Waste is Everywhere

Taichi Ohno, the father of Toyota Production System (which later become Lean Manufacturing), is known for drawing a chalk circle on the Toyota factory floor and having managers take turns standing in the circle with the task of searching for waste in the production process. This is the process of kaizen or continuous improvement where even small reductions in waste can have significant payoffs in productivity.

“Waste is any human activity which absorbs resources but creates no value.”

– Womak and Jones, Lean Thinking

However, when applied to innovation (and life in general), the problem isn’t so much finding waste, but prioritizing waste. When operating in an environment riddled with extreme uncertainty and limited resources, it’s easy to find waste everywhere.

Pareto’s 80/20 rule applies here: 80% of the business results come from only 20% of the actions. The question, of course, is what 20%?

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

– Michael Porter