1 Introduction

Within every type of organization the processes of work will result in waste.

Valuable resources can be wasted in a number of ways, including:

• misuse used for a purpose for which they were not designed, resulting in inefficiency and shortages for their intended purpose

• extravagance where a resource is being consumed even though it is not necessary in order to achieve objectives

• scrap items left over as a result of a production process which cannot be readily used elsewhere

• rework where items have to be remade because they failed quality controls.

• shrinkage where the resource is consumed in unauthorized ways (often used as a euphemism for 'theft'), where it deteriorates in quality over time, or simply becomes obsolescent.

Elimination of waste will not be practical across all work processes, but reduction of waste in many of these is desirable.

Types of waste will fall within the four categories of resource examined throughout this workbook. These categories are:

• people

• capital

• materials

• information.

We usually associate the idea of waste with the materials resource category. Although we will focus on this particular aspect of waste for the purpose of this session it is important not to lose sight of the fact that waste can, and does, occur in each of the remaining three categories.

EXTENSION 4 A useful website giving information about waste management is given at the end of this workbook.

People are not used efficiently across the work processes, whether we consider manufacturing...