Lean Tools in Adult Educators and Trainers Development

MUSAT, Cristina
Philean Consulting & Training, Romania
 Lean Tools in Adult Educators and Trainers (AdET) Development

Keywords: Adult Training, Adult Trainer’s Skills, Process Improvement,

Lean
1 ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................................2
2 CONTEXT & BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................2
3 BRIEF LEAN INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................4
4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................................8
5 STUDY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS ...........................................................................................8
6 REFERENCE LIST ............................................................................................................................11
ANNEX 1 - BRIEF LEAN TERMS GLOSSARY .........................................................................................12

1 Abstract
The world is rapidly changing due to scarcity of resources and social
responsibility drives. People need also to change along with the environment.
Training makes no difference and acceptable criteria some years ago are no
longer valid today. Trainers fostering adult’s learning processes are facing
professional challenges, but today they have also to be more proficient in
other areas, not only in “traditional” competences described by occupational
standards. For example, according to the Romanian occupational standard, a
“trainer” needs different categories of competences: a series of specific
competences (to be able to prepare training, deliver training, evaluate
trainees and apply special training methods and techniques) and a series of
optional competences (training marketing, training design, training
organising, training evaluation and improvement).
When discussing about AdET, as part of proficient adult training organisations,
I want to highlight the need for additional competencies to support dynamic
capability of training services, increasingly significant to help to better
adequate to nowadays complicated management issues and problematical
business change. The purpose of this paper is to promote the use of Lean tools
by the people involved in teaching/training of adults, as a set of key
competences suitable for all types of occupations relevant for training:
trainers, other learning facilitators, training content developers, instructors,
training managers, training course organisers, and so on.

2 Context & Background

My name is Cristina Musat and I am the founder of PhileanCT, a small training
and consulting company in Romania. I work as a trainer since 1995 and since
1996 I am a fan of continuous process improvement techniques. Before
becoming aware of Lean Manufacturing, I was involved in quality
management, TQM and business excellence related services. So practically all
my adult life consists in mixing training skills with continuous improvement
initiatives.
As a member of the European Society for Research on Adult Education, I have
30-Sep-09 page 2/15
now the opportunity to address both topics enjoyable for me at this moment:
Lean and Adult Training.
Trainers dealing with adults (or all other persons with relevant occupations
for training delivery, regardless their title: trainers, learning facilitators,
training content developers, instructors, educators, training managers,
training course organisers, and so on) are actors of the processes performed
to achieve desired results, either within own organisations or at the interface
with the trainees or other stakeholders. Here is a list of some of the most
common processes: Training Design, Training Materials Development,
Training Evaluation, Training Delivery / Facilitation of the Learning Process,
Training Marketing, Training organising, and so on.
A way to understand a training process it the well-known model of
transforming inputs into outputs via a series of actions and operations specific
for any area of activity, as seen in Fig.1.

Fig. 1 – The Process Model

To exemplify for the process of training delivery, used by all adult trainers, it
is obvious that the following main issues are significant to be identified:
1 Environment: 3 Outputs:
1.1 International, national, 3.1 New skills and competences
regional, local level 3.2 Feedback and future
1.2 Category of training: Initial improvement opportunities
or LL learning 3.3 Etc.
1.3 Type of learning: Formal, 4 Process steps:
non-formal or informal 4.1 Welcome of trainees and
1.4 Etc. group development
2 Inputs: 4.2 Objectives and content
2.1 Data on trainees and their delivery
training needs 4.3 Trainees assessment
2.2 Training specification 4.4 Etc.
2.3 Training materials 5 Methods:
2.4 Training rules, standards 5.1 Lectures
and regulations 5.2 Games
2.5 Trainers’ proficiency 5.3 Examples
2.6 Other useful resources and 5.4 Etc.
facilities – financial, 6 Procedures:
material, human, etc. 6.1 Face-to-face training delivery
6.2 E-learning
6.3 Self-learning
6.4 Etc.
According to the Romanian occupational standard, a “trainer” needs different
categories of competences: a series of specific competences (to be able to

30-Sep-09 page 3/15

prepare training, deliver training, evaluate trainees and apply special
training methods and techniques) and a series of optional competences
(training marketing, training design, training organising, training evaluation
and improvement).
When discussing about AdET, as part of proficient adult training organisations,
it seems obvious that additional competencies are needed to support dynamic
capability of training services, increasingly significant to help to better
adequate to nowadays complicated management issues and problematical
business change.
Between these competencies it should be included the competence to use
Lean tools for the improvement of the processes involved in teaching/training
of adults, as a set of key competences for effectiveness and efficiency.
Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify how Lean tools may be useful
for the management of education and training activities or for managing
people involved in learning processes. Additionally, I would like to put
together knowledge about previous experiences in the area and to provide
future drives for AdET development.

