Losses in the activities of organizations: their understanding as a first step towards their reduction. What are the real losses of the Ukrainian army during the ATO

The key task of any management methods and tools is to increase the efficiency of the organization, including financial efficiency.

"Most of our lives are spent on mistakes and bad deeds; a significant part is spent in inaction, and almost always our whole life is that we are doing the wrong thing."

Supporters of any management school conduct research and collect data confirming that the use of their methodology has a positive effect on the financial results of the organization. In this regard, of particular interest are those management methods, the very content of which is aimed at improving financial results: to increase income or reduce expenses.

A prominent place among these approaches is occupied by lean management (in English - lean management), which originated in Japan, at Toyota plants, and over the past decades has spread to organizations of all industries around the world. The main principle of this approach is precisely constant identification and elimination of losses in the organization's activities at all levels of management. It is clear that vigorous activity in this direction should improve financial results.

small digression

The terminology associated with reducing losses (or, more often, costs) often evokes negative associations: layoffs, budget cuts, winding down social programs. Moreover, all this is often done without any analysis: an order is sent to all departments to reduce staff by 10% and that's it.

This approach brings to mind the joke about the fastest and most reliable way to reduce weight - amputation. Indeed, in this way, you can immediately reduce the weight by any given number of kilograms: 5 kg - we will amputate the leg to the knee, 10 kg - the entire leg, more - something else will have to be amputated. And the fact that a person will not be able to live normally after that is not important, there was no such criterion in the conditions of the task.

Similarly, in the case of automatic staff reduction: it is fast, the effect is easy to calculate, and most importantly, you don’t have to think. And how the organization will work after that is another task.

The alternative approach is clear: in order to reduce a person’s weight, one must analyze his lifestyle, daily routine, classes, menus, and then understand the sources of the problem and try to eliminate them by changing the same lifestyle. Similarly, to reduce inefficient costs in an organization, you can deeply study its processes to find and eliminate sources of waste. Both can be difficult and time-consuming, but only in this way can sustainable results be obtained.

The basis for such an analysis of losses can be their definition, which is given in lean management: Waste is any activity within an organization that does not create value for customers.. And it is precisely on identifying such activities and on finding ways to reduce them that the efforts of the organization's management should be focused.

It should be noted right away that we are talking here about both external and internal consumers. At the same time, for all activities related to the creation of the final product, for the entire end-to-end process “from obtaining information about the expectations of consumers to meeting these expectations”, it is advisable to consider exactly the values for the external consumer (for example, for the operation of a procurement shop, it is better to analyze not from the point of view of the assembly shop , but from the point of view of an external consumer). But for activities that “do not go directly to consumers” (for example, staff training, equipment repair), internal consumers must be considered.

There are several types of classification of such losses. Below is the most common classification used by Toyota.

Expectation

A situation where an employee does nothing (although there is a need for his work). This can be caused, for example, by a delay in information about the need to perform work, imperfect planning (there is a need for work, but its execution is planned for the future), unsynchronized work of individual performers, equipment breakdowns, waiting for raw materials, etc. A separate case of waiting is the observation of work - when the process goes on without the participation of a person, but the employee watches him to intervene, "if something happens."

Excessive movements

This type of loss is similar to the previous one, but at the same time, employees are also moving. The main sign of such losses: employees do something, but the product does not change. An example of such actions can be employees walking around the enterprise for materials, tools, information, orders, etc. The worst case scenario for redundant movements is for employees to search for something, since the timing and results of these activities cannot be accurately predicted.

Fixes

In this category of losses, employees perform actions, the product changes, but incorrectly, not as planned (inconsistent products). These are actions to create nonconforming products, to verify conformity, to manage and correct nonconforming products. Thus, all activities of the quality control department, testing laboratories, etc. from the point of view of lean management represents a waste - a perfect organization should be guaranteed to produce the appropriate product the first time and does not need to control its compliance.

Overprocessing

In this case, the product changes as planned, but these changes do not add customer value to it. Of course, this type of loss is the most difficult to interpret, ambiguous - because it depends on how correctly the organization understands what exactly is valuable to consumers. For example, packaging products in multiple layers can be both a waste and an important consumer requirement. The same applies to questions of the need or uselessness of additional product functions, its improvements. appearance etc. More obvious are the losses associated with the imperfect design and technology of products, its unjustified complication: for example, a part that can be held on three fasteners is fastened on four “just in case”.

Overproduction

This category of losses refers to the situation when the product is made correctly, but when it is not needed by consumers, when there is no customer (buyer) for it. First of all, this refers to the situation when the product is created not “to order”, but according to a pre-planned plan based on forecasts of customer needs. At the same time, the organization cannot be completely sure that there will be a customer for the product, that the product will not be unclaimed, and all the costs of its creation will not become losses. In particular, this category of losses includes the costs of the enterprise aimed at convincing the customer at any cost to purchase an already manufactured product ( special promotions, discounts, etc.).

