Encouraging Teams to Identify Operational Waste

🚨 Stop Blaming Your Team—The Real Problem is the Wastes of Software Development 🚨 A few years back, while mentoring a team leader in a large organization, I had one of those chats. You know the ones—where the leader feels the team isn’t performing well, and there’s a temptation to blame people. 😩 The team’s lazy, they’re unmotivated, etc. He was looking for quick tips to push his team harder. This mindset is pretty common, right? When things go south, we tend to point fingers at people and look for ways to "motivate" them by pushing harder. 👉 But from my experience, there are often huge, hidden inefficiencies in the organization itself—the kinds of waste that, if reduced, could have a far greater impact on performance than pushing people ever will. So, I decided to introduce him to the 7 Wastes of Lean 🧠 and scribbled them on a whiteboard. Then I said, “Let’s see, do we have any of these wastes in the team or the company?” - Partially Done Work – 🛑 Work that’s started but not completed, tying up resources and creating confusion. - Extra Features – 💡 Building features that aren’t needed or used by customers. - Relearning – 🔄 When knowledge isn’t shared, and the team has to rediscover things they should already know. - Handoffs – 🤝 Transferring work between teams or individuals, which slows things down and introduces errors. - Delays – ⏳ Waiting for approvals, information, or dependencies, which causes bottlenecks. - Task Switching – 🔀 When people switch between tasks or projects, killing focus and productivity. - Defects / Bugs – 🐛 Bugs or errors that require rework, costing time and effort. The team leader started identifying with them almost immediately. In their case, they were constantly dealing with handoffs 🤝 between teams, which were slowing everything down, and they had task switching 🔀 issues, with developers juggling between projects. Sound familiar? Once we identified the wastes, I asked him, “Which of these is hitting us the hardest right now, and what can we do this month to reduce it?” He set objectives to cut down handovers and reduce bug rates over the next quarter. 🎯 And guess what? It worked. As soon as we started tackling these hidden inefficiencies, performance picked up—without the need to "push" anyone. 🚀 The lesson here is: there’s often a lot of waste lurking in the background, invisible at first. For example, task switching 🔄 might seem innocent enough, but it can kill productivity. Yet how often do we see developers asked to switch between projects on the fly? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. 💬 What wastes have you encountered in your teams? How did you reduce them? Also, in this video 🎥, I dive into the 7 Wastes of Lean in more detail: https://lnkd.in/eU7xYFtk

The biggest lie in manufacturing?    "That's just how we've always done it."    Imagine this scenario:    A production floor filled with frustrated team members, mounting delays, and rising costs. The old mindset says:    "Just work harder"    "Put in more hours"    "Push through"    But what if the real problem isn’t effort?    What if the real issue is waste?    Picture this: A team maps every step of the process—value stream maps, process maps, everything. And the discovery?    37% of the time is spent on non-value-adding activities.    The solution?    Automate what makes sense    Eliminate what doesn’t    Simplify everything    The impact is huge:    27% reduction in cycle time    41% drop in rework rate    33% lower production costs    Here’s the lesson:    It’s not about working harder, it’s about working smarter. Every inefficiency is money burned, every wasted minute is lost profit.    Want better results? Start asking better questions:    Instead of "Why are we behind schedule?" ask "Where’s the waste we haven’t seen yet?"    Instead of "How can we speed this up?" ask "What can we eliminate completely?"    The truth is, most manufacturing operations are running at only 60% of their potential because they’re too focused on “the old way” to see new opportunities.    𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲:    ➜ Map your process    ➜ Find the waste    ➜ Eliminate it    ➜ Repeat 🔁   Do this for 90 days, and watch what happens. 

Most teams think they understand their process..... They don’t. Last week I shared how we redesigned a 30-hour training program into one hour per week because operations said: “We can’t take our people off the floor for three hours.” Fair, so we adjusted. One hour of practical, hands on training then back to work. Yesterday’s topic? Process mapping. 🗺️ In 60 minutes we: • Reviewed the fundamentals • Looked at real-world examples • Covered the 8 wastes • Broke into small groups Then I gave them one instruction: Map a real process you touch every day. That’s it. No theory debate. No overcomplication. No perfect formatting required. Just go see the work. What happened next was eye-opening. Within minutes, teams were saying: “Why do we hand this off twice?” “This is pure rework.” “We’re batching here and creating delay.” They didn’t need convincing. The waste was visible. 👀 We focused on the 8 wastes from the Toyota Production System developed by Toyota Motor Corporation: • Defects • Overproduction • Waiting • Non-utilized talent • Transportation • Inventory • Motion • Extra processing When you map a process visually, waste stops being theoretical. It becomes undeniable. Multiple people said: “This is so practical.” “I can use this immediately on the floor.” That’s the point. Training shouldn’t interrupt work. It should improve it. 🔧 One hour. Learn something. Apply it the same day. Come back next week with evidence. That’s how capability is built. Not in binders. In practice. If you mapped one process tomorrow, where would you start?

