lean tools in adult educators and trainers

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Lean Tools in Adult Educators and Trainers Development

MUSAT, CristinaPhilean Consulting & Training, Romania


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Lean Tools in Adult Educators and Trainers (AdET) Development

Keywords: Adult Training, Adult Trainers Skills, Process Improvement,Lean

1 ABSTRACT ............................................................. ............................................................................ 22 CONTEXT & BACKGROUND ................................................................. ........................................... 23 BRIEF LEAN INTRODUCTION............................................................... ........................................... 44 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................ ........................................... 85 STUDY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS .................................................................. .........................86 REFERENCE LIST .................................................. .......................................................................... 11ANNEX 1 - BRIEF LEAN TERMS GLOSSARY .................................................................. .......................12

1 Abstract

The world is rapidly changing due to scarcity of resources and socialresponsibility drives. People need also to change along with the environment.Training makes no difference and acceptable criteria some years ago are nolonger valid today. Trainers fostering adults learning processes are facingprofessional challenges, but today they have also to be more proficient in

other areas, not only in traditional competences described by occupationalstandards. For example, according to the Romanian occupational standard, atrainer needs different categories of competences: a series of specificcompetences (to be able to prepare training, deliver training, evaluatetrainees and apply special training methods and techniques) and a series ofoptional competences (training marketing, training design, trainingorganising, training evaluation and improvement).

When discussing about AdET, as part of proficient adult training organisations,I want to highlight the need for additional competencies to support dynamiccapability of training services, increasingly significant to help to better

adequate to nowadays complicated management issues and problematicalbusiness change. The purpose of this paper is to promote the use of Lean toolsby the people involved in teaching/training of adults, as a set of keycompetences suitable for all types of occupations relevant for training:trainers, other learning facilitators, training content developers, instructors,training managers, training course organisers, and so on.

2 Context & Background

My name is Cristina Musat and I am the founder of PhileanCT, a small trainingand consulting company in Romania. I work as a trainer since 1995 and since1996 I am a fan of continuous process improvement techniques. Beforebecoming aware of Lean Manufacturing, I was involved in qualitymanagement, TQM and business excellence related services. So practically allmy adult life consists in mixing training skills with continuous improvementinitiatives.

As a member of the European Society for Research on Adult Education, I have


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now the opportunity to address both topics enjoyable for me at this moment:Lean andAdult Training.

Trainers dealing with adults (or all other persons with relevant occupations

for training delivery, regardless their title: trainers, learning facilitators,training content developers, instructors, educators, training managers,training course organisers, and so on) are actors of the processes performedto achieve desired results, either within own organisations or at the interfacewith the trainees or other stakeholders. Here is a list of some of the mostcommon processes: Training Design, Training Materials Development,Training Evaluation, Training Delivery / Facilitation of the Learning Process,Training Marketing, Training organising, and so on.

A way to understand a training process it the well-known model oftransforming inputs into outputs via a series of actions and operations specific

for any area of activity, as seen in Fig.1.

Fig. 1 The Process Model

To exemplify for the process of training delivery, used by all adult trainers, itis obvious that the following main issues are significant to be identified:1 Environment:

1.1 International, national,regional, local level

1.2 Category of training: Initialor LL learning

1.3 Type of learning: Formal,non-formal or informal

1.4 Etc.2 Inputs:2.1 Data on trainees and their

training needs2.2 Training specification2.3 Training materials2.4 Training rules, standards

and regulations2.5 Trainers proficiency2.6 Other useful resources and

facilities financial,material, human, etc.

3 Outputs:3.1 New skills and competences3.2 Feedback and future

improvement opportunities3.3 Etc.

4 Process steps:4.1 Welcome of trainees and

group development

4.2Objectives and contentdelivery

4.3 Trainees assessment4.4 Etc.

5 Methods:5.1 Lectures5.2 Games5.3 Examples5.4 Etc.

6 Procedures:6.1 Face-to-face training delivery6.2 E-learning6.3 Self-learning6.4 Etc.

According to the Romanian occupational standard, a trainer needs differentcategories of competences: a series of specific competences (to be able to


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prepare training, deliver training, evaluate trainees and apply specialtraining methods and techniques) and a series of optional competences(training marketing, training design, training organising, training evaluation

and improvement).When discussing about AdET, as part of proficient adult training organisations,it seems obvious that additional competencies are needed to support dynamiccapability of training services, increasingly significant to help to betteradequate to nowadays complicated management issues and problematicalbusiness change.

