What is Waiting Waste?

 What is waiting waste?

Definition- Waiting waste describes the resources lost as people wait for information, a meeting, a signature, a returned phone call, a copier or computer that is broken, and so on. People cannot add value to the product or service while they are waiting.

Example – Waiting on hold for a telephone call, a meeting to start, numbers, direction from a supervisor, and so on, is examples of waiting waste.

Typical solution/Result- This is one of the common “accepted” wastes. If a high-level manager is annoyed by a specific instance, some training or coaching may be given but long-term change will not occur.

The Offices Kaizen-In an Office Kaizen environment, two avenues are used:

1.       Each intact work group uses the LDMS to monitor and improve its efficiency; over time, each intact work group begins to see that waiting is waste and will gradually reduce it ; and

2.        A change team reporting to the ESC conducts value stream mapping (or process flow) analyses that pinpoint the most blatant waiting wastes (differences between cycle time and total processing time). These permits additional change teams to address larger pockets of waiting that are caused by cross-functional issues.