The 8 Wastes of Lean: Introduction

One of the people who taught me lean processes years ago defined lean as “the least way way to bring value to the customer.” Lean practitioners and would be/should be practitioners identify and eliminate waste; the Japanese word is “muda.” It’s that simple. According to lean teaching, there are 8 types of waste. They are listed on the graphic attached to this post. In the weeks to come, we’ll unpack each one and look for ways to find and get rid of muda.