Between these competencies it should be included the competence to useLean tools for the improvement of the processes involved in teaching/trainingof adults, as a set of key competences for effectiveness and efficiency.

Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify how Lean tools may be useful

for the management of education and training activities or for managingpeople involved in learning processes. Additionally, I would like to puttogether knowledge about previous experiences in the area and to providefuture drives for AdET development.

3 Brief Lean Introduction

Lean is the generic name of a set of tools and principles used to control,manage and improve process performances, to achieve dramaticimprovements in cost, quality, and time by focusing on process performance.There are many definitions, and a simple one is the following:

Lean is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to bewasteful, and thus a target for elimination. (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing). Or even a simpler one:Lean is a philosophy that shortens the time needed between the customerorder and the delivery of required goods or services.

Moreover, Lean is seen as a philosophy, not only as a collection of empiricaltools, or as a methodology for continuous reduction or elimination of waste,useful. Its history is long and rich in interpretations, but the term Leanbecame worldwide known after the issue of a book with a visionary title: The

Machine That Changed the World

(Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones, andDaniel Roos, 1990). Nevertheless, Lean is based on a series of common toolsused originally in production, some of them beingdeveloped since 1950s as part of what nowadaysis known as TPS (Toyota Production System). Butmore important, it brings also a set of Leanprinciples and specific approaches to all types ofactivities, which enable the development of theso-called Lean behaviours and Lean leadership,supporting the operational tools used to generateimproved process results.

There are five key principles, which aim atcontinuous reduction of the time needed to

provide a product or service requested by aclient, from order to delivery, andconsequently, of process costs, by cutback or elimination of waste.

Fig. 2 The Lean Principles


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The five Lean principles are:

1. Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by productfamily.

2. Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family,eliminating whenever possible those steps that do not create value.

3. Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the productwill flow smoothly toward the customer.

4. As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next upstreamactivity.

5. As value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted steps areremoved, and flow and pull are introduced, begin the process again andcontinue it until a state ofperfection is reached in which perfect valueis created with no waste.

(Source: http://www.lean.org/whatslean/principles.cfm

)

Obviously, there are some key words for understanding the Lean principles:

1. Value2. Value Stream3. Process Flow4. Pull Flow5. Perfection.

In brief, value is what customers are likely to pay for. Lets think of a trainerdelivering a course. He/she needs some time for preparing before coming infront of the trainees. For example, how many clients do you know that would

pay a 5-days-fee, for a 3-days course? Obviously, no one may be perfect;therefore usually it is impossible to do only what the client would pay. SoLean defines an antonym for value, i.e. WASTE, meaning any activitydone that takes up time and uses resources, but does not add value when ittransforms inputs into outputs that meet customers requirements. Waste isnot about controlling financial loss (to be easily spotted in financialstatements), but it means to identify and approach extra resources spentduring current activities (caused either by high variation due to processinstability, by overburden processes, or by unreasonableness operationaldecisions).

For that reason, Lean considers that any process is composed ofvalue addedand non-value added activities, even if the non-value added activities may beconsidered as necessary ones (hidden waste) or as non-necessary ones(obvious waste).

The 7 waste categories defined by Lean are:

Overproduction production of materials, offers, products ahead ofdemand

Waiting, or queuing, or idling inactivity due missing neededresources: an answer, a decision, a person etc.

Transport - unnecessary motion or movement of materials,products or persons

Extra Processing doing something repeatedly, more or morecomplicated than necessary, including rework, reprocessing,recurrent handling or storage

Inventory all existing components, actions or orders waiting to beprocessed


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Motion people or equipment or documents or information movingmore than necessary

Defects non-conforming products or services, the effort involvedin inspecting results and fixing complaints or unsatisfactory results.(Source: Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones, 2003, Lean Thinking. Free Press.

p. 352).

Attempting to make an analysis of the training processes, one may find similarcategories of waste, such as, for example:

Overproduction More input than needed to achieve learning objectives

Overstuffing topics for a limited amount of time for atraining program such as a day or week. Very little ofthis training will end up being used because its toomuch, too soon with too little practice.

