Lean Six Sigma For Dummies

Chapter 9

Identifying Value-Adding Steps and Waste

In This Chapter

Adding value to your organisation

Seeing how most problems result from just a handful of issues

Working waste out of your organisation

Taking a greener approach

‘We need to add value.’ How often do you hear someone in your organisation say something similar to this? Perhaps you use the phrase yourself. Unfortunately, many organisations don’t have an agreed definition of ‘value-added’ or indeed ‘non-value-added’ and this leads to confusion and missed opportunity. People place different interpretations on what this commonly used Lean Six Sigma expression means, and the use of the terms to help remove unnecessary steps and actions and to simplify processes can be lost.

This chapter focuses on waste, generally, describing the ‘seven wastes’ popularised by Toyota’s Taiichi Ohno, and a few more that have been added to the list since. These various wastes need to be removed to reduce costs and processing time and to improve service to the customer.

Interpreting Value-Added

Lean Six Sigma focuses on providing value for ...