“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.”
- Shigeo Shingo (Toyota)
I’ve decided to start posting some of my favorite Lean related quotes to help pass the message on. Now, some of these are from recent years while others go back to the golden age of Mass-Production-Only manufacturing, i.e. the Before Lean or Old Testament of manufacturing. This one is from the man, the myth, the legend Shigeo Shingo.
For those of who are unfamiliar with him, he’s the famous Industrial Engineer brought into Toyota in the 1950s by the great Mr. Taiichi Ohno who had heard of Mr. Shingo’s influential and successful seminars on methods of manufacturing. In the years following, Mr. Shingo introduced the ideas behind such great concepts as Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) and Poka-yoke (i.e., mistake proofing).
What can I say? He was right. Whether you look at this from a manufacturing perspective or even a lifestyle perspective, eventually you have to recognize that he was spot on. This quote is very straight forward, but carries a significant message.
I often refer to this quote to point out that this is really the 8th type of waste left out by Ohno’s 7 Wastes (Overproduction, Defects, Transportation, Waiting, Inventory, Unnecessary Motion, Overprocessing/rework). Waste that goes unnoticed can quickly multiply into bigger problems that manifest themselves at inopportune times; often, this occurs months or years after the birth date of this unseen waste. Waste is like a cancer. It’s there the whole time, but sometimes just can’t seem to notice it. Imagine an ultra high yield savings account with $100 in it. Slowly the interest begins to build and within a few years you’ve doubled your money. Now, imagine that you go to withdraw your money from that account and you get slapped with fees that are $1,000. That puts you $800 in the hole!! How could you let this happen? These fees were stated in the fine print so you had to have known they were there, right?
Now think about that in a manufacturing setting. No matter how you slice it, waste is waste. Many a times, before a company is exposed to Lean the waste is rampant and the chief officials have no idea of all the money they are letting waste away (no pun intended). This also means that the majority of the people working under these officials can’t see the waste either.In the end, this simple idea of hidden waste evolves into a much deeper issue for me. The more and more I think about it, the more my mind moves towards striving for continuous and sustainable improvement. What wastes do I see at work everyday? What wastes do I see in my life everyday? Moreover, how can I get rid of these wastes and make everything perform better? So, look around you. Find those wastes. Eliminate them.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
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