The forgotten knowledge - as the retention rate forlectures is less than 20%, everything that is forgotten thenext day or next week is waste.

Huge binders full of stuff that nobody ever looks atagain, involving much time and costs to be created,printed, multiplied, bound, manipulated, etc., usedrather as door stops and paper weights

Waiting Longer breaks then planned, postponement of trainingdue to trainer/trainees availability

Companies often wait until they have enough employees

to make up a class. Waiting time is often weeks ormonths.

Larger groups of trainees and only one trainer itinvolves waste of time during work in small groups

Transport Long distance to/from training room

Extra Processing Repetitions during classes

Written tests even if tests are relatively easy to scoreand simple to create, they are almost always abouttesting knowledge. However, there is often nocorrelation between doing well on a test or in school and

doing well on the job. So testing knowledge is oftenwaste.

Gaps between training needs communicated by themanager and the actual needs of the attendees

Inventory Larger groups than effective for training

More printed training materials than the number ofparticipants

Old stuff in the training materials (out-of-dateinformation, processes that have changed or are nolonger used and old procedures)

Motion Poor content and layout of written materials, difficult tofind a topic in the training material

Defects Misspelling, missing words in the written trainingmaterials

Inappropriate participants - many times attendees are


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sent to a training that does not pertain to their job or toachieve competencies they already have or do not need

Communication barriers due to misuse of a foreign

language or to misunderstanding of specific vocabularyLack of standardization of knowledge delivery differenttrainers deliver different courses based on the sametraining course

Exceeding time provided to deliver training

Lack of organizational support trainees may be eagerto apply tools from training, but when returning in theorganization, the pressure from the management is to dothings as beforeTable 1 7 Wastes in Training (Source: This Research and

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=27003&discussionID=7612380&commentID=6932874&trk=NUS_DISC_Q-subject&goback=%2Ehom#commentID_6932874)

Consequently, to be able to identify value, it is important to understand theprocesses used to provide products or services and to be able to focus on thevalue stream. Once the value stream is known, a flow as continuous aspossible should be deployed for delivering the planned process results withminimum waste.

Another key word in Lean is Pull, usually used as an antonym for Pushprocess flow. For example, in training delivery, Push means to persuade the

customers to buy the already existing products/services, available asinventory. Obviously, Pull means the opposite approach, namely beingready and capable to provide only what, how much, when and where isactually required by the customer. Process simplification comes from notdoing things that are not needed, as stated in Just-In-Time philosophy.

The last key word, but the essential one, is Perfection. It is not abouthaving the perfect product or service, but about pursuing perfect processesthrough continuous improvement.

There are a variety of tools and techniques associated with Lean production;however the following are perhaps the most commonly used and easy to

implement in an office environment, regardless the field of activity:

Standardized Processes & Takt Time Value Stream Mapping (VSM) Visual Workplace & Visual Management 5S Jidoka Poka Yoke (Mistake Proofing or Error Proofing) Pull Systems and Kanban Continuous process flow, Just In Time (JIT), Process Smoothing &

Load Levelling

Setup reduction (SMED) Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) Hoshin (Policy Deployment) Quality and Problem Solving Tools: Pareto Principle; process

mapping; product family analysis, etc.


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For better understanding of Lean terms used in this paper, see the glossary(page 12) or check on http://www.lean.org or

http://leanromania.wordpress.com only for Romanian speakers.

4 Research Methodology

The approach used for this research is a non-scientific survey, following thenext steps:

Identify interested adult trainers, using personal and professionalsocial media networks

Use a questionnaire to obtain data on topics related to adulttrainers additional competencies needed to identify typical wastein training activities and to employ specific Lean tools for reducingor eliminating waste levels

Use discussions and interviews with people interested both in Leanand adult training topics Qualitative analysis and report of main findings.

The questionnaire used focuses on issues that are currently faced by adulteducators and trainers, covering most of the competence units described inthe occupational standards. It has been designed to identify perceptions andideas from both people using Lean tools, and trainers not familiar with Leanconcepts and tools. It was finalized in June and has three parts, as follows:

A. General InformationA.1. Personal and Professional Information

A.2. Organization InformationB. Lean Tools in AdETC. Training Needs Assessment in AdET.

