Muda Walk Week 1 - 08/30 to 9/03 – Look for the Waste of Waiting

Welcome to Muda Walk for a Month

This is your first week to do a Muda Walk. The theme is the Waste of Waiting. We want value to flow and never wait.

When employees, equipment or even customers are WAITING, it is waste. They may be waiting on processes or other equipment to finish work or for an upstream activity to be completed. Examples of this waste are when crews are waiting for inspections, field instructions, another trade or material; when a worker is waiting for the coil line to fabricate material; or when payroll is waiting for late time sheets. Waiting in the field can happen due to incomplete material deliveries, unanswered RFIs or a failure of another trade to be reliable in fulfilling a commitment. Waiting is often caused by poor communications between the field, support functions and/or suppliers; when people are unsure what is to be done; and/or because of poor coordination between trades.

During every Muda walk this week look for waiting and drive to the root cause to eliminate it.  We want the material to FLOW to installation with no or as little waiting as possible.  Talk with your employees – ask them:

• What creates waiting?
• What keeps them from doing the work?
• What barriers get in their way?
  

Remember that every problem they surface is real to them. Thank them for bring it up. Let them know it is a legitimate problem and you are serious about helping them to solve it. Solve immediately if you can.  Being listened to and seeing action will build trust and they will share more ideas with you.

Remember try to do a Muda Walk for one hour each day.  If you can’t do that - do what you can.
Record your improvements.
Best wishes in spotting Muda.