ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to illustrate what happens when there is no investment in the manufacturing process. It discusses two concepts: misconception of working hard and living with waste. Processes with a high level of waste, as a whole, force people to “work hard” to get their jobs done. A side effect of working hard is working fast, and the two together can negatively impact the way employees gauge their performance. Batch-processed environments produce huge lots of product before changing to another type. The idea is to keep the machines running making work-in-process or finished goods. Organizations that are living with overproduction have an array of problems. Manufacturers that are heavily equipment based or have mostly automated processes often are living with overproduction due to downtime. Living with this overproduction forced the company to physically alter the layout and floor space used to allow for it.
