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Waiting can take many forms in different organizations – and can add up quickly – making it a significant form of waste. In its simplest form, one production station could be idle and waiting to receive parts from an upstream operation. Other forms may be related to support  and information flow processes and are just as important to study. Consider the following examples:

• Production is waiting on maintenance to fix a piece of equipment
• Maintenance is waiting for a critical part
• Shipping dock operator is waiting for paperwork to be completed before shipment can leave
• Operator can’t access portal to generate advance shipping notice (ASN) with customer
• Team is waiting for the CEO before they can start a meeting
• Electric forklift truck is in charging station and not available to move material
• Buyer is waiting for signatures to approve a new supplier or subcontractor

Understanding and eliminating this form of waste can have a big impact on reducing the lead time and creating more capacity. For support processes, freeing up people’s time can be helpful in utilizing skills on important issues. Ultimately this will lead to improved customer satisfaction and increased profitability.