8 Commonly Recognized Categories of Waste
Waste
How This Waste Might Manifest in a Transportation Department
Overproduction
Stops with no students assigned, seats assigned to students who don’t ride, students without bus assignments.
Waiting
Waiting for updated student files for school start. Is there a seamless daily download of information as well as an upload into your SIS? Do you have planned reports to give to the Drivers, Schools, and Administration?
Transport
Inefficient routing of school buses, causing long student rides and increasing operational costs Are we able to plan for the students that will ride the bus? How do we identify eligible students that do not ride?
Motion
Inefficient arrangements of office spaces or distances between bus garages and the office that require people to waste time shuttling between places.
Over Processing
Not having efficient ways to perform tasks like planning routes because phantom stops and students are included, or because tasks are re-executed due to inefficient process sequencing.
Inventory
Unused seats (over and above the ones planned for students who don’t ride); underutilized vehicles (e.g., single-tiered schedules).
Defects
Mistakes.
Misused/Unused Human Potential
Office staff (dispatchers, routers, etc.) who are also required to drive buses, personnel whose time is not efficiently used because of the lack of training or tools, or because they are performing work that could better be contributed or performed by another part of the organization.
Read More About LEAN
Click the button below to read Lam Nguyen-Bull's full article, "Trying to Do More with Less? How About Doing LESS with Less?"