Stocks

The last two categories of waste do not relate to the work of employees, but to the product (material, raw materials, parts, unfinished or completed product, information, etc.). Stocks of products are analogous to waiting for employees: this is a situation when a product simply lies in place (in a warehouse, in a workshop, at a workplace, etc.) and nothing happens to it.

Transportation

As in the previous case, the transportation of products is an analogue of excessive movements among employees. Something is done with the product, it moves from place to place (transportation, loading / unloading, shifting from place to place, etc.), but at the same time it does not change, and in some cases it may even deteriorate or wear out.

water is needed to perform a technological operation for several minutes per hour, but it flows constantly;
lubricant is applied to the entire surface of the product, although it is needed only at a few points.

A characteristic feature of all these types of losses is that they are present in any organization at all levels: from the global (the scale of the organization as a whole) to the local (the scale of an individual workplace). Below are examples for all loss categories to give an idea of their range.

Global

Local

Expectation

Downtime at the beginning of the working day in anticipation of receiving raw materials from the warehouse

An idle worker on a conveyor belt while the next piece of product is moving towards him.

The employee performs the work with one hand, while the other hand is idle

Excessive movements

Walking of employees to the warehouse of blanks and to the tool storeroom

The employee is forced to turn around at the workplace to take the parts that are stored behind him.

He takes the instrument with his left hand, and then shifts it to his right.

Fixes

Functioning of the Quality Control Department

The worker stops the machine and checks the dimensions of the part

Overprocessing

Unnecessary features embedded in the product

Nuts are tightened more than required

Overproduction

Production of products not in demand by consumers in accordance with the annual plan

A piece-rate worker produces the maximum number of parts per shift, regardless of the possibility of their further use.

Stocks of raw materials and products in warehouses

Finding unfinished products in the workplace (while the employee is finishing work with the previous unit of production)

Transportation

Transportation of products from warehouse to workshop and vice versa, between workshops

Shifting the product several times within the workplace

The losses listed in the last column may seem insignificant, not worthy of attention. But their total effect can be very large, because they literally permeate all the processes in the organization.

It is important to note another approach to the classification of losses - the allocation of losses of the first and second types. The second type of losses are those that can be eliminated within existing technologies, infrastructure, regulations, etc. For example, if workers spend time looking for a tool because the place of its storage is not defined, these are typical losses of the second type, which can be quickly eliminated by the workers themselves. Actions to eliminate losses of the second type can be included in operational plans for improvement developed at all levels of the organization.

The first type of waste includes activities that do not create value, but are mandatory within the framework of the technology, infrastructure, etc. used. For example, it is impossible to abandon product quality control while the technology is “programmed” for a certain level defects; it is impossible to get away from the creation of intermediate stocks while the equipment is designed only for loading in large quantities. With these losses, the employees themselves cannot do anything. Their elimination can take many years, and the corresponding actions should be determined by top management and included in strategic plans. But all this does not negate the main thing - they should still be perceived as losses, as evil, even if at this stage this evil is inevitable.

Often the concept of waste is limited only to production processes, even at the level of terminology, the term “lean production” is used, and not “lean management”. But these approaches are fully applicable to any kind of activity. Below is an example of the interpretation of the main types of losses for classic office activities related to the creation of various documents and workflow. Often in such activities, the level of losses can be even higher than in production.

Expectation

Employees don't do their jobs because required documents, information, instructions have not yet reached them; employee downtime due to poor work planning, postponing it “for tomorrow”

Excessive movements

Search for information, other performers, managers who must endorse the document, etc.

Fixes

Approval of documents, their return from approval and revision

Overprocessing

Including redundant information in a document

Overproduction

Creation of redundant documents (for example, reports that no one will read)

Documents lying motionless pending consideration, approval, preparation of a response, etc.

Transportation

Moving documents between departments and employees

Given the described understanding of losses, one can immediately note the main thing: in any organization there are many losses, and, consequently, opportunities for improving efficiency. Sometimes it feels like value-creating activities are small “islands” in a sea of organizational losses. Almost any construction site: you can calculate at any point in time what percentage of employees and construction equipment performs work related to adding value - most often the percentage will be low.

Perhaps the main task for the organization is not even to master some special tools for identifying and reducing losses, but simply to learn to “feel” them, to perceive them as losses, and not as an integral part of the activity. Such an understanding can open up many new opportunities for the organization to improve its activities, including its radical fundamental revision.

Approaches to identifying losses in an organization

Although each organization independently determines for itself approaches to identifying losses, there are general concepts that allow you to systematically find losses, including those that are not obvious.

The first step to identifying waste in an organization's operations is to have a clear understanding of the values perceived by customers. After all, without such an understanding, it is impossible to say whether a certain activity creates value for consumers or relates to losses. First of all, this concerns the losses associated with excessive processing. We must be prepared for the fact that different categories of consumers may have significantly different ideas about values. Therefore, trying to offer everyone a typical product, the organization will generate a large number of losses - we must strive to give each consumer exactly what he needs. For example, for a restaurant visitor who came there for the sole purpose of having dinner, any delays will be perceived as a loss. If he came there to spend time in a pleasant environment, then it is the pauses between serving dishes that can be the main value. It is clear that the service processes for these two types of visitors should be completely different.

