Page 56 - Six Sigma Yellow Belt

Removing Waste

• Removing waste refers to the elimination of non-value adding

activities and processes in a business process. Waste can be defined as

any activity that consumes resources but does not add value to the

product or service.

• An example of removing waste in a payroll process is related to the

printing and distribution of paper paychecks. This process can be time-

consuming, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly. To remove

waste from this process, Six Sigma tools such as Lean Six Sigma can be

used to identify opportunities for process improvement. One solution

could be to implement direct deposit for employee paychecks,

eliminating the need for paper checks and reducing the time and cost

associated with printing and distributing them.