Being part of the Show Me Excellence community means that we aim to continuously improve to serve the citizens of Missouri through effective government. Simply, we work together to improve our processes, pursue innovative solutions, and share best practices. In order to improve our processes, we must first identify what are process obstacles that are getting in the way of providing the best value to those we serve. These obstacles fall into 8 categories that can be defined as ‘Waste’.
No one wants to think about the work they do being wasteful, but if we can recognize what task we do that don’t add value then we can work to eliminate them. The 8 Waste are:
- Defects – efforts caused by rework, scrap, and incorrect information
- Overproduction – production that is more than needed or before it is needed
- Waiting – wasted time waiting for the next step in a process
- Non-utilized talent – underutilizing people’s talents, skills, and knowledge
- Transportation – unnecessary movements of products and materials
- Inventory – excess products and materials not being processed
- Motion – unnecessary movements by people (e.g., walking)
- Extra-processing – more work or higher quality than is required by the customer
To remember the 8 Waste, you can use the acronym “DOWNTIME”. To learn more about tools to help you identify waste and improve then check out the Show Me Excellence White Belt and Show Me Excellence Yellow Belt training in MOLearning. You can also find more resources at https://showmeexcellence.mo.gov/. Your OpEx Leader can you get started.
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