Why “seven” types of Muda?
Toyota published seven types of Muda in the engineering and office.
Those seven are;
1️⃣ Meeting
2️⃣ Nemawashi (Consensus building)
3️⃣ Documentation
4️⃣ Coordination
5️⃣ Boss’s pride
6️⃣ Routine
7️⃣ Pro-forma activity
Of course, not all listed activities are Muda. It is targeting specific activities within.
1️⃣ Meeting: “Meeting without decisions” or “Meeting with people who don’t decide.”
2️⃣ Nemawashi (Consensus building): Trying to agree with everyone for peace of mind.
3️⃣ Documentation: Only for reports. More than one A3.
4️⃣ Coordination: Trying to coordinate everything. Just escalate those issues.
5️⃣ Boss’s pride: Upset because you didn’t hear the report. This attitude creates Muda of “Nemawashi” and “Documentations.” The boss should get the information with its own hands.
6️⃣ Routine: Continue doing things just because we have always done it.
7️⃣ Pro-forma activity: A meeting that follows a script. Discussions on trivial items, not what needs to be decided.
But “Seven,” again. Why are they keeping “seven” when others list eight, nine, etc.?
There is a Japanese proverb that goes the following;
“Even if you think you don’t have any (bad) habits, you still have seven of those. When you think you have bad habits, you have 48.”
So, if you add something to the seven types of waste, keep finding until the list reaches 48. I’m pretty sure one type of Muda is making a long list and trying to memorize them instead of Kaizen. Besides, both “7” and “48” mean “a lot” in Japanese. For example, Sumo had “48 technics,” but they found 82 (currently) when they counted. They just called them 48 technics because they knew there were many technics. This means that there are infinite categories of Muda.
The critical part of these seven wastes is not the number of Muda. It is the early part of this proverb. “Even if you think you don’t have any (bad) habits, you still have a number of those.” It’s a reminder. It rimes well in Japanese and is an easy reminder that waste still exists even if you think you have eliminated it. [Nakutte-Nanakuse] Changing the (bad) habits into Muda will allow us to understand why “seven” Muda. Ohno is challenging, “Even if you think there is no Muda, you still have…”
It is interesting that Ohno saw the similarity between the (Bad) habit and Muda. The (Bad) habit in Japanese is “Kuse 【癖】.” Inside this symbol is 【辟】, which means punishment, lousy heart, and avoiding the center. The upper part is used for symbols that represent some disease. Therefore, “Kuse 【癖】” is a harmful disease that distracts and punishes someone from keeping themselves from the main course. Ohno considers the Muda to be the same as these bad habits. Muda is a disease that hurts the business that we hide inside normal activities.
And who’s bad habit are we talking about?
There is another Japanese proverb that uses the seven bad habits【七癖】.
“Others have seven bad habits, but oneself have eight habits.【人に七癖我が身に八癖】” This proverb highlights that it is easy to point out the bad habits of others, but you probably have more than those you criticize. It is harder to recognize your bad habit yourself. Once again, these seven bad habits remind one to reflect on one's actions. This applies the same to the Muda. Seven Muda is not to point out a list of bad things to others but to create a self-reflection of Muda. (By the way, this proverb has a different version in which the eight becomes ten.)
For regular “habits,” we would use Shukan 【習慣】. This word is made from Shu 【習】meaning to learn. The other symbol is Kan 【慣】meaning to get used to something you learned. Habit is something you learn and get used to.
“Seven” reminds us to reflect on our bad habits and learn the good habit of challenging ourselves to see more Muda. Don’t get excited about the Muda categories. Instead, keep telling yourself, “Even if I don’t think there is Muda, there’s still seven of them.”
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