Regarding the ninth waste, Paul is right. I went easy with my comments. I don’t buy Norman’s argument of “resistance” and saying, “No.” Norman keeps looking for an explanation as to why firms are not making more progress with lean. To him it is the obvious course of action. “Resistance” is Norman’s explanation as to why we aren’t making more progress. I have another view. I’ll express it in a future posting.

In the meantime, read Norman’s Industry Week essay.

I definitely agree with you that Norman Bodek has a great talent for putting his message across through his story telling. however I think you are being a little kind by indicating that he has invented both the 8th and 9th forms of waste.

In saying this, I cite your 2004 paper with Greg Howell - “TWO GREAT WASTES IN ORGANIZATIONS” - where you identify a number of attempts to define an 8th waste, including “the design of goods and services that don’t meet the users’ needs.” [Womack & Jones 1996] and “making do” [Koskela 2004].

However, if for the sake of discussion, we agree that the concept behind the term “the underutilized talents of workers” - also described as the “Underutilization of Human Potential” or the “untapped inventiveness, talents, and wisdom” of those involved in the process - is the official 8th waste, then surely (as you indicated in that paper) we need to consider Henry Ford as the originator of this concept… which (back in 1926) was well before anyone even thought about the term “lean”.

As for “Saying No” being the 9th waste, is this not just an extension of “Not Listening” - what you described as being the “first great waste”??? The reason I ask this is because of what Norman describes as the consequences of “Saying No” (”Not Listening”)… people stop contributing altogether or in other words are “Not Speaking” the “second great waste”!!!

Maybe its just me… but I don’t see “Saying No” (”Not Listening”) as being a separate definitive waste. What I do see it as however, is a major contributing factor to the waste of human potential - the 8th Waste and possibly the biggest waste of all!!!