Muda

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Muda ( Japanese 無 駄 ) is the Japanese word for a meaningless activity, the absence of meaning or use. It is defined as

"... any human activity that absorbs resources but creates no value."

"... any human activity that consumes resources but creates no value."

- Wallace J. Hopp

Muda avoidance is a component of the Toyota production system and a core element within the Lean corporate philosophy.

Word origin

In the German-speaking reception, the word "Muda", which was translated as "waste" in the English-language lean literature, which also meant rubbish or something superfluous, has been equated with the word "waste". However, this is an abbreviation of the term “Muda” used by Taiichi Ohno, which always implied the assessment of the benefit for the actor. While the opposite of the word “waste” is frugality, the antonym of the word muda is “usefulness”, “meaningfulness”, “effectiveness”. The Japanese word for waste as an antonym for thrift is Rōhi ( 浪費 ). The equation of the word muda with waste in the German-speaking area is therefore an interpretation trap that was created through the translation from English, which can have fatal consequences, especially when assessing the avoidance of muda in the personal area. When Ohno uses the word Muda in his work, these passages in the original can often be translated more appropriately with the term "unnecessary effort". This distinction was not introduced into the literature by the Japanese Taiichi Ohno , the production manager at Toyota, but by English-speaking authors.

Types of waste

In production engineering, Ohno divided seven types of waste. These were later supplemented by others or adapted for other areas of work. The traditional division is:

  • Material movements ( transportation )
  • Stocks ( inventory )
  • Movements ( motion )
  • Waiting time ( Waiting )
  • Post-processing ( over-processing )
  • Overproduction ( over-production )
  • Corrections and errors ( defects )

This division can be easily remembered with the abbreviation TIMWOOD (first letters of the English spelling).

criticism

The American university professor for operations research , Mark L. Spearman, criticizes the ambiguity and logical weaknesses of the approach. Accordingly, in the extensive literature on the subject, waste is rarely described as correlated . The reduction of one muda does in fact often lead to an increase in another. For example, reducing large production lots (Muda) also reduces stocks. In return, reduced stocks generate both the need for more frequent movements and more frequent set-up (both also mudas). According to Spearman, such ambiguities only served less scrupulous consultants .

If one follows Spearman's criticism, then the reduction of waste in all production systems is necessary and, in a modern, competitive industry, perhaps more intensively than before. However, it is neither a peculiarity of lean systems nor was it invented by Japanese engineers.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wallace J. Hopp: Factory Physics: Foundations of manufacturing management . 2nd ed. / Wallace J. Hopp, Mark L. Spearman. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, ISBN 0-256-24795-1 , 2000, p. 287
  2. ↑ 大野 耐 一 (Taiichi Ohno) (1978) ト ヨ タ 生産 方式 - 脱 規模 の 経 営 を め ざ し て Cf. P. 37 作業 ＝ 働 き ＋ ム ダ (activity = work + muda (unnecessary effort))
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Mark L. Spearman (2002) To Pull or not to Pull? - What is the question? - Part II: Making Lean Work in Your Plant ; Factory Physics, Inc. white paper
  4. ↑ MUDA - definition and explanations of the types of waste at prolisa.de
  5. ↑ Mark Seuffert: The eight development wastes . (PDF; 67 kB) A subdivision for software / hardware development (German)
  6. ↑ The 7 Manufacturing Wastes - The traditional division for production processes