It was made public via direct mailing, using several professional communitiesand discussion groups related both to adult training and lean issues and it isavailable at http://leanromania.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/how-to-use-lean-tools-in-adet-development.

5 Study Results and Conclusions

Some results are available after receiving some answers at the questionnaires

and after interviews and discussions with Lean practitioners.Even if the target group consisted ofover 300 trainers, there were only 17questionnaires received - mainly fromtrainers specialised in Lean-relatedtopics, and 21 answers declining theability to fill in the questionnaire, dueto lack of any knowledge related toLean issues.

After a brief literature review and

more open discussions with Leanpractitioners, some conclusions are obvious atthis stage:

1. Lean is still unfamiliar for most of adult training organisations.There is no much information on how and if Lean is used inworkforce education or training, but there are some initiatives in

Rate of response to the questionnaire

89%

5% 6%

Not answering

received

N/A

Fig. 3 Rate of response


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formal education - mostly schools and universities from USA and UK,such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and OaklandUniversity USA or University of St Andrews Scotland. (Sources:

http://lean.mit.edu/, http://www.oakland.edu/leanschools,http://www.leaneducation.com/home.html,http://www.educationreport.org/pubs/mer/article.aspx?id=9674)

2. Even for Lean practitioners, it is not a priority to apply Leanprinciples for own activity.

From the trainersanswering thequestionnaire, themajority work withtrainees between 25 45

years old, employed inlarge companies, whichusually apply Lean on a

large scale.

As far as usualtraining activities, from the major groups usually identifiedin occupational standards, the ratio of VA/NVA activities isas follows:

%Time

VAactivities

NVAactivities

1. Planning for Adult Education and TrainingActivities 14% 14%

2. Training Marketing 11% 11%3. Training Materials Design 29% 29%4. Organising Training Programmes 11% 11%

5. Training Delivery 14% 14%6. Trainees Assessment 1% 2%7. Training Evaluation and Improvement 1% 1%8. Other Training Management Activities 3% 3%9. AdET Development and Self-Development 14% 14%

TOTAL 100% 16% 84%

Table 2 Percentage of VA/NVA Activities in Training (Source: This Research)

Concerning the possible use of Lean Tools and other improvement tools, toeliminate waste in the different adult education and training processes, theresults are as following:

Fig. 4 Average age of trainees

0%0%

88%

12%0%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

>65

45-65

25-45

14-25


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0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1.PlanningforAdultEducationandTrainingActivities

2.TrainingMarketing

3.TrainingMaterialsDesign

4.OrganisingTrainingProgrammes

5.TrainingDelivery

6.TraineesAssessment

7.

TrainingEvaluationandImprovement

8.OtherTrainingManagementActivities

9.AdET

DevelopmentandSelf-Development

Balanced Score Card

Quality Management Principles

Process Management Principles

Dashboards for KPIs

Six Sigma

Quality and Analysis Tools: Pareto

Principle, process mapping; product

family analysis, etc .

Hoshin (Policy Deployment)

Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Setup reduction or Quick

Changeover (SMED)

Continuous process f low, Just In

Time, Cellular Operation, Process

Smoothing & Load Leveling

Pull Systems and Kanban

Poka Yoke

Jidoka & Zero Quality Control

5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine,

Standardize, Sustain & Safety)

Visual Workplace & V isual

Management

Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Standardized Processes

Other relevant issues rose during interviews and online discussions concernedthe following:

1. Lean can be used in any company, so also in training companies andtraining departments, as lean is about eliminating waste and improvingprocesses. The more standardized process a company has the more it ispossible to use lean tools in that company. It is true that every class isdifferent and one can never know what is getting into during the trainingdelivery process, but also there are many repetitive tasks to be done

Fig. 6 Use of Lean and Other Improvement Tools in Training


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before the class is started and after it is finished. For sure these processescan be improved and save the companies a huge amount of time andcosts.

2. First Lean principle is important to set success criteria and targets fortraining. Usually, for open courses, the challenge is to satisfy as manytrainees as possible, but that means a percentage of non-satisfied ones,i.e. a waste in the training process.

