The elimination of waste (muda) from all manufacturing and logistics activities is an obvious concept. Less obvious is the fact that waste often hides in plain view. “Unfortunately, real waste lurks in forms that do not look like waste,” says Shigeo Shingo in Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The Shingo System (Productivity Press, 1990). “Only through careful observation and goal orientation can waste be identified. We must always keep in mind that the greatest waste is the waste we don’t see.”

The ability to recognize waste on sight, and the ability to teach this skill to a workforce, was among Henry Ford’s principal success secrets. Anybody who understands the Ford thought process can identify waste even in everyday retail products.

 …