Drive Out Waste

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The module in a nutshell

‘Lean’ working means simply operating without fat – or waste. Waste occurs in any and every process and the trick is to recognise it and then change the operation to eliminate or reduce it. Waste shows itself as cost to the business, which means smaller profits. It also steals time, which means less output, which in turn means customers having to wait.

Drive out waste will show you how to identify those non-value adding activities that are holding back your business’ performance and then how to change the process to eliminate those activities through process surgery, as opposed to butchery, which so often brings waste elimination into cynical disrepute.

The learning is achieved through a highly interactive hands-on process simulation that will illustrate very well what influences process output (usually holding it back) and how to tap into the creative potential of the process stakeholders.

The aim and outcomes of the module

The aim of the module is to enable the participants to identify and eliminate waste in processes, thereby improving response times, costs and quality. After completing this module participants will be able to:

? differentiate between value-adding and non-value adding (nva) activities in a process
? identify waste activities within the set of nva activities
? develop and execute process change plans to reduce waste in the process.

Who Drive out waste is for

Drive out waste is applicable to anyone in the organization. It is an essential toolkit for any process improvement team and it should be everyone’s job to drive out waste. The module will be useful for those engaged in lean improvement work, cycle time reduction projects or cost-reduction exercises. It is designed to complement other modules in the section but can be used on a stand-alone basis.

What’s in Drive out waste

The module delivers the learning points with exercises and the use of a physical simulation.

Participants will learn about:

• simple hands-on process mapping 
• managing bottlenecks 
• the effects of batch sizes on process lead-times 
• how to identify va and nva activities 
• the key forms of waste 
• a ‘work-out’ approach to driving out waste 
• how not to waste that most valuable commodity – human creativity.

Important other information

Duration: Drive out waste lasts for one day and can be used by itself or in combination with other modules in the Process Transformation Programme.

Location: Ideally a room close to the workplace of participants, though it can be run off-site effectively.

In common with other modules in the Process Transformation Programme the module is designed to run successfully with between 8 to 16 participants.

Price: As a stand-alone module, £2,500 inclusive of all materials. This price does not include expenses which are charged at cost.

Contact for more information:

Karen Dunn
Burge Hughes Walsh
Suite 13b
Castle Mound Way
Central Park
Rugby CV23 0UZ

Telephone: 01788 550015
email: kdunn@burgehugheswalsh.co.uk