After defining customer value, the organization must identify the stream of value creation. This flow starts from the moment when the organization learned about the existence of the need (or predicted it), and ends when the need is fully satisfied. In the most common case, this looks like a flow from the receipt of the consumer's order to the fulfillment of this order. Sometimes the flow starts from the moment when the need first arose. This is especially true for flows focused on the internal consumer: for example, the equipment maintenance flow can begin not from the receipt of a request for service, but from the moment when the equipment began to need service. In this case, as part of the definition of the flow, it will be considered how and how quickly the need for service is detected and an application is submitted, what losses occur at this stage.

The question arises about the relationship between flows, in understanding lean management and process approach. In order not to complicate the organization management system, it is advisable to combine these two concepts: processes and flows can coincide. But to do this, an organization may need to rethink its process structure. After all, even the main stream of value creation for external consumers can be broken down into several processes based on the functional structure: receiving a consumer order, designing, manufacturing, shipping products. And at the same time, it remains unclear: how the fulfillment of all the promises given to the consumer is ensured within the agreed time frame, who designs joint activities all participants in the process to meet these requirements, how losses are detected and eliminated, including at the junctions between processes. Without going deep into this topic, it is worth noting that the definition of end-to-end processes (in English end-to-end processes) and especially a single process of creating value for an external consumer (in English order-to-cash) is considered to be a good process management practice in the world. process, the process from application to payment), as opposed to functional processes.

After identifying the flows and appointing managers responsible for their improvement, the organization can begin to analyze them and search for losses in them. The basic idea is extremely simple - you need to map the flow and highlight on it activities that do not add value and relate to losses of the first or second types. However, there are two conditions necessary for successful flow analysis to be taken into account.

First, the flow map must be sufficiently detailed (much more detailed than traditional process maps in quality management systems). After all, losses are integrated into all types of activities of the organization, respectively, when describing the flow in large blocks, they will simply be invisible. For example, by including one block “Receiving an application from a consumer” in the flow map, the organization simply will not see the possible losses associated with checking this application, its approval, waiting for its consideration, its transfer between departments, etc. Particular attention should be paid to actions that are clearly related to losses. For example, if it is about material flow, such actions may include:

storage (where exactly? how long? in what quantity?);
transportation (at what distance? in what batches?);
loading and unloading;
verification (how? against what criteria? what happens if the results are negative?).

Second, it is important that the flow map reflects the actual state of the flow, and not top management's ideas about the flow. The best way for this - mapping the flow directly at the place of its flow (the Japanese term, which is now used without translation all over the world - in gemba). The team responsible for analyzing and improving the flow can simply go “downstream” through all the services, workshops, warehouses, laboratories through which the product passes: from the place of receipt of the application or receipt of raw materials to the place of transfer of the finished product to the consumer. If the trip turns out to be very long and tiring, so much the better, its participants will have more time and motivation to think about the need to reduce the flow. It is useful to go this way with a camera or video camera, simultaneously fixing all points of flow delays (first of all, all points of storage). It's safe to say that in many organizations, leaders are simply unaware of how work is actually done, so a walk like this can bring in a lot of new information.

After mapping the flow and highlighting the losses in it, you can analyze its effectiveness. Flow evaluation criteria can be:

total flow time;
the proportion of flow time during which value is added to the product;
the total distance that the product travels within the flow;
the number of times the product is "picked up" (shifted from place to place) within the flow and the % of times this is done to add value to the product.

Once flow losses are identified, the organization can initiate projects to reduce or eliminate them. Within the framework of lean management, a large number of specific methods and tools have been developed that allow a variety of organizations to achieve this goal. They relate to the interaction of the organization with suppliers and consumers, and production planning, and equipment management, and internal logistics and many other aspects of the organization's activities. Often they require a radical change in traditional ideas about the work of the organization. But a detailed analysis of such tools is beyond the scope of this article.

Once again, we note that all of the above applies to any flows in the organization's activities, including flows oriented to internal consumers. For example, the flow from the appearance of a vacancy to its filling, from the breakdown of equipment to its restoration, from the decision of the management to its implementation.

As an example, consider the flow associated with the purchase of materials and components: from the emergence of a need for them to ensuring their availability in the right quantity and with the right quality. If you leave in the flow only actions that directly affect the achievement ultimate goal, then it will become very simple: employees of the organization who are "located next to the raw materials" and see that its quantity has become less than the need for the near future (most likely it can be employees from the first stage of the production process or directly from the warehouse of raw materials) contact directly for the production of the supplier company with an application for the manufacture and supply of the required amount of raw materials. When the raw material is manufactured, it is delivered to the production of the consumer organization. Most of the large Japanese enterprises operate according to this scheme. All other steps associated with the participation in the flow of the organization's supply service, sales service and the supplier's production service are considered losses that delay the execution of the flow.

