**In short: Eliminate waste.** # Lean Away From Waste **The heart of The Toyota Way is shrinking non-value-add activity** (aka ‘[[Waste]]’). LEAN process improvement is all about shrinking non-value-add activity. In the business context that means [[Business Value]]. But the same concept can be applied to writing. Lean sentences contain only meaningful words. [[Distillation|Distill]] it down. Traditional process improvement is focused on finding local efficiencies. This involves driving [[decision making]] around a problem to those closest to the problem, and empowering them to make the right decisions. [[Pull-Based Workflow]]s are generally better than push ones. ## Waste Categories - Over-production - Waiting - Unnecessary transport of material - Over (or incorrect) processing - Excess inventory - Defects - Wasted creativity and ideas ### Source - [[The Toyota Way]] ### Related - [[Toyota's 14 Principles]] - [[Business Value]] - [[Agile]]