13 Apr
2018

Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing - Part 5 - Transport Waste

Want to know how Lean Manufacturing negates the issue of transport waste? This blog post on the topic will answer all your questions. Read it now!

No items found.
Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing - Part 5 - Transport Waste

Lean Manufacturing identifies different types of waste in manufacturing processes so that these can be identified and eliminated. In this, Part 5 in our 8 Part Series, we discuss Transport Waste.

Transport waste is when a product that is meant to be used in manufacturing is moved or touched unnecessarily. Moving not only costs money, but can also result in the increased risk of that product being damaged, lost or misused.

Lean Manufacturing negates the issue of transport waste due to the pre-assembly and pre-fabrication of parts that occur prior to their arrival at the manufacturing site. Once the pre assembled parts arrive at the manufacturing site they do not need to be transported again.

Many manufacturing businesses use significant resources including people, machinery, energy and time moving products around. When products are being moved, unless there is some value added to the product (perhaps like fruit ripening during transport) then there is only cost produced.

WORXIMITY_SCALE_AI_15FEV2018

Transport waste in manufacturing can include the movement of employees, tools, inventory, equipment or end products more than is absolutely necessary to achieve the production goals. Too much movement not only costs money directly, but can lead to unnecessary wear and tear of production resources, injured people as well as potential product damage as noted above.

Companies have solved transportation waste in many innovative ways. For instance, having U-shaped production lines or creating flow between what are otherwise linear processes are ways that companies can minimize having to move people, machinery, tools or inventory unnecessarily.

More often than not, Transportation Waste is caused by:

  • Unnecessary steps in a process
  • Poor production layout
  • Process flows which are not aligned
  • Not well designed systems


Treating Transportation Waste is most often an exercise in common sense. Simplifying processes, adjusting physical layouts, rationalizing processes to minimize product handling, shortening steps between process steps for people.

The eight wastes of lean manufacturing can be remembered with the acronym DOWNTIME:

Read Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing—Part 6—What Is Inventory Waste?

Download our Free Lean Manufacturing Industry 4.0. to understand how technology can help you reduce your waste.

Want to learn more?
Download the ebook
Related blog articles

Related articles

Back to the blog
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
No items found.

Related articles

Back to the blog
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
7
Sep 2023

Mitigating Debt Servicing Challenges with Production Monitoring

Interest rates are up, and demand is down. Strapped with higher loan repayments many of today’s manufacturers are caught in the middle. Read how optimizing manufacturing operations is mitigating the challenges of debt servicing.

English
24
Aug 2023

Simplifying Adoption of Smart Technology for Manufacturers of All Types and Sizes

It's time we stopped talking about the challenges plaguing manufacturers and started focusing more on the solutions and opportunities that can help mitigate them.

English
17
Aug 2023

Weathering the Storm: Responding to Inflation's Effects on Manufacturing

There are many things that manufacturers cannot control. Such as inflation. What you can control is how you prepare for it. Companies with an eye on growth understand that these are the times to invest in technology. Read this blog to see why.

English