What kind of waste am I actually looking at?
Tag observed process steps against the eight wastes and see the count and time by category.
Waste Spotter · lean · White Belt · free, no account needed
Use this when
- You are on a waste walk and need to categorise what you see
- You want to know which type of waste dominates before choosing a fix
Waste Spotter
sandboxClassify every step. Apply the customer test each time — would they pay for this? Effort and skill are never the test.
| Step | Min | Classification | Waste category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collect pick list from printer | 2 | ||
| Walk to aisle 4 | 3 | ||
| Search for item — label faded | 4 | ||
| Pick item | 1 | ||
| Walk to aisle 11 | 4 | ||
| Wait for ladder (in use) | 7 | ||
| Pick item | 1 | ||
| Re-scan — first scan rejected | 2 | ||
| Walk to despatch | 3 | ||
| Queue at despatch desk | 6 |
Lead time
33 min
Value-add
0 min
Value-add ratio
0%
Waste
33 min
10 non-value-add steps have no waste category. Categorising them is what turns "this is waste" into a specific thing you can change.
How this is calculated
Value-add ratio = value-add time ÷ total lead time. The denominator is the whole clock, including every wait — not the time the team was busy. That distinction is what separates “how busy were we?” from “how much of the customer’s wait was worth it?”
- Value-add — The customer would pay for it, it changes the thing, and it is right first time.
- Business-necessary — The customer would not pay for it, but you cannot stop doing it.
- Waste — Everything else.
Source: Rother & Shook (1999), Learning to See; the eight wastes from Ohno (1988), Toyota Production System, Ch.3.
- Transport — moving the product
- Inventory — work sitting and waiting
- Motion — moving the person
- Waiting — work exists, nothing is happening to it
- Over-production — more, or sooner, than the next step needs
- Over-processing — beyond the customer requirement
- Defects — rework, correction or scrap
- Unused talent — the people doing the job were never asked
How this is calculated
Categorical tally with time weighting. No inference — counts and durations the learner observed.
Source: Ohno, T. (1988), Toyota Production System, Ch.3 — the seven wastes. The eighth (unused talent) is a later addition and is labelled as such in the tool.
Learn the method
- The eight wastes: what you are actually looking atWhite Belt · 13 min · free