Waging
War on Waste
Waging
war on waste is deliberately chosen as a title because
unfortunately, in our experience people view this as
a battle not a war. Once the easy bits are done then
the focus switches to the next flavour of the month
- neglecting the fact that the real rewards still need
to be tapped.
Analysing
waste in over 45 different companies in industries as
diverse as paper manufacture to hotels to insurance
companies, without fail when the company has initially
measured waste, it has never been below 10 % of turnover
and on average at least 15 - 20 % - put this another
way - it is an extra 10 % of costs which we incur to
maintain the current level of product and service to
the customer.
Methodology
The
key to understanding this war is
“what do we mean by waste?”
Don't just look upon this as products
or service either manufactured or delivered -but: in
all aspects of your operations.
[ Click
to Enlarge ]
The
chart above shows that as a company we incur costs in
many areas. Our challenge in winning this war is over
a defined time period to:
1
Reduce the level of waste
2.
Change the balance; carry out more preventive action in
relation to appraisal and waste.
Waste
is both real and unseen
- some of the hidden effects of
waste cannot be quantified in specific terms but we know
it has an impact - the best example is the cost of lost
opportunity - the customer not coming back a second time
because we messed up this time.
The
battle on waste is normally seen as firefighting the problem
- forcing it below the surface - putting a sticking plaster
over the wound - waiting for the next problem to appear
- indeed managers revel from solving problems and less
from preventing them - yet which are the activities that
add more value? We also know that in some companies the
way that people are recognised and rewarded is on their
ability to fight fires not to prevent things going wrong
- somehow preventing things going wrong is frowned upon
it's not the macho thing to do.
Approach
So
how do we wage this war on waste?
Winning
the war on waste cannot be achieved by the continuous
use of project teams either departmentally or cross functionally
- there has to be something to sustain the gains made.
Sure
it's to do with the successful application of improvement
techniques - but it is also a combination of other issues,
including the type of attitude that the company creates
- how people are treated and recognised and how the action
permeates from the top of the organisation.
Winning
this war depends on many things - here are a few:
clear measures of the tangible and the intangible
creating an environment which fosters involvement and
prevention
clarity as to the overall aim and why we are doing it
sustained commitment
built into departmental and day to day objectives and
remuneration schemes
regular measurement
displayed results
These
factors are some of the tangible actions which need to
be carried out to ensure that we win the war - this is
long term - focusing on them for just a few weeks or a
few months will not have the desired sustained effect.
To give you a flavour of the type of approach we take
to reducing waste, take a look at the case studies.
See
case studies:
Radiall
Cable
& Wireless Guernsey
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