The 8’th form of waste was identified and added to the other 7 forms of waste by Dr. Jim Womack in the book Lean Thinking.  This type of waste suggests that we go to a great effort in order to obtain well qualified and experienced employees that eventually end up working behind a desk from nine to five.  While the work that these individuals do on a daily basis is very important, it is guaranteed that almost every individual is capable of much more than what he or she does.  The waste of underutilized skills also applies to machine talent.  Too often we use the same systems and procedures because it is what we normally do and we rob those computers or machines of their full potential.  Like our computers and machines the same goes for our most important asset, people.

  The waste of motion or movement is any motion or movement by people and or machines that does not add or create value.  Motion waste is oftentimes confused with transportation waste, they are not the same.  The easiest way to identify the difference between the waste of motion and the waste of transportation is that transportation waste moves “stuff” or information and generally occurs between process steps and workstations rather than within them.  Motion waste on the other hand, directly relates to people and machines.

  The 8 forms of waste are also referred to as the 8 forms of muda.  A Lean strategy attempts to remove any and all forms of waste from business processes.