Guide
The 8 wastes of Lean in office work
In short
The 8 wastes of Lean in office work are Waiting, Handoffs, Backlog, Searching and switching, Errors and rework, Work nobody uses, Extra steps, and Skills not used. In Lean's own words they are waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, defects, overproduction, extra-processing and non-utilised talent.
A waste is any activity that takes time or effort and adds nothing the customer of the work needs. In an office the customer is often internal: the colleague, team or system that uses what you hand over. The first four wastes slow work down as it moves; the last four burn effort while people are busy.
Eight kinds of waste, in plain words
Every friction is named as one of these. The circle is a map, not a measurement: each kind gets an equal slice.- Errors and reworkFixing or redoing work that was wrong or incomplete.
- Work nobody usesReports or copies nobody reads, or work done before it is needed.
- WaitingFor an approval, a reply, a queue or a system.
- Skills not usedPeople doing work that does not need what they know, or with ideas that have nowhere to go.
- HandoffsMoving work or files between people, teams or tools.
- BacklogRequests, tickets or emails piling up unfinished.
- Searching and switchingHunting for information, files or people, and switching between tools.
- Extra stepsApprovals, checks, re-typing or polish beyond what the work needs.
The eight wastes at a glance
| In office words | Lean term | What it looks like | Test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waiting | Waiting | An approval, a reply, a queue or a system holds the work up | Is one item or one person stuck behind something specific? |
| Handoffs | Transportation | Work forwarded between people, teams or tools | Does the work itself move? |
| Backlog | Inventory | Requests, tickets or emails piling up unfinished | Are you describing the pile, not one stuck item? |
| Searching and switching | Motion | Hunting for files, versions or owners; jumping between tools | Does a person travel to do their own task? |
| Errors and rework | Defects | Fixing or redoing work that was wrong or incomplete | Is someone doing the same work a second time? |
| Work nobody uses | Overproduction | Reports nobody reads, copies nobody needs, work done too early | Would anyone notice if it stopped? |
| Extra steps | Extra-processing | Approvals, checks, re-typing or polish beyond what the work needs | Does the next person need this step? |
| Skills not used | Non-utilised talent | People doing work below what they know, ideas with nowhere to go | Is someone's knowledge sitting idle? |
The order follows how the wastes show up. The first four are about flow: the work is stuck, moving, piling up, or a person is hunting. The last four are about effort. The free lessons take each half in turn: Waiting, Handoffs, Backlog and Searching and Errors, Work nobody uses, Extra steps and Skills not used.
The four wastes that slow work down
Waiting (waiting)
Waiting is time when nothing is done to the work because it is blocked: an approval that has not come, a reply, a system that is down. Every step can be quick and the request still take a week, because most of its life is spent in a queue. Lead time and process time make that visible; the lesson on lead time vs process time shows how to estimate them.
- Finance: a supplier invoice sits for days until the one person who can approve it is back.
- HR: a new starter waits for a laptop because IT hears about them on their first day.
- Customer service: an agent cannot answer until another team replies to an internal ticket.
Handoffs (transportation)
Handoffs are the work itself moving: an email forwarded to another team, a file exported from one tool and loaded into another. Each pass costs time, creates a queue on the receiving side and loses some context.
- Operations: order numbers exported from the warehouse system every Monday and pasted into invoicing.
- Finance: three exports copied into one spreadsheet before the monthly cost report can go out.
- HR: a signed contract emailed to payroll, then to IT, then to the manager.
Backlog (inventory)
Backlog is unfinished work piling up: a shared inbox nobody can clear, a ticket queue that grows every week, drafts started and parked. One request stuck is Waiting; hundreds stuck is Backlog. A backlog hides problems and costs effort every time someone re-reads it to decide what to do next.
Searching and switching (motion)
Here the person moves, not the work: hunting for the latest version, asking around for who owns something, switching between tabs and tools to finish one task. Typing the same data into a second system looks like switching, but the waste there is that the same information is handled twice, which is Extra steps.
Illustrative example, not real data
- A triangle marks a handoff, where the item waits in a queue.
- Red, dashed boxes are rework: the same work done twice.
- The approval removed had never refused a request. Removing it is a reversible trial, agreed with whoever owns the control.
The four wastes that burn effort
Errors and rework (defects)
Errors and rework is doing work a second time because it was wrong or incomplete the first time: a payment run corrected by hand, a form sent back for a missing field, a reply that has to be followed by a correction. The cost is usually paid by someone downstream, which is why it goes unnoticed by the person who could prevent it.
