Waiting is defined in one way as: "staying where one is or delaying until a particular time or something else happens".  In the case of the waste of waiting we can say it is any situation where a delay, idleness or a stop occurs.  There are generally three categories where waiting is related:

  Transportation waste is any unnecessary movement of materials or information.  Let’s clarify.  Transportation Waste is not the Same as Motion Waste.  One of the key differences is that transportation occurs between process steps and workstations rather than within them.

  Many processes depend heavily on standardization.  Which is simply the process of establishing, sharing, conforming and improving standards. 

  Zero Quality Control is a method/approach for achieving zero defects in an organization.  Zero gives reference to the objective of ZQC which is to produce products/services with zero defects. 

  Reflection can be a great way to gather critical opportunities from a project.  The term Hansei refers to the reflection and recognition of one's own actions.  Hansei is often used to recognize one's own mistakes and commit to taking the appropriate actions in order to resolve and avoid recurrence of one's mistakes.  The Hansei can be performed in a team environment or in a personal reflective manner, either way it is important that teams and individuals stretch their mind enough to find something they can improve upon. 

  Transportation can be defined in one way as ​the movement of goods or stuff from one place to another.  It may also be defined as the various means by which such movement is accomplished.  Transportation is one of the 8 forms of waste and can only be considered as value adding when it is strategically established to meet the needs of customer demand.

  Though the spelling of the word “team” does not include an I, the definition does acknowledge that each individual must do their part.  The word team is defined simply as: a group of individuals who come together for a common purpose or to reach a specific objective.​

To mechanize is to equip with machinery.  Mechanization is a last resort and should only be performed when every possible effort has been made to improve your process times.  You may be wondering, why? 

  Kanban is one tool within the just in time production system.  Kanban is used to connect information flow to the necessary action or production of a customer need.