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This is the fourth in a series of articles on the Seven Types of Waste. This article addresses excessive motion of operators/employees.
First before I get into motion let me explain what waste is in six sigma. Waste is any activity that does not produce value, value in the “eyes” of the customer, not you. The seven types of waste are:
- Corrections
- Overproduction
- Movement of material or information
- Motion of operators
- Waiting
- Inventory or other resources that are not being used
- Processing
Motion of Operators
This type of waste is when you or an operator has get up and walk or travel to get something to do their job. Just like movement of materials and information, motion of the operator does not create value. In fact the “thing” in the process is not changing at all. Let’s take the simple act of changing the oil in your car. If you do it yourself then to have to travel (motion) to get the oil and tools to change it and then afterwards you have to put the tools away and dispose of the old oil both motions.
If you take your car to a service shop to have the oil changed you will notice right away that they have the oil and tools right there in the service bay. Once they are done the tools are place back in their place in the bay and the used oil is held in a large container that will later be taken (motion) to be disposed of. This disposal has been combined with several others thus reducing the motion of the disposal…
Many times when we have a job to do around the house it is not the job we mind but the setup. Why, because instead of just doing the job we have to go around and gather what we need to get the job done first (motion). Plus usually, if you are like me, we missed a few things and have to go back to the store to get them (Correction and motion happening at the same time).
Some symptoms of motion of operators that you can look for are:
- Reduced productivity
- Large reach / walk distances
- Longer lead times
- Excess handling
- Reduced quality
- People / machines waiting
- High energy cost
- Inappropriate use of resources
Look around your place of work or at home and see if you can see any of these. They are just the flag that there is a cause for these that needs to be identified and addressed. What are some of the root causes associated with these symptoms? Let me list them as well. I would associate them with the symptom but many times a root cause shows more than one symptom. So as you read this list of root causes look at the symptoms above and see how many of them it could cause.
Some Root Causes of Motion of Operators:
- Poor ergonomics / layout
- Machine / process design
- Inconsistent work methods
- Poor workplace organization & housekeeping
- Extra “busy” movements while waiting
I invite you to post what you see around you that are Motions of Operators that could be changed.
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Tags: Method, Seven Types of Waste
80% of what we do is probably not doing the actual job. It’s good to take away all the bit before and after the actual job if we can, but unfortunately it’s often not possible.
You are correct about 75 – 80% of many tins we do is not Value added. Plus some it is not possible to remove or reduce but much of it is if we really felt like removing it. Many times we just do not care. But let it become a priority to do it better and we will find a way.
Thanks for the comment
Peter Bersbach
peter@bersbach.com
Thanks! Bookmarked the particular post for reference! ( space ) Perhaps there is a way to generate an offline copy quickly?
can you pls give a example of motion.. im working as a saw operator in Hvac company. i need an issue then solution in the issue. thanks
.-= Jack Evans´s last blog ..- =-.
Jack, if you look at the list of eight symptoms found in the article, these are examples of what one would see but not necessarily the root cause of the motion waste. These eight can be caused by one of the root causes listed as well in the article.