3 Brief Lean Introduction

Lean is the generic name of a set of tools and principles used to control,
manage and improve process performances, to achieve dramatic
improvements in cost, quality, and time by focusing on process performance.
There are many definitions, and a simple one is the following:
“…Lean is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources
for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be
wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.” (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing). Or even a simpler one:
“Lean is a philosophy that shortens the time needed between the customer
order and the delivery of required goods or services”.
Moreover, Lean is seen as a philosophy, not only as a collection of empirical
tools, or as a methodology for continuous reduction or elimination of waste,
useful. Its history is long and rich in interpretations, but the term “Lean”
became worldwide known after the issue of a book with a visionary title: “The
Machine That Changed the World” (Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones, and
Daniel Roos, 1990). Nevertheless, Lean is based on a series of common tools
used originally in production, some of them being
developed since 1950s as part of what nowadays
is known as TPS (Toyota Production System). But
more important, it brings also a set of Lean
principles and specific approaches to all types of
activities, which enable the development of the
so-called Lean behaviours and Lean leadership,
supporting the operational tools used to generate
improved process results.
There are five key principles, which aim at
continuous reduction of the time needed to
provide a product or service requested by a Fig. 2 – The Lean Principles
client, from order to delivery, and
consequently, of process costs, by cutback or elimination of waste.

30-Sep-09 page 4/15

The five Lean principles are:
1. Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by product
family.
2. Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family,
eliminating whenever possible those steps that do not create value.
3. Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the product
will flow smoothly toward the customer.
4. As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next upstream
activity.
5. As value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted steps are
removed, and flow and pull are introduced, begin the process again and
continue it until a state of perfection is reached in which perfect value
is created with no waste.
(Source: http://www.lean.org/whatslean/principles.cfm)
Obviously, there are some key words for understanding the Lean principles:
1. Value
2. Value Stream
3. Process Flow
4. Pull Flow
5. Perfection.
In brief, value is what customers are likely to pay for. Let’s think of a trainer
delivering a course. He/she needs some time for preparing before coming in
front of the trainees. For example, how many clients do you know that would
pay a 5-days-fee, for a 3-days course? Obviously, no one may be perfect;
therefore usually it is impossible to do only what the client would pay. So
Lean defines an antonym for “value”, i.e. “WASTE”, meaning any activity
done that takes up time and uses resources, but does not add value when it
transforms inputs into outputs that meet customers’ requirements. Waste is
not about controlling financial loss (to be easily spotted in financial
statements), but it means to identify and approach extra resources spent
during current activities (caused either by high variation due to process
instability, by overburden processes, or by unreasonableness operational
decisions).
For that reason, Lean considers that any process is composed of value added
and non-value added activities, even if the non-value added activities may be
considered as necessary ones (hidden waste) or as non-necessary ones
(obvious waste).
The 7 waste categories defined by Lean are:
▫ Overproduction –production of materials, offers, products ahead of
demand
▫ Waiting, or queuing, or idling – inactivity due missing needed
resources: an answer, a decision, a person etc.
▫ Transport - unnecessary motion or movement of materials,
products or persons
▫ Extra Processing – doing something repeatedly, more or more
complicated than necessary, including rework, reprocessing,
recurrent handling or storage
▫ Inventory – all existing components, actions or orders waiting to be
processed
30-Sep-09 page 5/15
 ▫ Motion – people or equipment or documents or information moving
more than necessary
▫ Defects – non-conforming products or services, the effort involved
in inspecting results and fixing complaints or unsatisfactory results.
(Source: Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones, 2003, Lean Thinking. Free Press.
p. 352).
Attempting to make an analysis of the training processes, one may find similar
categories of waste, such as, for example:
Overproduction More input than needed to achieve learning objectives
Overstuffing topics for a limited amount of time for a
training program such as a day or week. Very little of
this training will end up being used because it’s too
much, too soon with too little practice.
The forgotten knowledge - as the retention rate for
lectures is less than 20%, everything that is forgotten the
next day or next week is waste.
Huge binders full of stuff that nobody ever looks at
again, involving much time and costs to be created,
printed, multiplied, bound, manipulated, etc., used
rather as door stops and paper weights
Waiting Longer breaks then planned, postponement of training
due to trainer/trainees availability
Companies often wait until they have enough employees
to make up a class. Waiting time is often weeks or
months.
Larger groups of trainees and only one trainer – it
involves waste of time during work in small groups
Transport Long distance to/from training room
Extra Processing Repetitions during classes
Written tests – even if tests are relatively easy to score
and simple to create, they are almost always about
testing knowledge. However, there is often no
correlation between doing well on a test or in school and
doing well on the job. So testing knowledge is often
waste.
Gaps between training needs communicated by the
manager and the actual needs of the attendees
Inventory Larger groups than effective for training
More printed training materials than the number of
participants
Old stuff in the training materials (out-of-date
information, processes that have changed or are no
longer used and old procedures)
Motion Poor content and layout of written materials, difficult to
find a topic in the training material
Defects Misspelling, missing words in the written training
materials
Inappropriate participants - many times attendees are

