8 wastes of lean

Concept

The eight kinds of waste (muda) in lean: defects, overproduction, waiting, unused talent, transport, inventory, motion and extra processing. Each consumes resources without adding value for the customer.

Description

Lean describes eight kinds of waste, called muda in Japanese. They are activities that use resources but add no value for the customer: defects, overproduction, waiting, unused talent, transport, inventory, motion and extra processing. A common memory aid is the word DOWNTIME, which takes its letters from these eight names.

The list is a lens for observation. Walking through a process with it, people notice scrap and rework, parts waiting in queues, long walking distances or steps nobody needs. Not all non-value-adding work can be removed at once, because some of it, such as inspections required by law, is necessary. The first step is to see it. Value stream mapping shows where the waste sits in the flow, and kaizen events reduce it step by step.

Glossary

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Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11