Loss detection and improvement

One of the challenges faced by organizations trying to implement systemic continual improvement in their operations is finding areas for improvement. The organization has established improvement teams, their members have received appropriate training and are ready to work, but no one can come up with an important and interesting project for improvement; sometimes you can hear the words “we are working successfully, we have no serious problems, minor overlays are eliminated in the working mode - why should we change something else?”

Without a doubt, an organization that has implemented lean management approaches and learned to see its losses will never ask such questions. These approaches can provide the organization with ideas and opportunities for improvement for many years to come.

At the same time, it is important not just to wave a saber and set tasks to completely abandon the stocks of raw materials and finished products, from quality control and supervision of employees over the production process. Rather, you need to consistently ask yourself questions like:

Why can't we reduce stocks of finished goods and what needs to be changed to reduce them?
Why should we make products in batches and what needs to be changed to reduce their size?
Why do we control product quality and what needs to be changed to reduce the amount of control?
Why do employees monitor production equipment, which works without their intervention, and what needs to be changed so that one employee can monitor a large number of pieces of equipment?

By systematically finding answers to these questions and implementing appropriate changes, an organization can improve the most diverse aspects of its activities and, as a result, constantly reduce inventories, expectations, remediation and other types of waste.

An important advantage of approaches related to the identification and elimination of losses is that they can be used at all levels of management of the organization. For example, consider a variation of the value stream (from raw materials to finished products) in a machine tool industry. Top management enterprises can focus on losses associated with the storage of raw materials and products in warehouses, the supply of batches of raw materials from suppliers and the accumulation of batches for shipment to consumers, the need to control raw materials and products in the laboratory, etc. At the same time, the entire presence of raw materials / products in the shop can be considered a value-adding activity.

From the point of view of shop management, losses are the storage of raw materials and products in the shop, intra-shop logistics, the accumulation of inventories of work in progress between operations on different machines, etc. A value-adding activity can be considered to be “in the workplace”.

But even this action, from the point of view of the worker, breaks down into many small steps, many of which are losses: taking the workpiece out of the box, placing it on the machine, starting the machine, stopping the machine to control the quality of the part and the control itself, etc.

Thus, the entire staff of the enterprise: from CEO before the worker can participate in activities to identify losses and their subsequent elimination. And the fact that all employees can perform similar work to achieve common goals, using uniform approaches and tools, will only strengthen team spirit in the enterprise: the feeling that everyone is pulling the same rope in the same direction.

Another important point related to lean management and continuous improvement is the attitude of the organization to problems. The culture of many post-Soviet organizations is oriented towards coexistence with problems and protection from them; often such protection is associated with losses, primarily with overproduction and stocks. A culture of continuous improvement requires active position aimed at eliminating problems and their causes.

For example, an organization is known to occasionally produce nonconforming products and equipment may break down. What conclusions can the “traditional post-Soviet organization” draw from this: it is necessary to have a stock of finished products to compensate for inconsistencies, and excess production capacity to compensate for equipment breakdowns. The logic of a lean organization can be the opposite (this logic is especially typical for the Japanese): the presence of stocks of finished products allows us to ignore the release of non-conforming products, put up with it - which means that these stocks must be reduced (burn bridges). Due to this, the problems will become more acute and noticeable, the organization will no longer be able to put up with it and will be forced to reduce the level of inconsistencies.

Lean management and customer orientation

It is worth noting the connection between lean management and customer orientation of the organization. Traditionally, the objectives of reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction have been seen as independent, and sometimes conflicting. But within the framework of lean management, they are completely combined. Not without reason, one of the definitions of lean management is a system in which an organization does only what the consumer needs, only when the consumer needs it, and only in the amount in which the consumer needs it. What is really interesting and important is the fact that by setting any of the above goals (reducing costs or satisfying customers) and consistently solving it, organizations come to the same conclusion - to lean management.

Target lean manufacturing- identify, analyze and eliminate all losses in the production process. Waste is all activities that require time and resources but do not add value. finished goods or services. The consumer pays for value; Waste is any transaction your organization does with a product or service that your customers may be paying for when they shouldn't be. Organizational losses have to be paid by consumers.

Let's look at six of the most common types of waste that can be found in any organization, in any industry, as well as practical methods for eliminating them.

1. Overproduction

Doing a certain type of work before it is required is a waste. This is the worst of all kinds of losses, because overproduction leads to other losses. For example, if you prepare an offer for a client before he makes a request, there are losses of the following types: excessive processing, movement, movement, etc. To understand what operations you need and which you should refuse, you must clearly understand what you are doing and what your client needs.

Examples of overproduction:

writing reports that no one reads and that no one needs;
making extra copies of documents;
sending the same document e-mail or fax several times;
entering repetitive information into multiple documents;
pointless meetings.

Tools to eliminate overproduction:

standardized work;
workload balancing;
study of the need for a particular operation.

