Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning and Control on 28/11/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537287.2016.1264640
Accepted author manuscript, 785 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - On the meaning of ‘waste’
T2 - review and definition
AU - Thurer, Matthias
AU - Tomasevic, Ivan
AU - Stevenson, Mark
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning and Control on 28/11/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537287.2016.1264640
PY - 2017/3
Y1 - 2017/3
N2 - Waste reduction is one of the main principles of lean, but it has been taken for granted that we have a common understanding of what waste means. We first present a critical, qualitative discussion that identifies four distinct waste concepts. We then conduct a systematic review of the literature that examines the different uses of these concepts. We find that only the classic concept of the seven wastes and the concept of waste as non-value-adding activity are widely applied. However, both concepts are, at times, not only incompatible but used in a way that leads to open contradiction. A new definition, centred on an efficient, timely transformation process seeks to consolidate the literature. We outline two distinct waste types: (i) obvious waste, to refer to any waste that can be reduced without creating another form of waste; and, (ii) buffer waste, to refer to any waste that cannot be reduced without creating another waste. The paper has important implications for practice. To reduce waste, managers must undertake three interlinked tasks: the elimination of obvious waste; the reduction of variability to transform buffers into obvious waste; and, the balancing of remaining buffers to best achieve performance targets. The paper supports managers in their endeavours to identify waste, which is an important precursor to waste reduction/elimination.
AB - Waste reduction is one of the main principles of lean, but it has been taken for granted that we have a common understanding of what waste means. We first present a critical, qualitative discussion that identifies four distinct waste concepts. We then conduct a systematic review of the literature that examines the different uses of these concepts. We find that only the classic concept of the seven wastes and the concept of waste as non-value-adding activity are widely applied. However, both concepts are, at times, not only incompatible but used in a way that leads to open contradiction. A new definition, centred on an efficient, timely transformation process seeks to consolidate the literature. We outline two distinct waste types: (i) obvious waste, to refer to any waste that can be reduced without creating another form of waste; and, (ii) buffer waste, to refer to any waste that cannot be reduced without creating another waste. The paper has important implications for practice. To reduce waste, managers must undertake three interlinked tasks: the elimination of obvious waste; the reduction of variability to transform buffers into obvious waste; and, the balancing of remaining buffers to best achieve performance targets. The paper supports managers in their endeavours to identify waste, which is an important precursor to waste reduction/elimination.
KW - Waste
KW - lean
KW - buffer
KW - systematic literature review
U2 - 10.1080/09537287.2016.1264640
DO - 10.1080/09537287.2016.1264640
M3 - Journal article
VL - 28
SP - 244
EP - 255
JO - Production Planning and Control
JF - Production Planning and Control
SN - 0953-7287
IS - 3
ER -