What if the biggest obstacle to efficiency is invisible waste? I’ll never forget walking the production floor early in my career and spotting a technician waiting for parts to arrive. He wasn’t slacking - he was stuck. As I looked closer, I noticed idle machines, stacks of unfinished products, and cluttered workspaces. That day, I learned that inefficiency isn’t always loud or obvious. It hides in the details, stealing time, resources, and progress. Tackling those hidden inefficiencies became a mission, and it started with understanding the 8 Wastes of Lean Manufacturing. Concern: Why is waste such a challenge in manufacturing? - Waste often hides in plain sight, disguised as “normal operations.” - Teams get stuck reacting to problems instead of proactively improving. - Without clear processes, inefficiency becomes part of the culture. Unchecked, waste costs time, money, and team morale. Cause: What leads to waste in manufacturing? - Poor communication between teams or departments. - Outdated or inefficient processes that go unchallenged. - Lack of visibility into the full production cycle. The result? Missed opportunities to streamline and improve. Countermeasure: How can you identify and eliminate waste? - Walk the floor intentionally. Spend time observing processes firsthand. Look for bottlenecks, delays, or unnecessary steps. - Train your team. Teach employees to recognize the 8 Wastes: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra processing. - Involve everyone. Create a culture where every team member feels responsible for identifying and reducing waste. - Use data-driven tools. Lean software and visual management boards can uncover patterns and guide improvements. Small, intentional actions create a ripple effect that leads to impactful results. Benefits: What happens when you eliminate waste? - Faster processes mean happier customers and increased revenue. - Teams feel empowered, knowing their contributions make a difference. - The workplace becomes more organized, efficient, and satisfying. Eliminating waste isn’t just about saving time or money - it’s about creating an environment where everyone thrives. “Waste is like a slow leak - it’s quiet, but it’ll deflate progress if left unchecked.” What’s one type of waste you’ve tackled in your operations, and how did you fix it? Let’s share ideas in the comments and learn from each other! Here’s to building efficient systems, empowered teams, and impactful results. Wishing you a productive and purposeful day! Chris Clevenger #LeanManufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #WasteReduction #OperationsExcellence #TeamBuilding

Ever wonder how the world’s most efficient manufacturers design their workcells for maximum flow? Designing an efficient production cell isn’t just about grouping machines together. It’s about crafting an environment where people, processes, and equipment align seamlessly to maximize flow and minimize waste. Here are the key elements you should focus on when designing your cell: 1. Layout & Flow Proximity: Arrange workstations so that materials move in a smooth, unidirectional flow. This minimizes unnecessary travel time and reduces transportation waste. Accessibility: Ensure that tools and materials are within arm’s reach. Well-planned storage and shadow boards support quick retrieval. Ergonomics: Design the cell with operator comfort in mind. A layout that reduces physical strain leads to fewer errors and higher productivity. 2. Standardization Consistent Processes: Establish clear standard operating procedures (SOPs) for each task in the cell. Standardization not only boosts quality but also makes training new operators faster. Visual Controls: Use visual cues like color-coded labels, signage, and displays to guide operators and ensure that processes are followed correctly. 3. Flexibility & Adaptability Modular Design: Create a cell that can be easily reconfigured as demand changes. Modular workstations allow you to quickly adjust the layout without major disruptions. Cross-Training: Equip operators with skills to handle multiple tasks. A flexible team can adapt to process changes more fluidly. 4. Communication & Collaboration Team Integration: Encourage teamwork by designing spaces that facilitate communication. Open areas and shared workstations foster collaboration and quick problem-solving. Feedback Mechanisms: Incorporate methods for continuous improvement—like daily huddles or visual performance boards—to keep everyone informed and engaged. 5. Waste Elimination Lean Principles: Identify and remove the 7 wastes (transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, and defects). Every design decision should aim to reduce these inefficiencies. Flow Efficiency: Focus on one-piece flow to reduce batch sizes and cut down on waiting time between steps. An effective cell design transforms chaotic, segmented workspaces into streamlined environments where every movement adds value. By carefully considering layout, standardization, flexibility, communication, and waste elimination, you can build a production cell that not only meets customer demands but also drives continuous improvement.

