Transportation Waste

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  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.

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Although people may need to move to get supplies, tools or other items the difference can be found in that the waste of transportation is focused on moving “stuff” while waste of motion is focused on movement of people.  Here's an example, a person moves to get a tool.  This is motion waste.  Right?  Parts of this activity may have been.  However, this is the waste of Transportation because the purpose was to retrieve a tool and the person needed to move to retrieve the tooling.  
Examples:

1. Moving parts across facilities.
2. Walk excessive distances to retrieve tools.
3. Retrieving or storing, information, files and data.

Caused by:

1. Functional or widespread equipment, poor layout.
2. Minimal cross-training of work centers.
3. Queue points in and out of operations. 
4. Tools not prioritized by usage and located close to the point of use.
5. Information located in "storage" centers.

General Solutions:

• Map your value stream out to reveal hidden wastes.
• Move from departmental/functional environments to flow environments like cellular layouts.
• Place needed items close to the point of use and use priority systems.
• Smaller Batch Sizes.
• Use information systems that allow sharing rather than emailing attachments.

Challenge:

• What forms of Transportation Waste Do you See on a Daily Basis and Would You Go About Solving them?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below and receive a coupon to one of Lean Strategies International LLC's courses.

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