In a recent conversation with a colleague the following question was posed, "why do we do this? It seems very redundant." He was speaking about a replenishment order process that is currently used in our operation. This sparked me to examine our current process and he was indeed correct. I discovered that we did in fact have several non-value added steps in the process, and that my friends, is never a good thing.
What is a non-value added step? Non value steps can be defined as activities that do not contribute to the product or the process and should therefore be eliminated. These can be redundant steps hidden inside a process that are slowing down the process as a whole.
An example of a non-value added step can be our old friend, copy and paste. How many times have you copied and pasted a part number or serial number into a form or spreadsheet? You can easily see how this step, yet simple, can steal away precious seconds from your day. Wouldn't it be easier if the desired information was auto populated? This is sometimes unavoidable, but more often than not it can be achieved with minimal effort either by yourself or your IT department.
Here is a more realistic example for you:
I was reviewing a shipping process recently and discovered that a pallet of material shipping out of the warehouse required all 4 sides of said pallet to be labeled. The information on the label was to include the "ship from" and "ship to address". On the surface this step seemed harmless but in reality is completely unnecessary. We who live in the world of moving material from point A to point B, C, and then D, know that labels with addresses are usually ignored. The reason for this is fairly obvious. What if the material had more than one destination? That is, after all, part of the reason why trucking companies use their own PRO numbers (which is short for progressive number if you were ever curious).
In this case the labeling was giving someone a false sense of security. The addresses, both to and from, were already on the BOL (bill of lading) and on the packing slip included with the shipment. So I dug deeper. I asked the clerks how they felt about the labeling. The team lead replied "this doesn't make senses to me, it's already right here, and here" He shows me the two documents I just spoke about, "it's just a pain, especially when we have a heavy volume day with multiple LTL shipments going to multiple places."
He was, of course, correct. This was not just a "pain" it was a non-value added step that when closely examined reveals to be costing the company money both in man hours and physical resources. I wondered how many copies must be made in a day, a week, a month? How many more man hours were wasted creating labels, printing labels, attaching label to the pallets in that same time period? I'll never have the data for this particular case, but I would be willing to bet it would be enough to change the mind of the person who created the process.
As professionals it is our job to review our processes from time to time. We must be connected to what is happening on the warehouse floor. If a non-value added step is occurring, it is our responsibility to remove this step.
For some processes it may be as easy as just asking our clerks for some genuine feedback. Other non-value added steps can be discovered through mapping the process out on a white board. You may be surprised at what is staring back at you after your entire process is mapped out with sticky notes on the conference room wall.
The bottom line is Non-Value added steps exist everywhere. Some are very big, some are so small they seem invisible. They can be likened to little hidden gremlins slowly eating away at your already taxed department budget. Take a few moments to look for them, document them once they are discovered so no one is tempted to fall back into old habits. Erase them from existence and continue to strive for maximum efficacy by having a stream lined process that has only value added steps.
Like what you read? Find my past blog post here:
http://thepallet-jack.blogspot.com/
Feedback is always welcomed!
My name is Matt Austin. I am a Professional Warehouse Manager. I greatly enjoy all areas of warehouse process improvement, and sharing ideas. Please feel free to contact me with any warehouse situations you may be experiencing for some outside perspective. Thank you for reading!
