The aim of any entrepreneur or a manufacturer is to make their venture profitable. Sometimes a person is doing everything right but still at the year end, profits are not that significant if not negative. One thing that most of the young entrepreneur often misses is the identification, evaluation and reduction of wastes being generated in their company.

What is a waste? What are different types of waste? How to reduce wastes? How waste reduction is important for Good Manufacturing Practices? Are some of the questions we will be answering through this article.

Waste in lean manufacturing can be defined as any unwanted action or result in a process which does not add any value to the product and for which customers do not prefer to pay for. In other words, waste is something which lead to loss of resources without any payback.

Taichi Ohno is credited with the development of 7 types of waste, commonly known as Muda. These wastes are Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over processing, Over production and Defect waste. These wastes are often referred to as ‘TIMWOOD’ which is the acronym of all the wastes. Lately, a new waste ‘Unused human talent’ has also been added.

Wastes

 

  1. Transportation

Transportation waste is the unwanted movement of people or materials. This waste does not contribute to output of the process. Instead it can lead to delays in communication further impacting the quality of the product. It also adds to increase in cost due to unnecessary movements. Further, transportation waste affects the environment by the gas emitted during haulage. In order to reduce this waste, the organization should design layout of the process in a such a way that it minimizes the transportation from one department to the other.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Lack of unidirectional flow between different unit operations leads to wastage of time and other resources

 Establishing the unidirectional flow of the manufacturing operations will decrease the wastage of time and resources in to and fro movements
Separate storage areas for raw material, packing material, finished goods i.e. multiple storage areas leads to longer processing times and wastage of resources

Having combined and/or nearby storage areas will lead to shortening of processing times and wastage of other resources
  1. Inventory

Inventory waste is the unessential storage of goods or raw materials. This can be due to recently procured bulk goods, in process materials, defective products for rework, quarantined scrap etc. which occupies large amount of space. Inventory waste is also a symptom of hidden problem in a process which leads to rising level of stocks. This leads to increase in the cost for operations and can also lead to increased production lead time. Excessive capital is utilised in bootless inventory and can lead to concealing of the original wastes. Inventory waste can be overcome by defining the optimum level for the inventory, reduction in batch sizes and minimising the storage of in progress work by promoting continuous line of production.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Stoppage of production line due to shortage of critical raw material

 The wastage is attributed to irregularity in the ordering pattern which is the largest source of variability. Hence, demand management from the shop floor is the key to an effective Inventory Management process.

 

Additionally, the demand must balance with the supplier’s capability to supply.

 

Vendor qualification with respect to quality, capacity to meet the demand and supply management including lead times shall be properly assessed to reduce the risk of drying up of production lines.
Excessive inventory leads to expiry of the raw material and wastage of space in the warehouse and in turn money. Also, fluctuations of prices of raw material lead to further losses.

By implementing the concept of Just-In and optimizing the demand management and sourcing management higher inventories can be reduced. Additionally, concept of FIFO shall also be implemented.
  1. Motion

Motion waste is the undesired motion of materials, equipment’s, tools and people in a process. This can be controlled by analyzing procedures and work cycles of the machines in order to prevent unnecessary motion. Optimization of the required tools and equipment’s shall be assured around the workstations. Organization layout shall be revised in order to meet the demands with least unnecessary motion.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Lack of unidirectional flow between different unit operations leads to unnecessary to and fro movements resulting in wastage of time and other resources

 Establishing the unidirectional flow of the manufacturing operations will decrease the wastage of time and resources in to and fro movements
Misplaced tools and other kits leads to unnecessary movements resulting in wastage of time and other resources. Eg. Non-availability of weighing balance and vernier caliper in the tablet compression room leads to unnecessary movement of the operator in the IPQC to perform the periodic In-process checks

Providing requisite tools and accessories at the site of use will lead to decrease in unnecessary movements. This will decrease the wastage of time and resources in to and fro movements
  1. Waiting

Waiting waste is the unnecessary waiting for raw materials, people or process completion. This causes slow down of the production and the process takes more time to complete. In order to reduce this waste, the idle time can be filled where the operator can perform other tasks like cleaning or certain quality checks. Production line should be balanced in order to keep the idle time minimal and machine built in checks can be installed in order to halt the production lines when it detects any defects.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Unreleased raw material from the quality control leads to delay in initiation of the manufacturing process

 The wastage is attributed to improper planning by the production and quality control. It may also be due to the non-communication of the production plan to the quality control department so that necessary release could have been planned beforehand.