Work nobody uses (overproduction)
Work nobody uses is producing more, or earlier, than anyone needs: a weekly report that nobody opens, a copy kept in three places, a draft prepared before anyone asked. Lean treats it as the worst waste in a factory because it hides the others. A quick test is to stop it for one cycle and see whether anyone asks.
Extra steps (extra-processing)
Extra steps are effort beyond what the next person needs: a second approval that never changes the decision, re-typing data that already exists elsewhere, formatting a document nobody will print. Before improving or automating such a step, ask whether it should exist at all. The lesson eliminate before you automate shows how.
Skills not used (non-utilised talent)
Skills not used is people doing work that does not need what they know, or having ideas that have nowhere to go. It was not on the original list from the Toyota Production System; later Lean practice added it as the eighth waste. In an office it often shows as an analyst spending the week reconciling figures, or a suggestion that nobody follows up.
TIMWOODS and DOWNTIME: the same eight wastes
Two memory aids are common. They name the same eight wastes in a different order. Use whichever your organisation already knows; the office words above are easier to explain to a new colleague.
| TIMWOODS | DOWNTIME | In office words |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation | Transportation | Handoffs |
| Inventory | Inventory | Backlog |
| Motion | Motion | Searching and switching |
| Waiting | Waiting | Waiting |
| Overproduction | Overproduction | Work nobody uses |
| Over-processing | Extra-processing | Extra steps |
| Defects | Defects | Errors and rework |
| Skills | Non-utilised talent | Skills not used |
How to find the wastes in your own team in 30 minutes
- Pick one recurring piece of work that annoys people, such as the month-end report, a new-starter request or a refund.
- Follow one real item from request to done. Note each step, who did it, which tool it was in, and how long it sat between steps. This is a gemba walk for office work.
- Label each step or gap with one of the eight wastes, using the tests in the table. One primary waste per problem is enough. The free 8 wastes checklist has the tests and a tally on one sheet.
- For the biggest gap, ask why it happens until you reach a process, policy, tool or owner, never a person. The 5 Whys gives the method.
- Ask whether the step should exist at all before you change or automate it, then try the smallest change and check after a week and a month whether it held.
Illustrative example, not real data
- Solid boxes add value; dashed boxes are waste, each named by its kind.
- In many office processes, most of the time an item spends goes on steps like the dashed ones.
Illustrative example, not a real company.
An HR team follows one new starter's request. The hiring manager emails HR (Handoffs). HR enters the details in the HR system and again in an IT request form (Extra steps). IT hears about it two days before the start date and orders a laptop (Waiting). On day one the starter has no access, and HR spends the morning chasing three teams (Searching and switching).
The team picks Extra steps as the primary waste: the same data is typed twice, and the second copy is late. The first countermeasure is not an automation but a rule: the IT form is sent the day the contract is signed, from the HR record, with one owner.
The eight wastes by function
The same eight wastes look different in each team. Three pages take one function each, with eight frictions typical of it and one of them worked through a 5 Whys to a countermeasure.
- Kaizen for finance teams: payables, reconciliations and the month-end close, and how to tell a control from a habit.
- Kaizen for HR teams: hiring, leave and probation, and how to describe a process without describing a person.
- Kaizen for customer service teams: the ticket queue, and the difference between handling a contact faster and removing its cause.
Common mistakes when labelling office waste
- Labelling by feeling. Everything slow feels like Waiting. Ask what is happening to the work: stuck, moving, piling up, or a person hunting.
- Blaming a person. "Anna is slow to approve" is not a waste; "invoices need a second approval that never changes the decision" is. See blame the process, not the person.
- Automating first. A script that copies data between two tools makes a needless handoff faster; removing the second tool removes it.
- Counting before checking. An estimate of time lost is not time saved. Keep the two apart, as measuring improvement honestly explains.
Questions
What are the 8 wastes of Lean?
Waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, defects, overproduction, extra-processing and non-utilised talent. In office words: Waiting, Handoffs, Backlog, Searching and switching, Errors and rework, Work nobody uses, Extra steps and Skills not used.
Were there not seven wastes?
The Toyota Production System named seven. Unused skills was added later by Lean practitioners outside Toyota, which is why lists of eight are now common.
What is the difference between Waiting and Backlog?
Waiting is one item or one person stuck behind something specific. Backlog is the pile as a whole: many items unfinished.
Is copying data between two systems Handoffs or Extra steps?
Moving the work from one tool to the next is Handoffs. Typing the same information a second time is Extra steps. When both happen, pick the one whose removal would make the other disappear.
Try it on your own work
Pick one task that wastes your team's time every week. Describe it in a sentence; KaizenProof names the waste, asks why until you reach the cause, and writes the fix. No account is needed to start.