Lean manufacturing is all about boosting productivity while slashing manufacturing waste. But how can manufacturers realistically reduce waste? By getting organized, thinking ahead, and practicing inventory control.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the definition of manufacturing waste, explain lean manufacturing waste management, and reveal seven tried and true ways to reduce waste in manufacturing.
What is manufacturing waste?
In the lean manufacturing model, anything your business creates that’s unnecessary or “without value” to a customer is considered waste. That’s because these excess steps and byproducts offer no benefit to the customer.
Eight types of manufacturing waste
When learning about manufacturing waste, you may have come across the acronym DOWNTIME. It represents eight particular types of lean manufacturing waste. Here’s what it stands for:
- Defects
- Overproduction
- Waiting
- Not properly utilizing talent
- Transportation waste
- Inventory excess or overordering
- Motion waste
- Excess processing
These types of waste are bad for your profits, the environment, and your company’s overall health. And your customers aren’t willing to spend a dime on any of this waste. That means your business will front the costs for everything from production defects to wasted human resources.
What is manufacturing waste management?
Manufacturing waste management is the practice of controlling, limiting, auditing, and optimizing your company’s waste. Everything from wasteful production to transportation to inventory ordering can be improved upon with effective manufacturing waste management.
Many businesses turn to resources like inventory management software, supply chain consultants, and productivity experts to reduce waste management.
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What is manufacturing waste management?
Manufacturing waste management can look quite different from business to business. And while every manufacturer has unique needs, just about every company can benefit from implementing best practices to reduce manufacturing waste.
Here are seven of the most effective methods:
1. Rethink packaging—and go paperless
Packing supplies can get expensive. And if they don’t protect your inventory from damages or delight your customers, then you’re producing waste.
First, ensure that all the packaging you use is as green as possible. Select boxes made from recycled materials, and air packs to provide cushioning instead of styrofoam. Or, better yet, see if there are any existing packing supplies you’ve received that could be reused.
Still, even the most environmentally-conscious packing supplies would be better left unused. Evaluate how you ship inventory and determine if there’s a less wasteful way to move products. Perhaps you send items that are already boxed in larger boxes. Could you cut out that larger box altogether?
Finally, rethink packing slips, receipts, and printed booklets. More and more businesses are sending out packages with as little paperwork as possible, instead asking buyers to refer to information about their orders online.
2. Reduce, reuse, recycle
Next, ensure your team does everything it can to reduce what it uses, reuse what it must use, and recycle what it reuses.
Hazardous materials like batteries and paint can’t always be recycled, so it’s essential to order only as much of these products as you know you need.
Many materials, like paper, plastic, and metal, can be easily recycled—but your company should still try to limit using these materials whenever possible. Some programs can help your business recycle asphalt, rubber, and wood materials.
To make things easier on your manufacturing team, create a standard operating procedure for recycling. Have sorted bins for each kind of product, and ensure new employees are trained on recycling protocols.
3. Get your space organized
If your warehouse, factory, or plant is disorganized, your business is almost certainly creating manufacturing waste. The more streamlined and organized your workspace is, the easier and more efficient it will be for your team to make, store, pack, and ship inventory.
Remember those eight kinds of lean manufacturing waste? Each one can be tied to some sort of disorganization. Defects, poor use of human resources, excess inventory—all of these things happen because operations aren’t running as smoothly as they could.
Getting organized isn’t easy, but it’s worth the hard work. As you clean, make sense of, organize, and rearrange your warehouse, factory, or plant, consider digitizing your inventory, too. That way, you can start keeping better inventory records—and stay organized for good.
4. Schedule preventive maintenance
If you’re calling for service on machinery and equipment after something breaks, you’re already too late. And the waiting that happens when your equipment can’t produce inventory is wasteful, costly, and often avoidable.
Stay on top of preventative maintenance with a clear, consistent schedule. You can use an inventory app like Sortly to get alerts for key dates such as expiring warranties.
Yes, manufacturers expect wear and tear on their equipment. That’s the cost of doing business. But preventative maintenance can keep your machinery in tip-top shape for as long as possible, and that’s better for your profits and the planet.
5. Practice inventory control—and stop over-ordering
Inventory control is the balancing act of having enough inventory to satisfy demand without wasting a single penny. And while perfect inventory control is more hypothetical, there’s no doubt that producing and carrying excess inventory is a common form of manufacturing waste.
To avoid all the waste of producing excess inventory, your business must first understand how much inventory it needs. And that can only happen when your team has accurately tracked how much inventory it’s used in the past while paying attention to how demand for that inventory might change in the future.
6. Forecast demand accurately
Businesses cannot practice effective inventory control without properly assessing demand for the products they produce. Quite simply, a manufacturer cannot “guess” what its customers might want in the future; they’ve got to know for sure.
There are many ways to forecast demand. But however you choose to predict how much of your inventory your customers will want in the future, your company must be prepared for seasonality, competition, and unexpected global events.
7. Conduct waste audits
Waste management is a job that’s never really done. Your business will need to constantly optimize its processes to minimize every kind of waste. And the easiest way to do that is to conduct regular waste audits.
Talk to executives, managers, and employees about every aspect of your business. From receiving raw materials to packaging finished goods, there will always be areas where your team can improve.
One of the best times to audit waste is during or right after a year-end inventory count. You’ll have just accounted for everything on your shelves and had a chance to get organized for the new year. So why not take the time to trim the fat around how your company receives, creates, and transports inventory.
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About Sortly
Sortly helps you track, manage, and organize all your inventory—from any device, in any location. We’re an easy-to-use inventory solution that’s perfect for small businesses. Sortly builds inventory tracking seamlessly into your workday so you can save time and money, satisfy your customers, and help your business succeed.
With Sortly, you can track consumable inventory like supplies, parts, and raw materials, assets like equipment and machinery, and anything else that matters to your business. It comes equipped with smart features like barcoding & QR coding, low stock alerts, customizable inventory folders, data-rich reporting, and much more. Best of all, you can update inventory right from your smartphone—and so can your team.
Whether you’re just getting started with inventory management or you’re an expert looking for a more efficient solution, we can transform how your company manages inventory—so you can focus on building your business. That’s why over 15,000 businesses globally trust us as their inventory management solution.
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