PANAD

The elimination of waste often starts with a detailed analysis of the process. Assessment of process steps as value added, business value or Non-value added is the basic template that must be applied because it can account for significant reduction in waste for the lowest cost. A process step must transform or shape material or information, the customer must want the step and it must be done right the first time (no rework). If these three points are not met by the process it is Non-value added and considered waste. The goal is to remove all wasteful steps from the process however not all steps that fail to meet the value added criteria can be remove from a process. Some steps could be directed by government regulations or simply a constraint of technology.

Lean is a process of eliminating waste with a goal of creating value normally aimed at the customer. This relentless pursuit of value often focus on speed of production or delivery of a service and efficiency of the process measured by maximizing outputs while reducing inputs or resource consumed in the process. A critical start point for lean must be asking the question if we truly understand the measure of value. Only the customer can define value of our service or product. We have internal and external customers each with a possible different criteria for defining the deliverables they receive. Internal could be stations in the production line that must receive the part in production with certain specifications that will allow them to continue the process with out interruption. The external customer is the final recipient of the item. They normally have a preconceive expectation of the product. It must be understood that good marketing can help manage expectations and move customer expectation closer to the reality of the product.