30-Sep-09 page 6/15

 sent to a training that does not pertain to their job or to
achieve competencies they already have or do not need
Communication barriers – due to misuse of a foreign
language or to misunderstanding of specific vocabulary
Lack of standardization of knowledge delivery – different
trainers deliver different courses based on the same
training course
Exceeding time provided to deliver training
Lack of organizational support – trainees may be eager
to apply tools from training, but when returning in the
organization, the pressure from the management is to do
things as before
Table 1 – 7 Wastes in Training (Source: This Research and
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2700
3&discussionID=7612380&commentID=6932874&trk=NUS_DISC_Q-
subject&goback=%2Ehom#commentID_6932874)
Consequently, to be able to identify value, it is important to understand the
processes used to provide products or services and to be able to focus on the
value stream. Once the value stream is known, a flow as continuous as
possible should be deployed for delivering the planned process results with
minimum waste.
Another key word in Lean is “Pull”, usually used as an antonym for “Push”
process flow. For example, in training delivery, “Push” means to persuade the
customers to buy the already existing products/services, available as
“inventory”. Obviously, “Pull” means the opposite approach, namely being
ready and capable to provide only what, how much, when and where is
actually required by the customer. Process simplification comes from not
doing things that are not needed, as stated in Just-In-Time philosophy.
The last key word, but the essential one, is “Perfection”. It is not about
having the perfect product or service, but about pursuing perfect processes
through continuous improvement.
There are a variety of tools and techniques associated with Lean production;
however the following are perhaps the most commonly used and easy to
implement in an office environment, regardless the field of activity:
▫ Standardized Processes & Takt Time
▫ Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
▫ Visual Workplace & Visual Management
▫ 5S
▫ Jidoka
▫ Poka Yoke (Mistake Proofing or Error Proofing)
▫ Pull Systems and Kanban
▫ Continuous process flow, Just In Time (JIT), Process Smoothing &
Load Levelling
▫ Setup reduction (SMED)
▫ Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
▫ Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)
▫ Hoshin (Policy Deployment)
▫ Quality and Problem Solving Tools: Pareto Principle; process
mapping; product family analysis, etc.
30-Sep-09 page 7/15
 For better understanding of Lean terms used in this paper, see the glossary
(page 12) or check on http://www.lean.org or
http://leanromania.wordpress.com – only for Romanian speakers.

4 Research Methodology
The approach used for this research is a non-scientific survey, following the
next steps:
▫ Identify interested adult trainers, using personal and professional
social media networks
▫ Use a questionnaire to obtain data on topics related to adult
trainer’s additional competencies needed to identify typical waste
in training activities and to employ specific Lean tools for reducing
or eliminating waste levels
▫ Use discussions and interviews with people interested both in Lean
and adult training topics
▫ Qualitative analysis and report of main findings.
The questionnaire used focuses on issues that are currently faced by adult
educators and trainers, covering most of the competence units described in
the occupational standards. It has been designed to identify perceptions and
ideas from both people using Lean tools, and trainers not familiar with Lean
concepts and tools. It was finalized in June and has three parts, as follows:
A. General Information
A.1. Personal and Professional Information
A.2. Organization Information
B. Lean Tools in AdET
C. Training Needs Assessment in AdET.
It was made public via direct mailing, using several professional communities
and discussion groups related both to adult training and lean issues and it is
available at http://leanromania.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/how-to-use-
lean-tools-in-adet-development.