2. Waiting

Any expectation (of people, signatures, information, etc.) is a loss. This type of loss can be compared to a low-hanging apple, which is easy to reach, pick and use for its intended purpose. Often we do not consider the source of paper waste lying in the incoming document tray. However, remember how many times we sort through this tray, trying to find something we need? How many times do you start something before you finish it? To get rid of this type of loss, it is necessary to follow the principle of "finished - filed (or thrown away)".

Examples of losses of the second type:

a large number of mandatory signatures and permits;
dependence on other employees in the performance of any task;
delays in obtaining information;
software problems;
performance of the task by different departments;

Tools for eliminating losses of the second type:

value stream map;
couriers;
document management system.

3. Movement

Any movement of people, documents and/or exchange electronic messages that do not create value are waste. This type of waste occurs due to poor office layout, faulty or outdated office equipment, and lack of necessary supplies. These losses are insidious and imperceptible in those office processes that have not been analyzed for possible improvements. Regardless of the industry, you can find employees in a company who look "busy" but don't really add value to the product or service. Lean tools can help you identify, reduce, and/or eliminate Type 3 waste.

Examples of losses of the third type:

search for files on the computer;
search for documents in the file cabinet;
constant re-reading of directories / databases in search of information;
performance of one task by different departments in the absence of effective interaction;
lack of responsibility for the performance of any task.

Tools for eliminating losses of the third type:

standardized work;
redevelopment of the workspace;
kanban cards for stationery;
document tracking.

4. Move

Useless movement of documents affects the time required to complete any work in the office. Even with free access to the Internet and e-mail, documents of little or no value are often sent to clients. For organization effective work it is important to reduce or eliminate this type of waste, for which all work should be divided into successive operations and arranged as far as possible closer friend to friend. If it is impossible to get rid of the movement of documents between processes, then it should be automated as much as possible.

Examples of losses of the fourth type:

sending unnecessary documents;
too frequent registration of documents in progress;
manual transfer of documents to the next stage of work;
performance of one task by several departments;
wrong prioritization.

Tools for eliminating losses of the fourth type:

uniform distribution of the workload;
document management system;
standardized work;
means of visual control.

5. Marriage

Waste due to defects includes any action that resulted in defects and the additional processing required to correct them. Rejection (both internal and external) entails additional document processing that does not add value to the product or service. Getting a job right the first time takes less time than redoing it. Correction of marriage is a waste that increases the cost of any product or service, and the consumer does not have to pay for them. Losses of this kind can significantly reduce profits.

Examples of losses of the fifth type:

data entry errors;
errors in setting prices;
transfer of incomplete documentation to the next stages of processing;
loss of documents or information;
incorrect information in the document;
inefficient organization of files on a computer or folders in a file cabinet;
improper selection of employees for customer service.

Tools for eliminating losses of the fifth type:

providing a predictable result;
means of visual control;
standardized work;
document management system;
log of stops and unscheduled jobs;
short organizational meetings;
error prevention tools.

6. Irrational use of labor force

Human labor is used irrationally when workers perform tasks that do not require all their knowledge, skills and abilities to create value. A proper performance management system can greatly reduce this type of waste. Develop a strategy and methodology for assigning people to areas where they will bring the most value to the organization.

Examples of losses of the sixth type:

violation of the deadlines for the implementation of projects;
uneven distribution of the workload due to insufficiently broad staff qualifications;
frequent absenteeism and high staff turnover;
inadequate performance management system;
insufficient assessment of professional skills before hiring.

Tools for elimination of losses of the sixth type:

accounting of work processes;
standardized work;
document management system;
short organizational meetings;
rationale for moving to a lean office.

Think about the following questions:

What losses can be eliminated quickly?
What can be done to improve customer satisfaction immediately?

Lean manufacturing is about eliminating waste. What does the word "loss" mean? The article will help you understand the types of losses, show examples in the life around you, and also teach you how to count the money that the company loses because of them. You are offered to help required for download).

Most of the material on this subject, presented in books, describes in detail the losses in production processes. therefore, we would like to talk about losses, first of all, in office processes, in the processes of providing services - where we encounter them on a daily basis.

First, let's define the wording.Any activity that takes place in the process of making a product or providing a service consumes resources but does not create value for the customer. Those. actions you can do without.

At present, Lean manufacturing distinguishes eight types of losses.

EXPECTATION

The most common type of loss in office activities isexpectation . We all know that if you need to agree on a contract in several departments, then you will have to wait a long time. Employees usually take their time. Each department, having received a document, for starters .... just put it aside ... after all, no one is going to drop their affairs, which are already in progress, and immediately begin to consider a new document. Therefore, the contract will first lie down for a day or two, and then it will be considered. As soon as the case is transferred to the next department, everything repeats ...

Moreover, each of the employees of the department is sincerely sure that he works as efficiently as possible. Indeed, everyone is constantly busy analyzing a document. But no one pays attention to the fact that in our negotiation process, the contract lies for several days, waits and nothing happens to it ... Imagine, if we remove all expectations, then how quickly we could receive the necessary documents, services ... How far we could overtake competitors!