3. Large companies are rather poor at really developing their people andgetting them up to speed effectively. There are not any real Leanmanagement systems broadly implemented in the training organisation.

4. Even if Lean Tools are so powerful to cutback costs, the most importantthing is to change the organisational culture and support Lean behaviours.The tools are not too difficult to implement, but they will never work if

the people are not focussed on continuous improvement. And this is wheretrainers should play a significant role to enable change.

5. For people with no special knowledge of Lean from training organisations,it is also useful to see that there is some need for some of the Lean toolsor at least concepts, even if Lean seems so very manufacturing-oriented.

6. If one looks at the training process from a Lean point of view, it isworthwhile to know how to identify the Lead Time to move people from"Unconscious incompetence" to "Unconscious Competence". Usually thetraining processes are considered as simple and linear, i.e. sending peopleon a training course is supposed to make them learn and spontaneousmoving them through all these steps. It will do to have a simple valuestream map, an estimation of the existing "inventory" (number of people ateach step) and "first pass yield" (the number of people who get past eachstep from first time) for each step. This should give a clear picture ofwhere the focus needs to be applied on training process, to yield effectivetraining. Practically training process may be approached like any otherprocess, but unfortunately training is more often seen as a "box ticking"exercise in most of the companies, even within training organisations.Instead "Lean" in training should mean VSM, improvement to cut waste andto enhance value in the eyes of the customer.

7. It is advisable for trainers to use 5S and visual management, and alsoelements of SMED. But these tools are more about being more comfortableas a trainer, regardless the environment. It is also important to identifyand control Lead Time for the learning process.

In conclusion, it is obvious that using Lean by adult educators and trainers hasstarted in formal education organisations in some countries, but there is still along way to go before case studies and best practices will be available tosupport AdET competence development.

6 Reference list

Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T., Roos, D. (1990). The Machine That Changed theWorld: The Story of Lean Production, Macmillan Publishing Company

Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T. (2003), Lean Thinking, Free Press


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Annex 1 - BRIEF LEAN TERMS GLOSSARY

5S A methodology for creating a self-sustaining culture that

perpetuates an organised, clean, safe, and efficientworkplace. TheEnglish words approximate the Japaneseoriginals for the 5 steps: Sort (Seiri) - Clearly distinguish between what is needed

and what is not needed to perform a given work process Straighten (Seiton) - Organize those things that are

needed, making it easy for users to locate, use andreturn them

Scrub (Seiso) - Clean everything in the area, includingfloors, machines and furniture

Standardize (Seiketsu) - Maintain and improve the firstfour Ss in addition to personal orderliness andneatness.

Sustain (Shitsuke) - Achieve the discipline or habit ofmaintaining an organised, clean, safe, and efficientworkplace.

Often there is a 6th S added: Safety Provide the operator asafe and ergonomic workplace.

Continuous Flow Only one work item is processed at a time and it is moveddirectly to the next process. It implies no waiting time forthe item after entering the process.

Flow Production A philosophy that rejects batch, lot or mass processing aswasteful. Product should move (flow) from operation tooperation in the smallest increment, one piece being theultimate. It implies no defects on the process flow, onlyquality parts are allowed to move to the next operation.

Heijunka(ProcessSmoothing &Load Levelling)

A Japanese term that refers to the act of levelling thevariety and/or volume of items produced at a workplaceover a period of time, by sequencing orders in a repetitivepattern and smoothing the day-to-day variation in totalorders to correspond to longer-term demand.

Hoshin (PolicyDeployment)

Japanese term for annual planning process, usedthroughout operational, financial, strategic, and projectbased scenarios, focusing on a few major long termcustomer-oriented breakthrough objectives, critical to acompanys long term success. This process deploys majorobjectives to specific support plans throughout theorganization.

Jidoka Built-in quality, such as if a process is not capable ofcreating the required output then it will not operate until itcan.

Just in Time(JIT)

A strategy that concentrates on delivering qualityproducts/services, in the quantity needed, when and whereit is needed.

Kaizen Continuous improvement of cost, quality, delivery, safety


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and responsiveness to customer needs

Kanban A signal that specifies what and when to produce within apull system. It is generally used to trigger the movement ofmaterial where one piece flow cannot be achieved, but isalso used to signal upstream processes to produceproduct for downstream processes.

