FITT Facts: Waste #7

Waste #7 – Defects

Defects are obvious and the waste most likely to make it to your end customer.  This is the form of waste that always gets the most attention because you don’t have to be a trained lean person to see them.  Defects won’t just slow you down like the other forms of waste, defects will cause you to do work over again and thus create the potential of producing all other forms of waste.

A defect is defined as any errors, rework, scrap or missing information that negatively effects the product or service you are providing to a customer.  Remember, customers can be internal and external, so that missing piece of information on the form you handed to the next stakeholder in a process is also a defect. 

Defect Waste Examples	What to do about it…
Missing field or information on a form.	If the form is electronic, make fields mandatory.
Forgetting to follow up with someone or to complete a task.	I highly recommend keeping to to-do list and a way for keeping track of all the little things that pop up.  Use a phone, tablet or an old fashioned notebook to keep tabs on you goals, priorities and tasks.
Not putting a tool/item back in its home.	Make sure the item’s home is properly labelled.  Were all the stakeholders who use that item/tool trained on proper home locations and use?  Process owners are a great tool to ensure areas/tool boards stay within standard.
Manufacturing out of specification.	Immediately get to the root cause and put countermeasures in place.  These defects often point back to lack of training or missing information/supplies, but the “I was rushed” response is also common.  Establish a DIRTFT (do it right the first time) mentality throughout the company.

Unlike the other forms of waste, you can’t sweep defects under the rug.  Defects are out there for everyone to see and they can cost you a lot of bottom line dollars. 

Develop the “STOP” mentality in all processes so that as soon as defects are produced you stop and get to the root cause, then immediately put solutions or countermeasures in place.

Be FITT!