Visiting any public institution also does not do without this type of loss. And it doesn't matter if we have a queue with a time stamp or not, we still face a wait. First, we wait in line at the reception to receive a card and coupon, then in front of the doctor's office. Again, it is possible that at this moment all employees are working and very busy, but we, as customers, are forced to wait and lose our time. And, of course, we are not ready to pay our money for this expectation.

From practice: in office processes, losses from waiting reach 60-80% of the time of the entire process. That is, if we conclude a contract for 10 days, then 6 days of them the contract lies on the tables. Do you think the client is willing to pay for it?

And in our daily life, any queue, whether it be to the checkout of a store, to a gas station, or a frozen computer, is all a waste of our time.

Calculation: Let's take a very average salary an employee of 24 thousand rubles, with an average rate of working hours per month of 160, we get the cost of 1 man-hour of an employee at 150 rubles.

Employees received an invitation to a meeting. , i.e. sorry - delayed 🙂, for half an hour. Everyone is waiting for his arrival.

Direct losses from waiting:

That's the cost of waiting at the door for just one meeting. And how many such meetings per month, year? and perhaps some directors consider it bad form to arrive on time ...

The presence of losses in the process leads not only to monetary losses (the so-called -direct losses), but also to indirect losses— which cannot be valued in rubles, but which affect the company's image, customer loyalty, competitive advantage:

Sequencing	The time when the contract lies and is waiting for processing	Time of processing
The client submitted the contract for approval to the department		1 minute
The contract lies on the table and waits until the boss is released.	3 hours
The head of the department determined the contractor		1 minute
The contract lies on the table and waits for the contractor to complete the previously started cases	3 hours
The contractor prepares a conclusion and submits the decision to the head for approval		2 hours
The contract lies on the table and waits until the head is released	3 hours
The manager approves the conclusion and informs the client		5 minutes
Total	9 o'clock	2 hours 7 minutes
Total process time	11 hours 7 minutes

Please note: only 2 hours out of 11 with the document pass real work , and that's all 18% of the total duration. The rest of the time the papers “stupidly” lie and wait. And the client is also waiting ...

How many more customers do you think the company would have if the conclusions always done in 2 hours?

In my question, there are two keywords: first - ALWAYS - means the same in duration for each performance, and the second - 2 hours - this is minimum time execution of the process in the absence of waiting time losses.

Well, how? Is it possible to implement a process without waiting for the client?

DEFECTS

The following type of losses is quite difficult to observe in the office, but in fact it is very common -defects are the manufacture of a product or the provision of a service with errors that require additional resources to correct them . Defects always entail additional processing, which only increases the cost of production and lengthens the process time. After all, it takes less time to do everything right the first time than to do it wrong first and then redo it.

In production, fixing defects is easier: the master handed over 10 blanks to the machine in the morning, and in the evening received 9 processed and 1 defective, not accepted by the controller. And in the office everything is more hidden from prying eyes: an employee sits, looks at the computer, what does he do there? It can be difficult to understand. When providing services, the client can usually see and notice an error only at the final stage. But how many errors were identified and corrected in the course of execution by the performers themselves - usually this is not even recorded. Employees themselves are not interested in informing management about their "jambs", easier to remake in a quiet way.

From practice: The bank uses the services of an insurance company to arrange insurance for non-real estate when concluding mortgage agreements. Bank employees constantly complain among themselves about the high level of defective documents from the insurance company. The management does not respond to complaints, as there is no documentary evidence. After collecting and recording data on insurance policy revisions for a month, there were found errors in 95% of documents. For a bank (as well as for an insurance company) this is a huge loss of resources: after all, all documents had to be redone, coordinated with clients, and often with the registration chamber, which, of course, affected the time for issuing a loan and the cost of the operation for the bank. Realizing the terrible statistics, the bank's managers set strict conditions for the heads of the insurance company about the need for more than 5% of cases.

And here are examples from life: mistakes when placing price tags on goods in a store (provided that this was not done on purpose), as well as the loss of test results or an outpatient card in a polyclinic.

Calculation:

Parameter for calculation	Meaning
Number of insurance policies (= number of mortgages), per year	10 000
The time spent by a bank employee to identify an error and “kick” the insurance company	10 minutes = 0.17 hours
Waiting time for the bank and the client - while the insurance company remakes the policy	0.5 days
Time to prepare (remake) 1 insurance policy by the insurance company	10 minutes
The cost of additional materials (valuable form, cartridge ....) per 1 insurance policy	20 rubles
The cost of 1 man-hour of a bank employee	150 rub
*Calculation*	**10,000 pieces 0.17 hours* 150 rubles***
Total loss of the bank	255,000 rubles per year
Total loss of insurance payment for alterations to employees	255,000 rubles per year
Total insurance loss for additional materials	200,000 rubles per year
Additional loss of time from waiting for the client	0.5 days

OVER PROCESSING

The next type of loss isredundant processing - performing operations that are not necessary for the client, which as a result lead to a delay in the entire process , and also, often, additionally bureaucratizes the process.