5 Study Results and Conclusions

Some results are available after receiving some answers at the questionnaires
and after interviews and discussions with Lean practitioners.
Even if the target group consisted of
Rate of response to the questionnaire
over 300 trainers, there were only 17
questionnaires received - mainly from
trainers specialised in Lean-related Not answering
topics, and 21 answers declining the received
5% 6%
ability to fill in the questionnaire, due N/A
to lack of any knowledge related to
Lean issues.
After a brief literature review and
more open discussions with Lean 89%
practitioners, some conclusions are obvious at Fig. 3 – Rate of response
this stage:
1. Lean is still unfamiliar for most of adult training organisations.
There is no much information on how and if Lean is used in
workforce education or training, but there are some initiatives in
30-Sep-09 page 8/15
 formal education - mostly schools and universities from USA and UK,
such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oakland
University– USA or University of St Andrews – Scotland. (Sources:
http://lean.mit.edu/, http://www.oakland.edu/leanschools,
http://www.leaneducation.com/home.html,
http://www.educationreport.org/pubs/mer/article.aspx?id=9674)
2. Even for Lean practitioners, it is not a priority to apply Lean
principles for own activity.
From the trainers 100% 0%
12%
answering the >65
80%
questionnaire, the 45-65
majority work with 60% 25-45
trainees between 25 – 45 40%
88% 14-25

years old, employed in <14

large companies, which 20%

usually apply Lean on a 0% 0%

large scale. Fig. 4 – Average age of trainees

VA activities
16%
As far as usual
training activities, from the major groups usually identified
in occupational standards, the ratio of VA/NVA activities is
NVA activities
as follows:
84%

Fig. 5 – VA/NVA Activities Distribution in Training

% VA NVA
Time activities activities
1. Planning for Adult Education and Training
Activities 14% 14%
2. Training Marketing 11% 11%
3. Training Materials Design 29% 29%
4. Organising Training Programmes 11% 11%
5. Training Delivery 14% 14%
6. Trainees’ Assessment 1% 2%
7. Training Evaluation and Improvement 1% 1%
8. Other Training Management Activities 3% 3%
9. AdET Development and Self-Development 14% 14%
TOTAL 100% 16% 84%
Table 2 – Percentage of VA/NVA Activities in Training (Source: This Research)
Concerning the possible use of Lean Tools and other improvement tools, to
eliminate waste in the different adult education and training processes, the
results are as following:

30-Sep-09 page 9/15

 100% Balanced Score Card

Quality Management Principles

Process Management Principles

80%
Dashboards for KPI’s

Six Sigma

60%
Quality and Analysis Tools: Pareto
Principle, process mapping; product
family analysis, etc.
Hoshin (Policy Deployment)

Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

40%

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Setup reduction or Quick

Changeover (SMED)
20%
Continuous process flow , Just In
Time, Cellular Operation, Process
Smoothing & Load Leveling
Pull Systems and Kanban

0% Poka Yoke
7. Training Evaluation and Improvement
4. Organising Training Programmes

9. AdET Development and Self-Development

2. Training Marketing

3. Training Materials Design

8. Other Training Management Activities

5. Training Delivery

6. Trainees’ Assessment
1. Planning for Adult Education and Training Activities

Jidoka & Zero Quality Control

5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine,

Standardize, Sustain & Safety)

