Waste Hunt
Take the challenge and see how much waste you can find
The aim is to give you and your team activities and tips to help you improve your operational efficiency by identifying and addressing things that cause waste every day.
You will be challenged to find solutions that are minimal cost and have a positive impact on the team as well as the farm business.
Waste Hunt will step you through a structured process, which you can complete at whatever speed works for you and your team. You will get the best results by working through the process in a systematic way and completing the exercises in each step before you start on the next step.
After signing up and completing an initial assessment to benchmark where you are now, you'll receive weekly emails to help you stay focused. These will provide you with the link to the next step in the process.
Once you've worked through the weekly activities, you'll be ready for the next step.
Finally, you'll redo the assessment at the end of the challenge to see how things have changed.
In the last 7 days, have you or any of your team had to:
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you and your team will benefit from taking the Waste Hunt Challenge.
Waste Hunt - Step 1 - Learn about waste
This is a team activity and you will get the best results from all getting involved. There are a few ground rules you must follow and these are listed below. Print this ground rules list out, add some of your own rules and put it on the wall where it can remind you as you work through the activities.
We often don’t realise how much waste we have in our day-to-day operations. Some things are obvious like out-of-date products and drugs, breakages, and lost tools. Other things are less obvious like waiting for information to do a job, or the second herd to arrive.
You might think these things aren’t big and don’t happen that often, however, you would be surprised how lots of little things add up and often there can be significant amounts of time and money lost out of the system every day.
What difference would it make to your team if you could all save 30 minutes a day by changing a few things?
Doing an assessment at the start of the process will give you a benchmark to measure the progress you make.
Download the Waste Hunt Assessment, complete it and keep it as your benchmark.
You're now ready to move on to Step 2
Waste Hunt - Step 2 - Finding waste
Waste can be described as actions or activities that don't add value to the job you're doing. This step is all about finding waste.
Waiting for broken equipment to be fixed before you can do a job, searching for the correct spanner to tighten a loose fitting, redoing a job that wasn’t done correctly the first time and throwing away a product because it is out of date or damaged are all examples of waste.
Waste often leads to higher costs, frustration, decreased productivity and can impact negatively on safety.
In order to eliminate, isolate or minimise waste effectively, it is helpful to work through a systematic process.
Process for finding waste:
Potential traps!
Tip: Make it a competition to see how many ‘opportunities’ or problems you can find
Once you have completed the above, you are now ready for Step 3
Waste Hunt - Step 3 - Identifying the cause
Week three of the challenge is to identify the true or real cause of the waste you found in step two.
This is a very important step and we often don’t take the time to investigate what the root of the issue is, jumping straight to the solution.
The trouble with this approach is that ‘quick fix’ solutions may not address the real cause, leading to the problem reoccurring or even getting worse.
Finding the cause is easier if you work through a systematic process.
Process for identifying the real cause
Potential Trap!
Eliminate or minimise?
Now decide if it is possible to eliminate or minimise the waste.
Minimise
If more time or cost is required to implement your change, you may choose to minimise temporarily until a long-term solution can be put in place.
M = Minimise the waste until you can resolve it later – this is a good option for problems that require a more technical solution, investigation into best solution or some expenditure to resolve. It may be possible to apply a temporary low cost solution.
Examples:
Once you have completed the above, you are now ready to move on to Step 4
Waste Hunt - Step 4 - Reducing waste, getting organised
This week’s challenge is to start reducing the waste you have found and identifying cost-effective solutions.
You will find that a big chunk of your waste can be solved by setting up better systems and getting organised. Systems are covered in the next step, this week we focus on getting organised.
A cluttered workplace usually results in searching, waiting, and defect waste. It also contributes to an unsafe work environment.
Come up with solutions that permanently fix the waste rather than a ‘quick fix’ sticking plaster approach.
This is easier to achieve if you work through a systematic process, see the steps to getting organised below.
Steps to getting organised
Potential Traps!
Once you have completed the above, Step 5 is next...
Waste Hunt - Step 5 - Setting up systems
Come up with the right systems to stop waste from coming back, with Step 5 of the Waste Hunt Challenge.
As we’ve learnt, waste comes in many forms. Having good systems in place will remove waste from workplace tasks in the following ways:
The best systems use simple, clear language; are very visual – using mostly pictures or diagrams, are located where the job is done (whenever possible) and can be fine-tuned as required.
Your challenge is to come up with the right systems, which have the right amount of detail to be useful and relevant. It is easier if you work through a systematic process and to help with this we've outlined the steps to setting up systems below.
Steps to setting up systems
Potential Traps!
Once you have completed the above, you can now move on to Step 6
Waste Hunt - Step 6 - Maintaining improvements
The biggest challenge is turning a focus on waste reduction into something the team does every day so it just becomes part of the way you do things.
As a team come up with some ways you can keep focused on waste reduction, some examples are;
Now you have been through the challenge, redo the assessment from Step 1 and see what changes have occurred.
Congratulations!
You've successfully navigated your way through the six weeks of the Waste Hunt challenge and we're sure you'll be pleased with the positive changes.
Why not pick a new activity to focus on and start again from Step 2? You'll be amazed at how much waste you can find all across your business.
Example 1: Before
Example 2: Before
Example 1: After
Example 2: After
Example 1: What it should look like
Example 3: What it shoud look like
Example 2: What is should look like
Example 4: What it should look like
Waste Hunt is a component part of the FarmTune® programme which looks at more areas of creating on-farm efficiency. Find out more about FarmTune®.