For example, in large companies when signing an agreement, in addition to direct executors in the economic, legal and accounting departments, a visa of the head of this department is also required. Everyone understands that this is the case, but traditions require it ... and each additional visa is both the time until the documents are “cured” on the table and the price of the working time of the leader himself.

Or more real experience: every day the office collects documents on customer transactions for the day and puts them in a certain order - this takes 15-20 minutes, i.e. for a month about 8 hours or a whole working day. Finished documents are sent to the accounting department. Imagine our surprise when we found out that the accounting department, having received beautifully folded pieces of paper, pours everything on the table into one big pile and sorts it according to a completely different principle!

Another example: this is the duplication of information, contracts in electronic and
paper form, and sometimes also in scanned form - just in case. We spend and we pay for the time of employees for actions that are not needed by the client and which only complicate our processes.

Calculation: The price of a formal signature: on the prepared contract for the provision of bank services, first the performer signed, then formally - the head of the office.

Parameter for calculation	Meaning
Number of contracts, per year	6 000
Manager's time spent on approval of 1 contract	1 minute = 0.017 hours
Waiting time for the client - until the manager is free

Lean

Lean(lean production, lean manufacturing - English. Lean- “skinny, slim, no fat”; in Russia, the translation “thrifty” is used, there are also variants “slim”, “sparing”, “prudent”, in addition, there is a variant with transliteration - “lin”) - a management concept based on a steady desire to eliminate all types of losses. Lean production involves the involvement of each employee in the process of optimizing the business and maximum customer orientation.

Lean manufacturing is an interpretation of the ideas of the Toyota Production System by American researchers of the Toyota phenomenon.

Key Aspects of Lean Manufacturing

The starting point of lean manufacturing is customer value.

Value is the utility inherent in the product from the customer's point of view. Value is created by the manufacturer as a result of a series of sequential actions.

The heart of lean manufacturing is the process of eliminating waste.

Losses is any activity that consumes resources but does not create value for the consumer.

Losses in Japanese are called muda- a Japanese word that means waste, waste, that is, any activity that consumes resources but does not create value. For example, the consumer does not need at all that the finished product or its parts are in stock. However, under the traditional management system, warehouse costs, as well as all costs associated with rework, scrap, and other indirect costs are passed on to the consumer.

In accordance with the concept of lean manufacturing, all activities of an enterprise can be classified as follows: operations and processes that add value to the consumer, and operations and processes that do not add value to the consumer. Consequently, anything that does not add value to the customer is classified as a waste and should be eliminated.

Types of losses

Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990), father production system Toyota and lean manufacturing, being an ardent fighter against losses, identified 7 types of them:

1. losses due to overproduction;

2. loss of time due to waiting;

3. loss due to unnecessary transportation;

4. losses due to unnecessary processing steps;

5. losses due to excess inventory;

6. losses due to unnecessary movements;

7. losses due to the release of defective products.

Jeffrey Liker, who along with Jim Womack and Daniel Jones has extensively researched the Toyota manufacturing experience, pointed out in the book " Tao of Toyota» 8th type of losses:

unrealized creative potential of employees.

It is also customary to single out 2 more sources of losses - muri and mura, which mean, respectively, " overload" and " irregularity»:

mura- uneven work performance, such as a fluctuating work schedule, caused not by fluctuations in end-user demand, but rather by the characteristics of the production system, or an uneven pace of work on an operation, forcing operators to rush first and then wait. In many cases, managers are able to eliminate unevenness by leveling out scheduling and being mindful of the pace of work.

Muri- overloading of equipment or operators that occurs when working at a higher speed or pace and with greater effort over a long period of time - compared to the design load (design, labor standards).

Only the most gullible citizens of Ukraine have no doubts about the veracity of the announced figures of losses during the war in Donbass. They have always been underestimated, and this, in general, is normal, everyone always does this. However, the real picture can be approximately restored by the method of analysis. open information, comparing it with the stories of those who visited the site of the ATO, and many other data published in order to create the illusion of transparency. Some of what is being told to the public is still true.

Official figures

At the beginning of the year, President Poroshenko called the number "2269", this happened during the "Lesson of Courage" with students of military institutions in Kyiv. At this point, there have already been several cases when large military formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fell into encirclement. There were seven such episodes in total, but three are considered the largest (Izvarinsky, Ilovaisky and Debaltsevsky). Of course, volunteers and soldiers died not only in “cauldrons”, but also in ordinary battles, but even if we take into account the approximate number of personnel who fell into them and compare them with the number of those who managed to escape, the figure will be much larger than announced by the head of state. However, Poroshenko was not noticed at all in a special love of truth, therefore, every citizen of Ukraine has the right to be critical of his words. The servicemen who took part in the ATO at the same time called other figures, in their opinion, the losses could not be less than ten thousand. It's just the dead. About the wounded, a separate conversation. One thing is clear, the official figure, later increased to almost three thousand, cannot be trusted.

