Spot the waste in a process
Walk a process looking for what adds no value (waits, transport, inventory, rework) and turn the biggest into improvements.
The task in figures
- Gives you back
- It does not recur every month
- Elmira today
- Helps
- Frequency
- Per project
- Who does it today
- Engineer
- Version
- Elmira Junior
What hurts today.
What adds no value looks normal, because it has always been that way.
The list of waste never turns into work.
Without knowing what each one costs, the most visible gets tackled.
Lean names eight wastes: overproduction, waiting, transport, overprocessing, inventory, motion, defects and unused talent. Spotting them means walking the process with a customer’s eyes, writing each one down where it happens and estimating what it costs, to tackle the biggest first. An engineer does it with the team, and the list usually ends up in a spreadsheet nobody turns into work.
Done today with
- Expert
- In-person meeting
- On the floor
- Paper and whiteboard
- Spreadsheet
- Email and chat
Each step, today and with Elmira.
You tell Elmira on WhatsApp the wastes you choose to tackle, and she sets them down as actions with their owner and their date, and attaches the photo you send her, which can also be uploaded in Obeyaka. With the Value Office, each keeps what it costs.
| Step | Today | With Elmira |
|---|---|---|
| Walk the process looking for the eight wastes | On the floor | Your call |
| Write each waste down where it happens | Paper and whiteboard, On the floor15 min – 45 min | Still by hand |
| Estimate what each one costs | Spreadsheet, Expert30 min – 1.5 h | Comes with the value office |
| Choose the ones to tackle | In-person meeting | Your call |
| Turn them into actions with an owner and a date | Spreadsheet, Email and chat15 min – 30 min | |
| Keep each one’s photo with its action | On the floor5 min – 15 min |
The conversation
- Ana, continuous improvement engineer
Elmira, on line 2 the operators wait 20 minutes per shift for the film to arrive from the Warehouse. Felipe Díaz should keep a shift’s worth of film next to the line, by the 23rd.
Create the action “Keep a shift’s worth of film next to line 2”
Goal: Raise line 2’s OEE
Team: Packaging
Responsible: Felipe Díaz
Due on October 23, 2026
- Ana, continuous improvement engineer
Approve
Done: I created the action “Keep a shift’s worth of film next to line 2”.
Does this happen to your team?
Book a demo and we will show you Elmira doing this task.
More cases of processes and standards
- Audit compliance with the standard (layered audits)The results stay on paper nobody adds up.
- Run the 5S audits and follow up their findingsThe order lasts until the next audit.
- Map a process end to end (SIPOC)“The process” means something different to each person.