Visual Workplace & Visual

Management

Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Standardized Processes

Fig. 6 – Use of Lean and Other Improvement Tools in Training

Other relevant issues rose during interviews and online discussions concerned
the following:
1. Lean can be used in any company, so also in training companies and
training departments, as lean is about eliminating waste and improving
processes. The more standardized process a company has the more it is
possible to use lean tools in that company. It is true that every class is
different and one can never know what is getting into during the training
delivery process, but also there are many repetitive tasks to be done
30-Sep-09 page 10/15
 before the class is started and after it is finished. For sure these processes
can be improved and save the companies a huge amount of time and
costs.”
2. First Lean principle is important to set success criteria and targets for
training. Usually, for open courses, the challenge is to satisfy as many
trainees as possible, but that means a percentage of non-satisfied ones,
i.e. a waste in the training process.
3. Large companies are rather poor at really developing their people and
getting them up to speed effectively. There are not any real Lean
management systems broadly implemented in the training organisation.
4. Even if Lean Tools are so powerful to cutback costs, the most important
thing is to change the organisational culture and support Lean behaviours.
The tools are not too difficult to implement, but they will never work if
the people are not focussed on continuous improvement. And this is where
trainers should play a significant role to enable change.
5. For people with no special knowledge of Lean from training organisations,
it is also useful to see that there is some need for some of the Lean tools
or at least concepts, even if Lean seems so very manufacturing-oriented.
6. If one looks at the training process from a Lean point of view, it is
worthwhile to know how to identify the Lead Time to move people from
"Unconscious incompetence" to "Unconscious Competence". Usually the
training processes are considered as simple and linear, i.e. sending people
on a training course is supposed to make them learn and spontaneous
moving them through all these steps. It will do to have a simple value
stream map, an estimation of the existing "inventory" (number of people at
each step) and "first pass yield" (the number of people who get past each
step from first time) for each step. This should give a clear picture of
where the focus needs to be applied on training process, to yield effective
training. Practically training process may be approached like any other
process, but unfortunately training is more often seen as a "box ticking"
exercise in most of the companies, even within training organisations.
Instead "Lean" in training should mean VSM, improvement to cut waste and
to enhance value in the eyes of the customer.
7. It is advisable for trainers to use 5S and visual management, and also
elements of SMED. But these tools are more about being more comfortable
as a trainer, regardless the environment. It is also important to identify
and control Lead Time for the learning process.
In conclusion, it is obvious that using Lean by adult educators and trainers has
started in formal education organisations in some countries, but there is still a
long way to go before case studies and best practices will be available to
support AdET competence development.

6 Reference list
Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T., Roos, D. (1990). The Machine That Changed the
World: The Story of Lean Production, Macmillan Publishing Company
Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T. (2003), Lean Thinking, Free Press

30-Sep-09 page 11/15

 Annex 1 - BRIEF LEAN TERMS GLOSSARY
5S A methodology for creating a self-sustaining culture that
perpetuates an organised, clean, safe, and efficient
workplace. The English words approximate the Japanese
originals for the 5 steps:
▫ Sort (Seiri) - Clearly distinguish between what is needed
and what is not needed to perform a given work process
▫ Straighten (Seiton) - Organize those things that are
needed, making it easy for users to locate, use and
return them
▫ Scrub (Seiso) - Clean everything in the area, including
floors, machines and furniture
▫ Standardize (Seiketsu) - Maintain and improve the first
four S’s in addition to personal orderliness and
neatness.
▫ Sustain (Shitsuke) - Achieve the discipline or habit of
maintaining an organised, clean, safe, and efficient
workplace.
Often there is a 6th S added: Safety– Provide the operator a
safe and ergonomic workplace.
Continuous Flow Only one work item is processed at a time and it is moved
directly to the next process. It implies no waiting time for
the item after entering the process.
Flow Production A philosophy that rejects batch, lot or mass processing as
wasteful. Product should move (flow) from operation to
operation in the smallest increment, one piece being the
ultimate. It implies no defects on the process flow, only
quality parts are allowed to move to the next operation.
Heijunka A Japanese term that refers to the act of levelling the
(Process variety and/or volume of items produced at a workplace
Smoothing & over a period of time, by sequencing orders in a repetitive
Load Levelling) pattern and smoothing the day-to-day variation in total
orders to correspond to longer-term demand.
Hoshin (Policy Japanese term for annual planning process, used
Deployment) throughout operational, financial, strategic, and project
based scenarios, focusing on a few major long term
customer-oriented breakthrough objectives, critical to a
company’s long term success. This process deploys major
objectives to specific support plans throughout the
organization.
Jidoka Built-in quality, such as if a process is not capable of
creating the required output then it will not operate until it
can.
Just in Time A strategy that concentrates on delivering quality
(JIT) products/services, in the quantity needed, when and where
it is needed.
Kaizen Continuous improvement of cost, quality, delivery, safety

