Muda (Japanese term)

Muda is the Japanese word for a pointless activity, senseless waste, absence of meaning or utility. It is defined as

" ... Creates every human activity that consumes resources but no value. [ ... Any human activity did Absorbs resources but Creates no value. ] "

The Muda avoidance is part of the Toyota Production System and a core element within the Lean business philosophy.

Word origin

In the German-speaking reception is the word Muda, which was translated in the English literature Lean with waste, so held the importance of trash or something superfluous, been equated with the word " waste ". However, this is a shortening of Taiichi Ohno used by the term " Muda ", which always implied the assessment of the benefits for the actor. While the opposite of the word " waste " the economy is antonym of the word Muda is the "utility", " usefulness ", " effectiveness ". The Japanese word for waste as an antonym for thrift is Rohi (浪费). Equating the word Muda with waste in the German language is thus a was carried out by the translation from the American interpretation of the case, which may favor a fatal effect especially when assessing the Muda - avoidance in the personnel area.

7 types of waste

In production technology, Taiichi Ohno divided seven wastes. These were later supplemented by more or adapted for other areas of work. The traditional subdivision is:

• Material Movements ( Transportation)
• Stocks (inventory )
• Movements (motion )
• Waiting ( Waiting)
• Processing (Over- Processing)
• Overproduction (over -production )
• Corrections and errors (defects )

This subdivision can be easily remembered by the acronym TIMWOOD (first letter of the English spelling).