Waste–The Silent Killer

Waste is like high blood pressure—it is a silent killer in the world of business. Waste can go unnoticed for years until it’s too late. In fact, we grow so accustomed to waste that we start to think of it as part of the way we do business. In a word, waste becomes normal.

Waste can be such an integral part of our everyday routine, we end up building complex processes in order to accommodate it. We write standard operating procedures to make it more consistent. In the name of improvement, we devote resources to making waste more efficient. Sometimes, we have entire departments devoted to creating and managing waste. We measure it and report it to death. And all along the way, we can’t imagine things being any different. This is just the way it is around here.

The battle to conquer waste must occur in two stages. The first stage is the harder stage by far—it requires a change in the mind, a paradigm shift. The second stage is working to eliminate the waste—an easier step once we realize what waste really is. Most people jump to the second stage before passing the first. Perhaps eliminating some waste is better than nothing, but better still is making the mental breakthrough that keeps improvement going.

Living with waste is like living in a dark room. We can’t see what’s there. Really seeing the waste is like turning on the light for the first time. Nothing in the room has changed—only now do we finally have the ability to perceive it.

In my experience, few—very few—people are able to make the mental breakthrough and see waste for what it is. The obstacles are considerable. Here are a few:

• Finding waste requires a completely different way of thinking. As Einstein said, we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.
• Finding and eliminating waste requires more thinking and planning than doing—in other words, we have to stop “doing” long enough to find and eradicate the waste.
• Finding and eliminating waste requires a disciplined process of prioritizing and executing—we have to move from reactive to proactive.
• Eliminating waste goes against the cultural grain—in our culture, the firefighter is the hero. No one notices the guy who prevented the fire before it could ever start.
• We intuitively know the waste is huge, but we’d rather live in denial than face the hard truth—like the person with high blood pressure who doesn’t want to go to the doctor and doesn’t want to make any lifestyle changes. The person who doesn’t want to be helped, can’t be helped.
• Finding waste begins with a redefinition of work to expose the fact that most people do very little that adds value for the customer (even though we all want to believe that our contribution is important).

Though there are many obstacles to finding waste, the rewards are great. Come along for the journey as we take the first step: defining waste and work.

J.R. Dickens

© 2012 Woodland Park Research Group. All Rights Reserved.