30-Sep-09 page 12/15

 and responsiveness to customer needs
Kanban A signal that specifies what and when to produce within a
pull system. It is generally used to trigger the movement of
material where one piece flow cannot be achieved, but is
also used to “signal” upstream processes to produce
product for downstream processes.
Lead-Time The total time from the beginning of the supply chain to
the time of delivery. It includes the sum of the VA/NVA
time for a product to move through the entire value
stream.
Lean A business improvement strategy persistently focussing on
reducing waste within a system. It is applicable also to
business processes such as paperwork flow through an
office.
Overproduction This was considered by Taiichi Ohno to be the worst type of
waste as it creates and hides all other types of wastes.
Pareto Chart A vertical bar graph showing the bars in descending order of
significance, ordered from left to right. It helps to focus on
the vital few issues rather than the trivial many (also known
as the 80/20 rule).
Poka-Yoke A method or device that prevents errors from occurring
during the process.
Pull / Push Pull
Material flow triggered downwardly by actual customer
need rather than a scheduled production forecast.
Downstream processes signal to upstream processes exactly
what is required and in what quantity.
Push
The production of goods regardless of demand or
downstream need, usually in large batches to ensure
“efficiency”.
Setup reduction A method for rapidly and efficiently converting a process
/ Quick from running the current product to running the next
Changeover needed product.
(SMED) Single Minute Exchange Of Dies (SMED)
A technique to reduce setup or changeover times, therefore
to eliminate the need to produce in batches.
Six Sigma Six Sigma may be approached at three different levels:

As a metric
A process that is six sigma generates a maximum defect
probability of 3.4 parts per million (PPM), i.e. a probability
of 99.9997% to have good products.

As a methodology
Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that
focuses an organization on driving rapid and sustainable
improvement to business processes by minimizing variation
in those processes. At the heart of the methodology is the

30-Sep-09 page 13/15

 DMAIC model for process improvement (Define opportunity,
Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve
performance, Control performance)
Standardised A defined work method that describes the proper
Work workstation and tools, work required, quality, standard
inventory, knacks and sequence of operations.
Related terms

Standard: A prescribed documented method or process
that is sustainable, repeatable and predictable.

Standardization: The system of documenting and
updating procedures to make sure everyone knows
clearly and simply what is expected of them.

Standard Work: It details the motion of the operator
and the sequence of action, based on the best process
currently identified. Standard Work has three central
elements; Takt time, Standard Work Sequence, and
Standard Work in Process.
Takt Time The pace at which the customer is demanding a product
(how frequently a sold unit must be produced).
Takt Time = Available Time / Customer Demand
Total Cycle The time taken from work order release into a value stream
Time (TCT) until completion / movement of product into shipping /
finished goods.
Total Productive A means of maximising production system efficiency by
Maintenance analysing and eliminating down-time through up-front
(TPM.) maintenance of equipment. It is based on the principle that
equipment improvement must involve everyone in the
organization, from line operators to top management.
Toyota The production system developed and used by the Toyota
Production Motor Company which focuses on the elimination of waste
System (TPS) throughout the value stream.
Value Added Value Added Activity (VA)
Activity / Non- Any activity that transforms input into the output for which
Value-Added a customer is willing to pay for.
Activity (NVA) Non-Value-Added Activity (NVA)
An activity that takes time, resources or space but does not
add value to the product sold to a customer. The activity
may be necessary from the point of view of the provider;
however the customer is not willing to pay for it.
Value Stream The value stream of a business is the sequence of steps that
a company performs in order to satisfy a customer's need.
Value Stream A visual representation of the aggregated material and
Map (VSM) information flows within a company or business unit. Using
VSM icons, it shows interdependent functions, material and
information flow, buffer inventory, flow time, cycle time,
and decision points.
Visual Systems that enable anyone to immediately assess the

30-Sep-09 page 14/15

Management current status of an operation or given process at a glance,
regardless of their knowledge of the process.
Waste An activity that that consumes valuable resources without
adding value for customers. Eight types of waste have been
identified for business processes:

Waste from over production

Waste from waiting or idle time

Waste from unnecessary transportation

Waste from extra processing (inefficient processes)

Waste of unnecessary inventory

Waste of motion and efforts

Waste from producing defective goods
Zero Quality Each individual is educated, trained, and empowered so
Control there is no need for inspection of their quality of work.
Sources: www.lean.org, www.motorola.com

Cristina Musat
Philean Consulting & Training, Romania
http://leanromania.wordpress.com
http://philean.wordpress.com

30-Sep-09 page 15/15