Why the Second Waste is costing you money and losing you customers

The second waste is incredibly pernicious: it can seriously cripple your business.

But what do we mean? What is the second waste? And how does it affect your business?

The first waste* is scrap (or rework).

The second waste is waiting.

What's the problem with that?

If you deal with everything sequentially and individually, in the same order that it comes in, you aren't starting current work until you've cleared your backlog. Hence you always have customers waiting. Waiting customers are, more often than not, dissatisfied customers. And dissatisfied customers will go elsewhere, usually without telling you what the problem is.

So, the end result is: no customers, and no feedback to enable you to improve your processes.

How can you fix this?

First of all, take a look at your processes (what you do). Can you speed any of them up? Can you do more than one thing at once? Can you save time by batching? Can you delight some customers without delaying the others?

One thing you can definitely do is to ask Qryztal to take a look at your processes. We will tell you where the inefficiencies are and what you can do about them.

And another thing: if we can't find any ways in which you could improve your work processes, we won't charge you for the process audit. How's that for a guarantee?

(*The seven wastes of Lean are: scrap, waiting, inventory, motion, transportation, overproduction, overprocessing.)