Lean Manufacturing – Seven Classical Wastes

Non-value-added activities are classified as muda.  It is another term for waste that exists in a process.  At each step in the process, work is applied to the operation.  The useful activities that the customer will pay for is considered value-added.  The other activities are not important to the customer or contain elements the customer will not pay for.  Those non-paying activities are muda. 

Kaisen Imai provides a list of seven muda categories that have been widely used in industry: Overproduction, Inventory, Repair/rejects, Motion, Processing, Transport and Waiting.  Click on the relevant waste icons below to review the muda details.