Data from one hospital

Administrative structures are arranged in such a way that, on the one hand, they, of course, act in the interests of the state, and on the other hand, they always want to report on their outstanding achievements, so that everyone can see that they are not eating their bread for nothing. This is what the command of the Kharkiv military hospital did, reporting that since the start of the ATO in this medical institution Sixteen thousand defenders of the motherland received help and received treatment. This information can really be trusted - military doctors usually do not deal with postscripts, but they also have no reason to underestimate their merits. The Kharkiv hospital is really large, probably the largest in Ukraine, but besides it, there are also Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa and several other specialized institutions, including those in close proximity to the theater of operations, involved in urgent traumatic surgery. It should also be borne in mind that not all who enter army medical institutions are the wounded, of course there are many of them, but there are also simply sick people.

Wounded, killed and dead

So, the total number of "three hundredths", that is, the wounded, as they say knowledgeable people, can be obtained by multiplying the number of patients in the Kharkiv hospital by about four. This number will include people affected in varying degrees, from those crippled for life, to those undergoing in-depth examinations for suitability in military service. Those who died from wounds, by the way, are no longer included in the statistics of irretrievable losses, they are simply considered dead. That is, they, of course, gave the most precious thing they had for their homeland, but this, as it were, does not count. Even the most cursory calculation indicates a much greater reliability of unofficial figures than the data that are voiced by the command and the Ukrainian president. Losses killed in any way can not be less than ten thousand. More is possible...

Why military police?

Interesting information is also contained, it would seem, in such a boringly abstract document as the “Strategic Defense Bulletin”, introduced by President Poroshenko after approval on May 20 by the National Defense and Security Council. It contains various measures to bring the army in line with NATO standards, rearmament, and so on, but there is also a completely unusual paragraph that talks about the creation of the Military Police. In the past, law enforcement functions were performed by patrols. Finally, there is the Military Prosecutor's Office. Now there will also be a special police force. This may indicate that some measures need to be taken, and urgently, before 2018. And then there is the speech of the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios.

Prosecutor and non-combat losses

On May 5, the chief military prosecutor named a figure that can also be trusted. According to him, the non-combat losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the ATO exceeded a thousand people. And another three thousand wounded, maimed as a result of various accidents, which have already become the subject of routine proceedings. Soldiers and officers are careless with weapons, beat each other for nothing, relationships develop between them, which are usually delicately called hazing, and show a strange tendency to suicidal behavior. All of this could be a serious topic. dissertation work military psychologists and psychiatrists, closed, of course, and classified, if it were not already clear what is the root of evil.

Who are the "avatars"?

In modern Ukrainian army like to use the names of movie characters to refer to entire classes of military personnel. “Cyborgs” first called those who defended the Donetsk airport, and then in general all the participants in the hostilities, everything is clear with this. There is another category, these are "avatars". These are, as a rule, mobilized reservists, distinguished by their characteristic unnatural complexion. Perhaps the association with fantastic movie characters is also caused by a specific expression on their faces, who knows, but their main difference is precisely in the special shade of the skin, which gives them fans of strong drinks of any type, from hawthorn tincture to moonshine. They are usually, despite the already mature age, ordinary soldiers or sergeants, but there are also officers, and then it is very difficult to envy their subordinates. They bring a lot of misfortunes to the army, they themselves die and become the cause of death of both military personnel and civilians. These are terrible people.

Examples

There are many of them, and, by the way, they are presented quite officially and extremely honestly, in contrast to the bravura stories about great military feats. Matios said that on the night of January 17 this year, in the front line, after excessive drinking, sixteen military men went to sleep in a house abandoned by the residents and occupied by them on the outskirts of the village, leaving two on patrol. There they kindled the stove, but they did it clumsily, they did not check the draft, and the chimney damper was closed. As a result, the entire unit died to death, and those who remained in the trench did not escape either, although they had a chance, they froze. On another occasion, tragedy occurred under even more trivial circumstances. The soldiers were warming themselves near the stove in the dugout, their comrade came up and threw a grant into the "potbelly stove". 13 people died. Drunkenness was blamed. It's clear that the prosecutor Matthias could not tell different stories for a very long time. And probably didn't want to.

Realities and illusions

By publishing figures reflecting the real situation in the ATO zone, Ukrainian leaders of various ranks (in this case Kharkiv hospital and the military prosecutor's office) imprudently give rise to logical constructions, as a result of which a horrific picture arises, contradicting the one that the optimistic media are trying to convey to the population. The main purpose of raising morale is to convince the people of the need to continue the war. That is why the attacks on Savchenko, who is very timidly trying to reason logically and in fact, to the best of her ability, wants to understand the reasons for the completely hopeless situation in the country. And such a bad situation will continue until people begin to think with their own heads and analyze at least what they are told. In principle, this information is quite enough.