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Waste of Motion, 7 Wastes in Lean Manufacturing (SIX Sigma)


Unnecessary motions are those movements of man or machine which are not as small or as easy to achieve as possible, by this I mean bending down to retrieve heavy objects at floor level when they could be fed at waist level to reduce stress and time to retrieve. Excessive travel between work stations, excessive machine movements from start point to work start point are all examples of the waste of Motion.
All of these wasteful motions cost you time (money) and cause stress on your employees and machines, after all even robots wear out.


Waste of unnecessary motion is clearly visible when holding and depositing products. Workers sit by the conveyor belts and put together parts in order to make the final product. The main element of the assembly line is a conveyor belt, so the waste consists of reaching and depositing. The main reason for waste of unnecessary motion is the sitting work of workers, which reduces workers' moving area and eliminates mutual help of workers. Waste also occurs because of one-hand work: a worker holds the part with his left hand and he uses just one hand for manufacturing activities.Waste of motion can be considerably reduced by a transition from a conveyor belt to the U-shaped production lines.

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