the waste or mudacomo anything else other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, space and time of the worker that we are absolutely necessary to give value to the product.
The concept of “non-productive” actions is closely linked to quality management systems. The optimization of the company’s processes and the search for efficiency in carrying out the different types of work carried out by the company. This concept has been extended to all the activities of the company, including the areas, such as the administrative area, which are not linked to manufacturing or to the execution of customer service.
Multiple methodologies (very interrelated) have focused on the elimination of waste in organizations: Kaizen, 5 s, the ghost factory, zero defects and Lean among others.
The concept of Muda is integrated into a trilogy formed by him along with the terms Mura and Muri and that were widely developed by the Toyota Group a few years ago.
– Mura or irregularity is understood as the interruption of the normal line in the work sequence, whether it concerns the activity carried out by a worker or the flow of materials, the work of the teams or the system and work processes themselves. The term is closely related to bottlenecks and its control and improvement is usually one of the most relevant jobs in consulting work since its elimination usually entails a strong improvement in the work process.
– On the other hand, the term Muri or tensioning work occurs when the working conditions lead to stressful conditions for the workers and / or equipment affecting, logically, the related work processes (and because of their relationship to all the activity of the company) . Its visibility is evident in “inexperienced” workers and / or with little experience without sufficient training and training, which in most cases leads to a “slowing down” of the work and / or an increase in the number of workers. errors produced. The logical solution is the design of a training process that includes the adaptation where the newly incorporated is under the tutelage of a more experienced worker who will be training and evaluating in a progressive way.
Classically there are seven types of change that should be considered in quality work and continuous improvement in companies:
– Excess inventory. One of the main workhorses of the Lean philosophy mainly in the field of production. Basically the excess storage of raw material supplied by our suppliers, in-process items or finished product raises storage costs and often hinders the movement of materials within companies.
– Over-processing or incorrect processing. The two options have a marked cost scope. To overwork an article or the development too “exquisite” of a service offering unsolicited features (or valued by the customer) has an extra cost very important for the company in addition to the approach of all kinds of resources to an area not necessary. On the other hand, manufacturing failures or errors in the provision of service (non-conformities of work or treatment of subsequent claims) lead to a series of rework that entails the “placement” of resources to “redo” a work that should have been done correctly .
– Overproduction Very common performance in mass production where the amortization cost of the equipment is taken into account and work is done in relation to expectations. There is a risk of generating a production that the market at some point can not (or wants to absorb) raising the costs of storage, transport, etc. In the service companies this point is transferred to an oversizing of the entity in all types of media, leaving the entity prepared for “peaks” of work but wasting resources in “normal” work situations. At present, many entities “handle” this problem through agreements with suppliers or subcontractors so that a non-direct part of the work can be “outsourced” or a precise rise in demand can be covered with qualified subcontractors.
– Unnecessary transportation *. This concept has taken to the present to every “tortuous” process and that entails a series of unnecessary “turns”. In companies of manufacture a correct design in the lines of work and situation of the machines together with the elimination of the already mentioned “bottle necks” help to “fluidify” the activities of production, on the other hand the companies of services and transport effect a very careful design of the work routes as well as the basic materials and necessary to cover a notice or order of a customer. Observation*.
Many of us who work in consulting when making a first analysis of what I call the “flow of papers” mainly in the administrative areas, we observe the turns and turns (many of them without meaning) that the multiple registers that this area uses for its work and that logically slow down and saturate the correct functioning of this area.
– You wait. Phases in any part of the line of work caused by lack of materials, work programs, equipment, etc. that are not adding value to the product or service and that generate a series of useless “deadlines”.
The solution goes through a correct programming of the product or service to be provided considering all the resources (both human and material as well as the necessary time) to correctly carry out the work, leading to an organized “integration” of the entire line of work and the processes involved with object to eliminate the dead times
.- Unnecessary movements. In this case, it focuses on the movement of an organization’s personnel (or their movements) that cause delays, duplication and inefficiency. The correct planning of the material resources that are required by the personnel for the development of their activity in an orderly manner and without unnecessary “searches” or the good planning of customer service routes avoiding badly scheduled trips or an overload of resources. necessary are examples to take into consideration to avoid this type of “losses” .
– Defects. Understood as any cost (economic, temporary, etc.) of reconditioning processes or parts thereof already carried out, which may lead to the destruction of poorly manufactured items, delays in the delivery or service delivery times and / or repetition of activities, including the “demerit” of our work that originates facing the client (via claims).
A good programming of the processes as well as the correct management of the necessary resources and the control of the conditions of the requested products to suppliers as well as of the specifications agreed with the client together with a good formative level of the personnel and a correct development of the Data analysis are indispensable conditions for the improvement of business activities throughout the line of work and the progressive decrease of failures in the work. As “extra” it should be added that Liker identified an eighth type of change: the non-use of the creativity of employees as a consequence of their lack of participation in the quality system and not knowing how to listen to their proposals in a constructive way supposes a loss of ideas, potential improvements, opportunities and skills that result in a lack of involvement of staff in the management systems and involve a loss of potentially very relevant actions *
.Note *. On many occasions quality consultants focus our work towards the Management and the Management Manager and we forget the great potential when designing and / or improving the procedures of the company that has the personnel that develops the tasks.
It is a glaring failure to “put into play” all the potential work ideas that can be studied and involve the staff of your Quality System. The set of “problems” mentioned above raise the waste (Muda) of the company as a result of the errors and / or tensions generated by clearly raising the multiple costs in the entities. Its identification, analysis and adoption of actions for its disappearance clearly contributes to the saving of resources in organizations as well as to the search for “operational excellence” as a discipline of value.