Seems like a lot of things in manufacturing end up with acronyms. Occasionally you’ll step into a room and think that Robin Williams stepped out of Good Morning Vietnam to conduct the morning training session.
A lot of time the acronyms are just created to avoid something long to say, but the ones that are truly useful help you to remember a concept. Here are a couple I’ve heard regarding the wastes in manufacturing. This one I heard while at Pella Corporation when I was part of one of their teams a couple weeks ago:
TOM D WIP
- Transportation
- Overproduction
- (Excess) Motion
- Defective Products
- Waiting
- Inventories
- Processing
WORM PITT
This alternative spin on the letters was shared with me by Paul Vollmer from Specialty Manufacturing in St. Paul, MN. I like this one because it also includes a nice visual that they can hand out to people to remember.
- Waiting
- Overproduction
- Rework
- Motion
- Processing
- Inventories
- Transportation
- Talent
This version also includes the eighth waste that some companies have adopted, and that is the under-utilization of talent.