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 word investment is defined in one way as "the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value."  With this in mind, Inventory Investment is the total amount of money or capital that has been invested in every form of inventory.  

  Inventory waste is any unnecessary storage of materials, products or information.

  This type of work activity does not meet the criteria of value added work, mainly because a customer is not willing to pay for the product, service, activity or information.  However, the product, service, activity or information although not considered value added is necessary to either protect the company or comply with regulatory requirements. 

  A subassembly is used to build an assembly.  A subassembly is not a component, it is an assembly that is used in a higher level of a bill of materials.

  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:

  Warehousing, Transportation, Order fulfillment and Inventory Management and Optimization.  We’ve all heard these terms before.  But, did you know how tightly linked they are to a third-party logistics provider?  Many companies in today's day and age rely on logistics providers to help scale and enhance their business.  Companies like Amazon, Walmart and Grainger all use 3PL’s.  And, with the growth of e-commerce and the growing complexity of today's supply chains 3PL’s are becoming a must have for almost every organization.  So, what exactly is a 3PL?

  Work in progress or process refers to one form of inventory.  WIP as it is often referred to as, is the work that is in process or production at a stage that falls between raw material and finished product. 

  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.

  A push system is the production or performance of any item or activity performed at required times by a given schedule that has been planned in advance.  Many push systems are built mainly to forecast.  Push systems can also include issuing material or performing an activity based on a schedule rather than need.  Push systems create excess inventory which is one of the 8 forms of waste.