**The allocation of resources to that which provides no value.** Waste is the allocation of resources to anything which provides no [[Business Value]]. It comes in many forms: wasted effort, energy waste, material waste, monetary waste, etc. The main focus of [[LEAN Manufacturing]] is the elimination of waste. # Examples of Waste: ## Manufacturing - Overproduction - Waiting - Moving things from place to place (conveyance) - Processing - doing something more complex than necessary - Excess Stock - Unnecessary motion of equipment/personnel - Correction of mistakes ## General - Heating & cooling your empty house - Throwing away food - Time spent on things you don’t truly enjoy that aren’t providing other utility - see: [[Effortless vs Effortful Fun]] - Working on something whose purpose isn't well-aligned with the [[Mission Statement|Mission]] or [[What's Important Now]] - see: [[Productive Distraction]] **** ## Source - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-stream_mapping) ## Related - [[LEAN Manufacturing]] - [[Value Stream Mapping]]