Muda Walk for a Month – Week 5: 09/27 to 10/01

The Theme this week is: Overproduction

This is the last week of the Muda Walk for a Month 2010. This week we are looking for the wastes of OVERPRODUCTION OF GOODS. This waste is connected to the waste of Inventory – theme for week three. We order or fabricate too much or too soon. so we have to store it somewhere causing inventory to build.  For example, when we fabricating duct ahead of schedule to keep the shop busy, this causes us to stockpiling material either in a warehouse or at the job site. This waste can also include printing extra blueprints or making more copies of bids, material orders or financial reports than needed.  Overproduction is a service truck restocking parts to a greater level than needed.  It is having the supplier deliver products to the job site weeks ahead of when it will be used. (this leads to the other wastes of excess inventory and transportation of material and movement of people.)   Overproduction can even mean calling for more crews or workers than is currently need on the job site. Masaaki Imai says overproduction is the root cause of most wastes.

Look for signs of overproduction. It is often seen as stacks of material - either in the warehouse, in trailers, in the yard or at the job staging areas.  Ask WHY enough times to get to the root cause. Why do we have these stacks? Why are we producing orders too soon or why do we order too much? The root cause may even be in our estimating system – keep looking.

Record your improvements. Find the root cause. Implement improvements. Try something; if it doesn’t work try something else. 

Stay with the Muda Walk this last week.

dennis sowards
Quality Support Services, Inc.
Office: 480-835-1185
Cell: 602-740-7271

Muda Walk for a Month – Week 4: 09/20 to 09/24

This week’s theme is Over Processing  

This is the 4th week of the Muda Walk for a Month and possibly the hardest waste to spot. Over processing exists in every company. it includes over-engineering; requiring additional signatures on a work order; multiple handling of forms; duplicate entry of data; and entering information that is not needed.  It can include doing reports that no one uses or making excess copies of reports, invoices or files.  It is often caused by not keeping processes current and poor communications when changes are made.  To see over processing one must look deep into how the processes are done. Try the following:

• Follow a company form from start to finish – forms such as expense reports, payroll changes, rental equipment orders, service orders, submittal changes, tools purchase request, change orders, or material requests (“Be” the form itself and walk to each work station it goes to and discuss how the form is processed. Look at what information is added, changed and/or used.) Look for non-valued added steps or requirements.
• Review the process of preparing monthly reports and/or closing the financial books. Examine (means watch and see) at each step and how it is actually processed.
• Look at the way estimates are prepared. Challenge the factors used – how do they compare to actual work?
• Review your preconstruction process – who does what and when? Are there duplication of efforts?
• Watch how detailed drawings are prepared and sent for fabrication.
• Review your customer invoicing process.
• Look at how materials are received, stored and used at job sites.
• Walk through your process of handling customer complaints, do you have a process?
• Study how jobs are closed out – what are the steps and who does what at each step?
• Pick your own process & study it.

 In all cases – look at how the work is really done, not how someone thinks it is done.  Follow the handoffs, often workarounds exist because of poor handoffs. Is the information, report, drawing or document done “right” when first handed-off?  Question everything. Looking for waste here is much harder than looking at treasure hunts, but hidden treasures also exist in many processes we use every day.


Record your observations and look at ways to improve. One more week to go after this week so keep up the good work.

dennis sowards
Quality Support Services, Inc.
Office: 480-835-1185
Cell: 602-740-7271

Reminder - Week 3 of Muda Walk for a Month

Week 3: 09/13 to 09/17 
The Theme this week is: Reduce Inventory
Have you seen any of these?

• Stacks of material at the job site?
• Rental equipment not being used?
• Trailers full of material?
• Stashes around the work area?
• Job site trailer’s closets stuffed  with supplies?
• Piles of fabricated materials in the yard?
• Boxes of paper goods stacked in the walk ways?
• Fabricated product on pallets in the warehouse?

All of these and many more are inventory.  Inventory is a double serious waste because it produces or hides other wastes. We don’t want the crews to ever run out of material, but we want to avoid as much inventory as possible while still allowing the work to FLOW.

When you spot inventory waste ask WHY – why do we have to keep this inventory? Keep asking why until you find the root cause and implement countermeasures.

Ways to reduce inventory are:

• Better job site planning and coordination. Use the Last Planner System of look-aheads and weekly work plans.
• Use a Kanban method. It means means a signal to refill the inventory. This is especially useful for consumables in the shop, field and even office supplies. Use a min/max marker. Use a card that is on a dual bin system so when one bin is empty pull the card and keep using the 2nd bin while the first bin is being refilled.
• Work with suppliers to service your material needs and include them in identifying how much material to stock. 

Record your improvements. Find the root cause. Implement improvements. Try something; if it doesn’t work try something else.

Muda Walk - Week 3 - 09/13 to 09/17

The Theme this week is: Reduce Inventory

This week we are looking for the waste of Inventory. This waste is tied to the waste of over-production.  We order or fabricate too much or too soon. so we have to store it somewhere causing inventory to build.

INVENTORY itself is waste. It costs money – more than you think! Some inventory may be called strategic inventory – inventory that is necessary to keep the crews installing. Any other inventory is excess and waste. The challenge is to “see” the difference.  Any material or parts not being used by the customer is waste. This includes raw material, work in process and final fabrications. This type of waste includes extra parts, excess space and unused tools. Look for stashes and personal stockpiles - they are inventory too.

Inventory is a double serious waste because it produces or hides other wastes. Companies and job sites often accumulate inventory because of unreliable support from the shop, vendors or the material delivery function or because of efforts to save money through a bulk buy. Usually the money saved in bulk buys is spent by the hidden, but real, costs of holding inventory.  Companies also accumulate inventory because of weak planning and poor job site coordination.

When you spot inventory waste ask “WHY” – why do we have to keep this inventory? Keep asking why until you find the root cause and implement countermeasures.

Record your improvements. Find the root cause. Implement improvements. Try something; if it doesn’t work try something else. Stay with the Muda Walk.

dennis sowards
Quality Support Services, Inc.
Office: 480-835-1185
Cell: 602-740-7271

Muda Walk - Week 2

Week 2: 09/06 to 09/10 – a short week with the holiday (in the US)

Theme: Reduce the Waste of Motion – Reduce Treasure Hunts using Visual Control and Work Place Organization .
Good morning. This is your 2nd week of doing the Muda Walk and a short week too.  I hope your first week went well. What did you discover?

Your theme this week is to look for the waste of motion. In construction (and most other work) this is commonly called “ treasure hunts.”  Mr. Imai* says that moving is not work! Value is not being added while people are walking around. Look for people looking for things; ask why and why and why again. Why is this happening? Why are the tools, equipment, forms, etc. not located closer to the work area? Or where they are needed?  Go to shop or a job site at the start or end of a shift and watch for wasted motion. Watch how much time is spent in getting ready or cleaning up? How much time should be spent? Look for ways to reduce this time.  Look for trips to the yard, or for people walking around the shop, or even look for trips to a hardware store to buy material. Look at how often the crews run out of small supplies or consumables.  Look for tools that are missing or broken. Causing movement to find new ones.

Go watch for Muda. Record your improvements. Implementing visual controls and the 5S’s can eliminate or reduce treasure hunts.

dennis sowards
Quality Support Services, Inc.
Office: 480-835-1185
Cell: 602-740-7271

* FYI - Masaaki Imai wrote the books Kaizen and Gemba Kaizen. His birthday was last Wed. Sept. 1st. He turned 80 this year. He is a great Muda Walker and taught me so much when I had the opportunity to shadow him a few years ago.  I do the Muda Walk in a Month every September in honor of his birthday.