Find the Waste: a 90-minute process improvement workshop

Map one process with the people who run it, put the working time and the waiting time under every step and leave the room with three fixes, each with an owner and a date.

  • A minute-by-minute agenda for the 90 minutes, with the ground rules and what should be on the wall at the end of each part.
  • Makigami step by step: processing time, waiting time and the share of the elapsed time that is work, under every step of the map.
  • One company's returns process before and after its workshop: 9 days down to 4, with the three fixes that did it.

What's inside the guide

  • A timed agenda: map the process as it runs today, time every step, mark the waste and choose three fixes.
  • Makigami explained: the five rows under the map and how to read throughput time, touch time and flow efficiency.
  • The eight wastes of Lean with an office example of each, and an impact and effort grid for choosing fixes.
  • A fictional company's returns process before and after its workshop, and a routine for the month after.

Who this guide is for

Operations managers, team leads, process owners and continuous-improvement people in offices of roughly 20 to 500 people, in customer service, finance, purchasing, the warehouse office or HR. No background in Lean is needed: a process that annoys people, the people who run it, a room with a long wall and 90 minutes.

Questions about process improvement workshops

How long should a process improvement workshop take?

Ninety minutes is enough to map one process of ten to twenty steps from end to end, time each step, mark the waste and agree on three fixes. The preparation, about an hour in the week before, matters as much as the session itself.

What is a Makigami?

Makigami is Japanese for a roll of paper. It is a process map of an office process with a band of rows underneath every step: processing time, waiting time, the running throughput time, the system or form in use and the problems people flag there.

What are the eight wastes of Lean?

Transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects and unused skills. The first seven come from the Toyota Production System; the eighth was added later. The guide gives an office example of each.

Is the guide free?

Yes. We email you a personal download link that works for 30 days. No account and no credit card are needed.

Get the guide by email: We send you a personal download link. No account needed.