Lead-Time The total time from the beginning of the supply chain tothe time of delivery. It includes the sum of the VA/NVAtime for a product to move through the entire valuestream.

Lean A business improvement strategy persistently focussing onreducing waste within a system. It is applicable also to

business processes such as paperwork flow through anoffice.

Overproduction This was considered by Taiichi Ohno to be the worst type ofwaste as it creates and hides all other types of wastes.

Pareto Chart A vertical bar graph showing the bars in descending order ofsignificance, ordered from left to right. It helps to focus onthe vital few issues rather than the trivial many (also knownas the 80/20 rule).

Poka-Yoke A method or device that prevents errors from occurringduring the process.

Pull / Push PullMaterial flow triggered downwardly by actual customerneed rather than a scheduled production forecast.Downstream processes signal to upstream processes exactlywhat is required and in what quantity.PushThe production of goods regardless of demand ordownstream need, usually in large batches to ensureefficiency.

Setup reduction/ QuickChangeover(SMED)

A method for rapidly and efficiently converting a processfrom running the current product to running the nextneeded product.Single Minute Exchange Of Dies (SMED)A technique to reduce setup or changeover times, thereforeto eliminate the need to produce in batches.

Six Sigma Six Sigma may be approached at three different levels: As a metric

A process that is six sigma generates a maximum defectprobability of 3.4 parts per million (PPM), i.e. a probabilityof 99.9997% to have good products. As a methodology

Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology thatfocuses an organization on driving rapid and sustainableimprovement to business processes by minimizing variationin those processes. At the heart of the methodology is the


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DMAIC model for process improvement (Define opportunity,Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improveperformance, Control performance)

StandardisedWork

A defined work method that describes the properworkstation and tools, work required, quality, standardinventory, knacks and sequence of operations.Related terms Standard: A prescribed documented method or process

that is sustainable, repeatable and predictable. Standardization: The system of documenting and

updating procedures to make sure everyone knowsclearly and simply what is expected of them.

Standard Work: It details the motion of the operatorand the sequence of action, based on the best processcurrently identified. Standard Work has three centralelements; Takt time, Standard Work Sequence, andStandard Work in Process.

Takt Time The pace at which the customer is demanding a product(how frequently a sold unit must be produced).

Takt Time= Available Time / Customer Demand

Total CycleTime (TCT)

The time taken from work order release into a value streamuntil completion / movement of product into shipping /finished goods.

Total ProductiveMaintenance(TPM.)

A means of maximising production system efficiency byanalysing and eliminating down-time through up-frontmaintenance of equipment. It is based on the principle thatequipment improvement must involve everyone in theorganization, from line operators to top management.

ToyotaProductionSystem (TPS)

The production system developed and used by the ToyotaMotor Company which focuses on the elimination of wastethroughout the value stream.

Value Added

Activity / Non-Value-AddedActivity (NVA)

Value Added Activity (VA)

Any activity that transforms input into the output for whicha customer is willing to pay for.Non-Value-Added Activity (NVA)An activity that takes time, resources or space but does notadd value to the product sold to a customer. The activitymay be necessary from the point of view of the provider;however the customer is not willing to pay for it.

Value Stream The value stream of a business is the sequence of steps thata company performs in order to satisfy a customer's need.

Value Stream

Map (VSM)

A visual representation of the aggregated material and

information flows within a company or business unit. UsingVSM icons, it shows interdependent functions, material andinformation flow, buffer inventory, flow time, cycle time,and decision points.

Visual Systems that enable anyone to immediately assess the


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Management current status of an operation or given process at a glance,regardless of their knowledge of the process.

Waste An activity that that consumes valuable resources withoutadding value for customers.Eight types of waste have beenidentified for business processes: Waste from over production Waste from waiting or idle time Waste from unnecessary transportation Waste from extra processing (inefficient processes) Waste of unnecessary inventory Waste of motion and efforts Waste from producing defective goods

Zero Quality

Control

Each individual is educated, trained, and empowered so

there is no need for inspection of their quality of work.Sources: www.lean.org, www.motorola.com

Cristina MusatPhilean Consulting & Training, Romaniahttp://leanromania.wordpress.com

http://philean.wordpress.com

lean tools in adult educators and trainers

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