All construction sites produce some sort of waste. Whether it is a by-product of the construction process or a waste caused by inefficiency. This video covers the 8 wastes generally seen in most processes.
When the waste of time/waiting, over-production, excessive inventory and non-utilised skills, for example, can be minimised or eliminated, the efficiency of any process can be dramatically improved and be more lean, leading to better production, higher quality and ultimately increased profitability.
3 Components of Work
Defects: Efforts caused by rework, scrap, and incorrect information.
Over-production: Production that is more than needed or before it is needed.
Waiting: Wasted time waiting for the next step in a process.
Non-utilised skills: Underutilising people’s talents, skills & knowledge.
Transport: Unnecessary movement of products & materials.
Inventory: Excess products and materials not being process.
Motion: Unnecessary movements by people (e.g. walking).
Extra-processing: More work or higher quality than is required by the customer.
ENVA
Essential Non Value Add – Support activities
These are the tasks that must be completed to enable the value-adding activity to be completed but do not add value e.g. Inspections
VA
Value Add
This is the work that directly contributes to forming the product or service the customer is willing to pay for.
Creating efficiencies
Any work activity will comprise all three elements of work. It is usual to find that the Value-adding (VA) content will be a lot less than other elements.
When improving the way work is carried out:
Step 1: aim to eliminate waste
Step 2: improve the way ENVA is carried out
Step 3: improve the efficiency of VA
Continuous Improvement reduces the time taken to carry out a particular task, releasing more capacity: ‘more for the same’ or ‘more for less’.
