THE EIGHT MUDAS AND INFORMATION
Chip Chapados
Many of us have now been conditioned to think about Muda (waste) on the production floor, but few realize that this paradigm can be applied to other aspects of the business; for example Information. Below are some examples of Information Muda . This isn’t a complete list, but rather an invitation to reflect on the relevance and ease of information collection, synthesis, and use in your organization.
OVERPRODUCTION – TOO MUCH INFORMATION COLLECTED/PRODUCED: (i.e. measuring too many things, measuring too frequently, creating too many reports)
TRAVEL- TOO MANY INFORMATION PROCESSING HANDOFFS: (i.e. one person collects, another analyzes, another reports, and a fourth files the report)
EXCESS INVENTORY- TOO MUCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE OR STORED: (i.e. measuring too many variables at once, too many “KPI’s,” data and reports kept long after their usefulness, unnecessary tracking of material items)
EXCESS MOVEMENT- POOR INFORMATION COLLECTION/POOR ANALYSIS: (i.e. badly designed forms, unnecessary manual calculation, poor location of paperwork, unnecessary manual recording such as paper recording of data that might be recorded by a machine’s Programmable Logic Controller interface)
UNDERUTILIZED WORKFORCE – WORKERS NOT PARTICIPATING IN CREATING AND USING INFORMATION: (i.e. data collected by supervisors, reviewed by managers, not directly reported to floor, or reported in manner not useful for floor continuous improvement activity, data not used by workforce in daily work)
MISTAKES/DEFECTS – WRONG, INACCURATE, INCOMPLETE INFORMATION: (i.e. measuring the wrong thing, failing to analyze the data the right way, failing to properly understand and use the data, inaccurate measurement tools such as gauges, sensors, wrong or obsolete documentation such as wrong print or wrong document revision, incomplete forms, wrong or contaminated samples, improper training)
WAITING – WAITING TO GET NEEDED INFORMATION – DELAYS: (i.e. waiting for scheduled report, waiting for scheduled meeting, waiting for scheduled visit, waiting for scheduled processing, waiting for scheduled time, waiting for signoff, waiting for permission)
OVER-PROCESSING – TOO MUCH ANALYSIS: (i.e. overly complicated statistical tool, badly conducted discussion, wrong people interpreting data, too many levels of people involved, overly complicated laboratory tests/procedures, unclear process, excessive time spent analyzing data, lack of timeline)
DELAYS/LOST – INFORMATION NOT AVAILABLE WHEN NEEDED: i.e. caused by any and all of the above plus: person needed unavailable, forms unavailable, tools missing, equipment breakdown, software glitch, person forgot, person too busy, no pencil, person not informed of need; data collected, stored, and forgotten)
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