The other day I received the Synchronization newsletter produced by Xonitek Corporation. It typically has very interesting articles that are pertinent to today’s business issues. The article this month that caught my attention was written by Robert Clark, titled Is your office lean? Making every moment count.

It is an excellent summary of wastes hidden in our office environments and how to uncover and how eliminate them. The 7 wastes that Robert cites for the office environment are: Correction, Extra-processing, Underutilization, Overproducing, Inventory, Waiting, Excessive motion and Transportation.

These wastes are very similar to the wastes found on the shop floor, known as TIMWOODS (Travel, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Over processing, Defects, Skills)

Robert Clark’s article is an excellent reminder that continuous improvement is a mentality not a program, and that we should look in all corners and processes of our organizations to find wastes – not just the shop floor for our Lean and Six Sigma Process improvements.