In Revenue Cycle Management, especially within large hospital groups, operational excellence is often discussed in terms of systems, KPIs, automation, and process redesign. But the real driver of sustainable improvement is something much more human: the team behind the process. Many RCM teams today are operating under significant pressure — high claim volumes, regulatory changes, payer requirements, and constant expectations to improve cash flow and reduce denials. It’s easy for teams to feel overwhelmed during transformation initiatives. However, one important lesson I’ve learned is this: the challenges our teams face every day are not obstacles to operational excellence — they are the roadmap to it. When teams are encouraged to actively participate in process gap analysis, something powerful happens. The people closest to the work begin identifying inefficiencies, root causes of denials, documentation gaps, and workflow bottlenecks that leadership may never see from a dashboard alone. Instead of viewing workload pressure as a barrier, we can transform it into a catalyst for improvement by: • Creating safe spaces where frontline staff can openly highlight process gaps • Turning recurring operational pain points into structured improvement initiatives • Involving teams directly in root cause analysis and solution design • Recognizing that operational excellence is built with employees, not imposed on them When teams feel heard and empowered, engagement rises, ownership increases, and improvement becomes part of the culture. Operational excellence in healthcare RCM is not just about optimizing revenue — it’s about enabling our teams to transform daily operational challenges into opportunities for smarter, stronger, and more resilient processes. Because the best operational strategies are not created in boardrooms — they are discovered within the experiences of the people doing the work every day.

In the early days of my landscaping business, I thought hard work alone would get us where we needed to be. But I soon realized that no matter how hard we worked, we were hitting a ceiling, our efforts were being undercut by waste we didn’t even see. It wasn’t until I spent the time teaching my team how to identify and eliminate waste that things truly began to change. I introduced them to the nine types of waste, and suddenly, we were all looking at the business through the same lens. It was like putting on a new pair of glasses that brought every inefficiency into sharp focus. And when we started eliminating waste together, the transformation was undeniable. Here’s the thing about the nine types of waste: they’re subtle, and if you’re not looking for them, they’ll blend into the daily grind. But once you understand them, you’ll see waste everywhere, stealing time, draining profits, and holding your team back from earning fair wages. The nine types of waste include overproduction, waiting, unnecessary motion, excess inventory, transportation, defects, overprocessing, underutilized talent, and wasted effort. Each one may seem small on its own, but together, they can add up to massive losses that keep your business stuck. The purpose of understanding these types of waste isn’t just to find problems; it’s to empower your team to fix them. When I took the time to share this with my employees, it wasn’t just about cutting costs, it was about giving everyone a stake in making the business better. We created a culture of waste elimination, where everyone could spot inefficiencies and speak up with ideas to improve. It changed the way we worked; suddenly, we weren’t just putting in hours - we were making every minute count. If you’re running a landscaping company, I get it. It’s not easy to slow down and look for waste when you’re racing to finish projects. But I’m telling you, it’s worth it. If you take the time to teach your team how to identify waste, you’ll see productivity rise, morale improve, and profits grow. The beauty of this approach is that it’s not just about saving money; it’s about building a culture where everyone’s eyes are open to opportunity. You don’t have to keep settling for the way things have always been done. When your entire team sees waste through the same lens, you unlock a new level of operational excellence. I’m here to share the frameworks that worked for us, and I can promise you, when you eliminate waste, you don’t just improve the bottom line; you transform the entire business. Let’s start seeing waste for what it really is, a thief we can finally catch. Reach out, and let’s take the first step toward making your business more efficient than ever.

