what makes a company Lean and able to create more value faster. This is also true in the office. Most wastes in the factory are easy to spot. Things such as inventory, motion, and defects are visible.

Identifying and Eliminate Processing Waste in Your Office Environment: A Guide to Office Kaizen

The office environment, whether it pertains to engineering, purchasing, or administrative functions, can make it difficult to identify waste. Identifying the waste of processing, where the process itself is considered wasteful, is the most challenging among all types of waste. In fact, detecting processing waste is more difficult than identifying waste in production. Furthermore, recognizing waste in information flow poses even greater challenges. This must mean that processing must be nearly impossible to find in the office? Actually, the opposite is true. Just ask the question:

“What would happen if we stopped doing X?”

…with X being the particular engineering, administrative, or knowledge work process. If the answer is “nothing” then you have found an example of a waste of processing. The customer of that process does not value that step, and it is therefore waste and should be removed. You have just done Office Kaizen. Try this out! It is more common than you may think.

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