Overproduction and 7 Wastes for the Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency has a robust training program on how to apply Lean to the environment. They’ve provided a Lean Toolkit specifically tailored to address environmental issues, with examples and case studies. Here’s the list of topics they cover in their free download.

[contentblock id=31]

Table of Contents and Acknowledgments

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Getting Started with Lean & Environment
• Chapter 2: Identifying Environmental Wastes
• Chapter 3: Value Stream Mapping
• Chapter 4: Kaizen Events
• Chapter 5: 6S (5S+Safety)
• Chapter 6: Conclusion

Appendices

• Appendix A: Lean Methods
• Appendix B: Basic Environmental Measures for Lean Enterprises
• Appendix C: Lean Event EHS Checklist
• Appendix D: Pollution Prevention Resources
• Appendix E: 6S Safety Audit Checklist

It’s no surprise that the Toyota 7 Wastes add a huge burden to companies – and most companies don’t even know it.  As reference, the 7 Wastes are:

1. Transportation
2. Inventory
3. Motion
4. Waiting
5. Overproduction
6. Overprocessing
7. Defects

But what about the burden on the earth?  In this series, I’ll attempt to highlight the Toyota 7 Wastes and their impacts on the environment.  Today, we’ll begin with Overproduction.

• More raw materials and energy is consumed in making the unnecessary products
• Extra products may spoil or become obsolete, requiring disposal
• Extra hazardous material used result in extra emissions, extra waste disposal, worker exposure
• More space is required to hold overproduced products
• Possible write-downs or over-discounting because of over-supply of products, harming business profitability and possibly leading to employee layoffs

It’s Your Turn

What other environmental impacts come from the waste of overproduction?  Does it matter?  Thinking about how to reduce Overproduction, how would you do that for environmentally-specific problems?  Would Kanban work just as effectively?  Don’t build unless there’s a customer pull to build?