I’ve said it here many times. I hate waste! As a sector that’s starved for resources yet charged with addressing some of society’s most intractable problems, we can’t afford to waste any time, energy, knowledge, or money!
We’ve all heard the saying “time is money.” In our sector, time is money, and money is the means of our mission. Any waste of either detracts from our mission impact. We often are so insistent that every minute and every dollar go to service delivery that we fail to make the necessary investments in carefully planning, evaluating, and improving our processes for carrying out our work. In the end, I think we end up wasting time (which wastes money, which wastes mission impact!) on working in ineffective and inefficient ways.
I teach Lean Six Sigma to social workers. Yeah, you heard that right. I teach social work students how to apply the analytical tools and techniques created for manufacturing to their work in human services. It takes a little translation and adaptation, but one concept needs no translation or explanation – waste. My students have no problem identifying waste in the organizations where they learn and work. I bet you won’t either.
12 Forms of Waste
In the Lean Six Sigma world, there are twelve main forms of waste that we’ve all probably experienced both in our own individual work and in our agencies. These definitions and some of the examples are inspired by Pursuing Perfect Service: Using a Practical Approach to Lean Six Sigma to Improve the Customer Experience and Reduce Costs in Service Industries by Ptacek and Motwani.
Think back of your last day at work or think through a frequent task or process of which you’re a part. What waste do you see?
1. Overproduction. Doing more work than is necessary.
- Entering the same data in multiple places
- Handling the same document multiple times
- Attending ineffective meetings
- Producing reports that aren’t read or used
2. Waiting or Delays. Time spent waiting is time wasted.
(Just think of how you feel at the DMV!) Lots of bad practices can create delays.
- Requiring excessive signatures or approvals before work can move forward
- Overfull inboxes with messages waiting days or weeks for a response
- Lack of prioritization for tasks
- Lack of deadlines and timelines for work and processes
3. Motion. Moving people, paper, and data in ways that doesn’t add value.
- Searching for electronic files on shared drives
- Searching for paper files in stacks and cabinets
- Data entry that requires too many keystrokes and clicks
4. Transport. Time spent moving is time wasted.
(From an efficiency perspective, I mean. Otherwise, your FitBit would disagree).
- Hand carrying forms from one department to another
- Walking back and forth to the printer down the hall (and chatting with people along the way)
5. Overprocessing. Putting more effort into something than is required by your customers or stakeholders.
- Constantly revising documents
- Seeking too many people’s input and feedback
- Duplicate data entry
- Over-checking email (you know who you are!)
6. Inventory. Excess paper and information and the time spent searching through it.
- Too many icons on your desktop
- Unorganized folders and files in your drives
- Printing copies of reports that people could read electronically
- Requiring data fields that no one uses anymore
7. Defects and Errors. Time spent correcting mistakes.
- Data entry errors
- Forwarding incomplete documentation
- Poorly written documents that require excessive copy editing
- Incomplete files
8. Skills or Knowledge. Underutilizing the knowledge and skills of your team.
- Hiring people with inadequate skills
- Spending money on professional development but then not sharing or using what was learned
- Not involving staff in improvement efforts or decision-making
9. Unevenness. Downtime and crunch times create errors and waiting.
- Deadlines concentrated at the end of the month or quarter
- Responding to tasks as they arise and not intentionally batching to manage flow
10. Overburden. Time and resources are wasted when you don’t have the capacity to meet demand.
- Understaffing
- People “covering” for others during absences or vacancies
- Not expanding capacity during peak times
11. Environmental. Wasted organizational and natural resources.
This is what it sounds like. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
12. Social. Communication and networking that don’t add value.
One most common and correctable form of social waste is time spent socializing or on social media instead of on value-adding work.
Tips and Tools for Saving Time and Money
The tools and processes of Quality Improvement are designed to reduce waste and errors and improve quality. For more on what Quality Improvement is (and isn’t) and how it can help your organization, check out these posts:
The Heart of Quality Improvement for Nonprofits
Proving Compliance vs. Improving Quality
On May 17th, 2018, I’ll be teaching a professional development workshop at UMSL on Quality Improvement for nonprofits. If you’re interested, click here.
One of the most common and effective tools for reducing wasted time and energy is process design and improvement. Unfortunately, many organizations rely on personalities and people to drive their work, rather than on standardized, sustainable processes. For more on that, read this.
On July 20, 2018, I’ll be teaching a professional development workshop at The Brown School on Process Management. We’ll cover process mapping and improvement. For more information, click here.
Yes! Wasting time by looking for files on my computer. Where did I put it, what is it called! How many times I say I need to do this differently, but how?
Another way is entering financial date in too many places. Same date different forms, sheets, etc.
Hi Kathleen. Yep! That’s a common one. Everyone’s brains work differently. Some organize files by type (drafts, finals, handouts, reports, etc.). Others prefer to organize files by project or topic (financials, donors, program). Think about how your brain works, how you naturally sort things. My files are organized by “who” – client, vendor – first, then by project, then by type.