Are you paying attention to how the work actually gets done? This is the seventh post in my 10-week series on toxic leadership. Each week, I highlight a different leadership behavior that silently erodes organizational health—and offer a practical path to address it. In week three, we’ve already talked about the danger of lacking the use of performance metrics to manage people. But this week, I want to shift the focus to the delivery level -- where work actually happens -- and explore what happens when leaders ignore operational effectiveness and efficiency. Toxic leadership shows up when a leader becomes disengaged from how value is created and delivered. They ignore the basics. They don’t look at things like defect rates, on-time delivery, rework, customer satisfaction, first-pass yield, etc. Leaders on the road to toxic leadership walk past inefficiency every day and do nothing about it when discovered. They never ask how processes could be improved. Instead, they rely on the tired justification: “This is how we’ve always done it,” or "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." They adopt a "SUAC" mentality -- "Shut Up and Color." Things you’ll often see: 5 or 6S standards abandoned, leaving disorganized workspaces. Processes full of obvious waste, such as waiting, rework, motion, overproduction, with no effort to remove it. Data that could point to problems and opportunities, but no one is using it. Employees are frustrated because improvement ideas are ignored or never acted on. There's a general resistance to change, masked as stability or tradition. This doesn’t just stall progress, it creates cynicism. When frontline team members see that leadership doesn’t care about making things better, they stop trying. Performance plateaus or declines. Waste becomes normal. Here’s are five things to counter this pattern: 1. Go to the floor, the field, or the front lines. See the process in action. Ask questions. 2. Use 5 or 6S to clean, organize, and standardize work environments so that problems are easily exposed. 3. Track key delivery metrics like first-pass yield, on-time delivery, lead time, and defect rate matter. If you’re not tracking them, you’re not managing them. 4. Listen for and respond to improvement ideas. Invite employees to surface waste and inefficiencies ... and act on what they share. 5. Make continuous improvement part of the everyday culture. Small steps every day lead to big gains over time. Don’t just have improvement events, lead them. Read the book "2 Second Lean" to see this in action! If you ignore how value is generated and delivered, you create distance between leadership and results. That gap becomes a breeding ground for frustration, failure, and toxicity. What’s one operational process you’ve walked past lately that needs a second look? ….. Follow me if you enjoy discussing business and success daily. Click on the double notification bell 🔔 to be informed when I post. #betheeagle

There are 8 wastes of Agile, often derived from Lean principles. Here are the 8 wastes and how to reduce them: 1. Partially Done Work: Work that is started but not completed, leading to inefficiencies and delays. Solution: Avoid starting new tasks before completing current ones. Focus on finishing work before moving on to the next item. 2. Extra Features: Building features that are not essential or requested by the customer, adding unnecessary complexity. Solution: Prioritize features based on customer value and feedback. Avoid adding unnecessary features that don't contribute to the product's core functionality. 3. Relearning: Repeating tasks or rework due to lack of knowledge or understanding. Solution: Foster a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning within the team. Document processes and lessons learned to minimize the need for relearning. 4. Task Switching: Constantly switching between tasks, disrupting focus and reducing productivity. Solution: Encourage focus by limiting work in progress (WIP). Use Agile methodologies like Kanban or Scrum to prioritize tasks and minimize context switching. 5. Waiting: Delays caused by dependencies, bottlenecks, or idle time. Solution: Identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the workflow. Streamline handoffs between team members and reduce dependencies to minimize waiting time. 6. Motion: Excessive movement or unnecessary steps in processes. Solution: Optimize the team's physical and digital workspace to minimize unnecessary movement. Use tools and automation to streamline processes and reduce manual effort. 7. Defects: Errors or defects in work products that require additional time and effort to fix. Solution: Implement practices like Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Integration (CI) to detect and fix defects early in the development cycle. Invest in quality assurance and code reviews to prevent defects from occurring. 8. Unused Talent: Underutilizing the skills, knowledge, and creativity of team members. Solution: Empower team members to contribute their skills and ideas to the project. Encourage collaboration, cross-training, and skill development to fully utilize the team's talents. Identifying and addressing these wastes can help Agile teams optimize their processes, improve productivity, and deliver greater value to customers. #waste #solution #agile #lean

Eliminate waste by identifying DOWNTIME DOWNTIME is an acronym that you can use to identify different types of waste that occur during a process. Originally the acronym was intended for production processes, but it can equally well be used to identify waste in development or administrative ones. DOWNTIME stands for • Defects: Any effort caused by rework or work based on incorrect information. Bugs are an obvious example here. • Overproduction: Producing more then is needed, or before it is needed, or building the wrong thing. • Waiting: Time in between process steps, any form of queuing, waiting for response or approval, as well as system downtime. • Non-utilization: Underutilizing peoples skills & knowledge by not giving them authority to perform the work, micromanaging them too much, or providing them inadequate tools. • Transportation: Unnecessary movements of information, including handoffs between people and teams, expecting approvals from multiple people. • Inventory: Any form of batch processing, such as big up front design or testing at the end of a sprint. • Motion: Unnecessary movement by people, such as driving to the office to perform an online meeting. • Extra: More work, or higher quality, than is required. Having to do excessive reporting, or doing the same process multiple times. Even the best software delivery process still has some waste in it. I would be curious to learn which types of waste you are identifying in your process right now thanks to evaluating it against this acronym. Let me know in the comments.