The seven wastes - TIM WOOD

Waste is everywhere in the activities and processes that a company undertakes. It destroys value, and demoralises customers, staff and other stakeholders when it affects them.

The seven wastes is a tool, or list of waste categories that can be used in a brainstorming session to tease out where there may be waste in a process or function. The categories have the acronym TIMWOOD:

• Transportation - movement of goods and materials from location to location
• Inventory - finished goods and stock sitting on shelves and in warehouses, holding up captial
• Motion - of people, often around an office or workplace
• Waiting - of people or resources to undertake their value activity
• Over production - of parts that do not get used
• Over engineering - a solution that results in additional cost to build un-required features or specifications
• Defects - Errors that get scrapped or require rework, either products or services

Further information is available in the toolsheet→