Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Waste Analysis

Overview

Waste Analysis worksheet can be used to identify and document wastes in any process. It can help you focus your efforts on the most important wastes first. It is a structured approach to help you identify and quantify the wastes. This tool can be used to help identify wastes in a structured fashion since each step is analyzed for the wastes and if they were done in a random fashion some wastes may be missed. The eight wastes according to lean are:
  • Transportation
  • Inventory
  • Motion
  • Waiting
  • Over-production
  • Over-processing
  • Defects
  • Skills
To add this tool your workbook, click on Lean and then select Waste Analysis.

Inputs

Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
Input Dialog
1
Num Steps: Specify the number of steps in your process. This information is used to reformat your worksheet and create a table for data entry. Note that any data below this table will be cleared.
2
Chart Type: Specify the type of graph you would like to generate. You can specify this option by clicking on the caption. The various options are:
OptionDescription
Bar ChartShow a bar chart for the audit results.
Pie ChartShow a pie chart for the audit results.
Radar ChartShow a radar chart for the audit results.
3
View Example: Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this tool or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
4
Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file on this topic.
5
Cancel Button: Click on this button to exit without saving any changes.
6
OK Button: Click on this button to save changes and update your analysis results.
On the worksheet, break up each step in the process and identify the wastes. Here are the steps to fill out the worksheet.
  • Specify the number and the name of the process step.
  • Write down the value-added and non-value added times for this process step. You may want to perform a time study of this process step to determine the times. The time would be value-adding if the customer is willing to pay for this step. Some steps may only have a value add time, some may have a non-value add time, and some may have a combination of value add and non-value add time.
  • Next, identify the different wastes that are observed in this process step on a scale of 0-10. This rating is used to apportion the NVA time to each of these wastes. By making the same scale for all the wastes, it would be possible to compare and prioritize the different wastes. For example, if the NVA time is 10 minutes and the only one waste is identified, no matter what rating you give to this step, the entire 10 minutes is assigned to that waste. If there are two wastes identified for that step, the ratings are used to apportion the total time of 10 minutes between these two wastes. If the ratings are equal, then 5 minutes is assigned to the first waste and 5 minutes to the second waste. In most process steps, you may only observe one type of waste in each process step else but in general, it may be possible for a single step to have multiple wastes. If there are too many wastes in one process step, you may want to consider breaking the process step down into multiple sub-processes so that each sub-process has only a limited number of wastes.
  • If you have identified any benefits of following this OPL they should be captured on this page. This will help with change management and convince users of the importance of following this OPL.
  • Finally, add any comments for each process step (optional).

Charts

If you click on the Charts button, you will see the following dialog box. Charts
1
Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own title you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
2
Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own subtitle you can specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
3
X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the x-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
4
Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the y-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
5
X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled and you will not be able to change this setting.
6
Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum y-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
7
Horizontal Lines: If you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15 then two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15 respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8
Vertical Lines: If you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5 then two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5 respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click on the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you have entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The objective of this analysis as well as any checks that are performed is listed in this dialog box. For example, the software may check if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, then they are shown as a green-colored checkmark. If the verification checks fail, then they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange color exclamation mark and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.

Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs to update the outputs. The analysis will determine the total value-added time, and break up the non-value-added time between the different wastes, and create a chart of these results in the Graph area. A % VA time is also reported on this graph. Outputs The graph will help you identify the amount of VA vs. NVA time for this process and also help quantify which wastes have been observed in the process along with the relative magnitude of the wastes as prioritization. Do note that in a lean journey our objective is to identify and eliminate all the wastes that are observed in a process. This graph will only help you prioritize the wastes so that you can go after the most important wastes first.

Notes

Here are a few notes regarding this analysis:
  • Each of the eight wastes is rated vs. the process step on a 0-10 scale. The ratings are just a way to quantify which waste is more important compared to others. Changing the scale from 0-10 to 0-1 or 0-3 or any other scale would not change this analysis since they are just used to proportionately scale the NVA time. The use of a wider range of 0-10 can provide greater opportunities for increased resolution of the NVA values.

Examples

Following examples can be found in the Examples folder within the software.
  • For the process shown in the attached file, create a waste analysis and identify and prioritize the eight wastes (Waste Analysis 1.xlsm).