waste

The migration of production sites out of Europe is primarily based on manufacturing costs. Therefore, perfectly functioning communication systems and reliable logistic services are needed. Although the advantage of lower labor costs will decrease in the future, more low-wage countries will be discovered. The answer cannot be found in low-cost production but in an approach which optimizes processes in a holistic way avoiding waste through intelligent solutions.

The energy used in production moves more and more into the focus of optimization efforts. It is important to consider the processes in production. The energy value stream mapping method is to bridge the gap between the value stream mapping optimization of material flow with the use of resources and energy demand. Under the expert guidance the production is shown in a snapshot. With the help of defined types of waste and design guidelines the production is quickly been analyzed and optimized. Results are numerous measures that can often be realized easily and with little effort. Energy savings of 10,000 EUR and more are opened up so quickly.

Waste - being everything that adds no value towards the fulfillment of customer needs - has various effects on a company. In this article, different views on waste (employee, management and kaizen expert) are presented and compared. A recommendation for the goal oriented usage of these approaches concludes this article.