Question

Please apply the concepts of waste and lean to a non-lean process you manage in your life. Argue why the process is not lean, what kinds of wastes exist in the process, how you can improve the process, and how effective your solutions would be. Answer this question as thorough as possible.

Answer 1

The process is my daily commute to the office where I need to drive for 8 miles daily one way. I waste around 50 minutes of my time in negotiating with traffic jams, bad condition of road, errant drivers, occasional commotions which aggravate the jam and any other event which might add the the commute time. The process is not lean because if the road is good and traffic is smooth, the entire commute is a matter of 20 minutes. If I take a commuter rail, it will enable me to do some of my work during commute hour, and make use of my time, but at the same time, some waiting time, and the time to get in and out of the station, added to it, the 10 minutes walk to the office, would not make the process any leaner. he only waste here, it the waste caused by waiting and spending avoidable time.

The process can be modified in a number of ways. One of the way is to hire a driver who would enable me to use this time productively, but at the same time, I would end up paying more than I save,so it is not afeasible option. Other option which some of my colleagues are considering to engaged a cab which will pick up /drop the commuters from my locality to the office. It can only be feasible if at least six of us sign up. It will not reduce the time of commute but would enable us to utilise it in better way.