 

Hence, the wastage can be reduced by proper planning and better communication between the two departments.
Failure of equipment or machine breakdown leads to unnecessary waiting of the manpower

The wastage is attributed to non-existence and/or ineffective preventive maintenance schedule. Performing periodic and effective preventive maintenance shall lead to decrease in frequency of equipment breakdown and hence, waiting time can be reduced.
  1. Over Processing

Over processing waste refers to the waste caused due to unnecessary operation which was not required in the process and not demanded by the customer. This causes more consumption of labor, resources, material than what is required. This can be reduced by properly defining standards, understanding the expectations of the customers clearly and proper design of the production process.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Providing Patient Information Literature for all the Over The Counter (OTC) drug product which is not a requirement as per National Health Regulatory Authority leads to wastage of money in printing the literature but also the wastage of time and manpower resources in carrying out the operation

 Understanding the regulatory requirements better will lead to decrease in this over processing waste which further leads to wastage of time and manpower resources in carrying out the operation
Providing Child Resistant Caps (CRC) on all the bottles of hypertension medication. This is over-processing as the hypertension medicine is mostly used by adults only. Hence, providing costly CRC on bottles is a waste

Understanding the customer requirements better will lead to decrease in this over processing waste

 

  1. Over Production

Over production waste is the excessive production done compared to the actual demand and which would not be required any time soon. This often leads to product being scrapped out or an increase in inventory waste due to excess stockpile. The overproduced products shelf life decreases even before reaching the market and may degrade due to environmental change. This often causes time being taken away from value added activity. The customer demand shall be understood clearly and that much quantity shall be produced which is needed

 Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Higher batch size of the product leads to manufacturing of the goods more than the actual market demand. This will lead to wastage of over produced goods

 Effective Pull-Push mechanism in Understanding the customer requirements better will lead to decrease in this over processing waste
Manufacturing goods before the actual receipt of customer orders

Aligning production schedules with customer demands shall lead to decrease in chances of over producing the goods, thereby reducing inventory costs and other wastages
  1. Defect

When a product deviates from the laid down specifications then it causes defect wastage which then renders a product for rework or is declared scrap causing loss to the resources. Defects can be a result of the employee’s lack of knowledge, measurement error, machine breakdown, not calibrated instrument, unfavourable environment and not properly defined method. Defect wastage can lead to loss of labor time, undesired paperwork, loss of customers and resource depletion. In this case, the process capability shall be improved by evaluation and solving the root cause of the defects.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Variability in manufacturing process often leading to the products being manufactured with variable quality and often not meeting the required specifications

 Wastage can be eliminated by validating the manufacturing process and preparing proper Standard Operating Procedure and Batch Manufacturing Record. Proper documentation, properly following SOP and Batch Processing Instructions will lead to decrease in inter batch variability and the manufacturing operations will be more consistent.
Improper testing leading to erroneous results

Wastage can be eliminated by properly training the Quality Control Analyst on the Analytical Instrument and Standard Testing Procedure. Also, the testing procedure shall be properly documented.
  1. Unused Human Talent

This waste is due to not involving the right person for the specific job. This leads to the talent not being properly utilised which could have been beneficial for the process improvement but instead the talent is suppressed. This leads to low morale of the employee which decreases his capability to perform well. Unused human talent can be because of poor incentives, lack of training, lack of feedback from the employees and hiring high skilled personnel for low skilled jobs. This can be eliminated by challenging the employees to come forward with new ideas and arranging recognition or rewards for the same.

Example How the waste be reduced or eliminated?

Employing staff of higher qualification on menial jobs e.g. employing a post graduate professional for doing data entry work

 Appointing a person of appropriate qualification and experience to perform a job will help to decrease the wastage of talent of an individual with higher qualification and experience. This will not only save the cost of hiring a highly qualified individual but also save the wastage of his talent in doing a menial job.
Not using the knowledge and experience of the individuals working on the shop floor to solve the issues related to the processes

Wastage can be eliminated by engaging the individuals working on the shop floor to find the solution of the issues encountered by them on daily basis. Their experience may also be helpful in improvement of the processes.

Hence, proper training, encouraging the sense of ownership, properly incentivizing, decreasing the distance between management and employees are some of the methods that will lead to decrease the waste of unused In-house talent available with the firm.

Waste reduction although seems to be a management principle but it is very well built into the pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices as highlighted in the above examples.

Removal of waste is the key principle of Lean manufacturing. Waste is the core reason for profitability drain in industries, therefore, the wastes should be eliminated or reduced to the maximum extent in order to improve product quality and increase productivity and profitability.