← More Toolbox Talks
📱
Best viewed in landscape & full screen
Rotate your phone sideways, then tap the button below for the best experience. You can also swipe left/right to navigate slides.
Continue without full screen
📋 Toolbox Talk  ·  Continuous Improvement

Lean Basics:
See the Waste, Then Remove It

What Lean means on the shop floor — value from the customer's point of view, flow, pull and the 8 wastes, with examples from a warehouse and a production line.

✅ Updated October 2026📚 Lean & continuous improvement🏭 Warehouse · logistics · manufacturingukworkrights.co.uk

Talk 1 of 7 in the Continuous Improvement series  ·  a working method, not legal guidance

What it is

Lean in one sentence

  • Lean is a way of working that removes waste, so more of everyone's time goes on work the customer actually values
  • It grew out of the Toyota Production System and is now used in warehouses, factories, hospitals and offices
  • Value is defined by the customer: anything they would not pay for if they saw it happening is waste
  • Flow means work moves through the process without stopping, waiting or going backwards
  • Pull means making or moving only what the next step needs, when it needs it, rather than pushing work out to build stock
  • Perfection is a direction, not a target: there is always another improvement to find

The five principles

The book Lean Thinking (Womack and Jones, 1996) set out five principles: identify value, map the value stream, make it flow, let the customer pull, and pursue perfection.
Why it matters

Why Lean is worth the effort

  • Waste hides inside normal routines — 'that's just how we do it' is where most of it lives
  • Removing waste makes the job easier, safer and less frustrating, not just quicker
  • Lean is about taking effort out of the job, not pushing people to go faster
  • The people doing the work see the waste first — Lean depends on their ideas
  • Less stock, less double handling and fewer defects mean fewer chances for accidents and errors
  • Customers notice: orders arrive on time, complete and right first time

⚠ Respect for people

Respect for people is the other half of Lean. If people think an idea will cost a colleague their job, the ideas stop coming. Be clear about what any freed-up time will be used for.
The 8 wastes

TIMWOODS: the 8 wastes to look for

  • T — Transport: moving materials, pallets or parts further or more often than needed
  • I — Inventory: more stock or work-in-progress than the next step needs — it takes space and hides problems
  • M — Motion: people bending, reaching, searching or walking more than the job needs
  • W — Waiting: people or machines idle, waiting for parts, information, approval or a forklift
  • O — Over-production: making or picking more, or earlier, than the customer needs — often called the worst waste because it creates the others
  • O — Over-processing: doing more than the customer needs — extra checks, double wrapping, re-keying data
  • D — Defects: errors, damage, mis-picks and rework, plus the time spent finding and fixing them
  • S — Skills (unused): not using people's knowledge, ideas and experience
How to do it

How to start seeing waste

1
Go and see

Walk the process where the work happens. Watch a real job from start to finish.

2
Ask what the customer pays for

For each step: does it change the product or service in a way the customer wants?

3
Tag the wastes

Note each one against TIMWOODS. Count them; don't argue about them yet.

4
Pick one, with the team

Choose a waste that is frequent, annoying and within the team's control.

5
Try a change and measure it

Agree a simple measure — walking, waiting, mis-picks — try it for a week and compare.

6
Keep what works

Write the new way into the standard and share it.

Necessary steps stay

Some steps add no value for the customer but must stay — safety checks, inspections, required records. Keep them and make them quick; never cut them as 'waste'.
Worked example  ·  Warehouse

A pick face that walks people too far

  • What we saw: pickers walking to the far end of the aisle for the handful of products on almost every order
  • Slow sellers sat in the best locations next to dispatch, and pickers queued at the printer for pick lists
  • Wastes tagged: Motion, Transport and Waiting
  • What we tried: moved the fastest-moving lines nearest dispatch and sent pick lists to the handheld scanners
  • Heavy fast movers went between knee and shoulder height, cutting bending at the same time

What changed

Less walking per order and no printer queue. The team re-checks the slotting regularly, because what sells fastest changes with the seasons.
Worked example  ·  Manufacturing

Work piling up between two machines

  • What we saw: a press making batches of 500 parts while the welding cell after it used about 50 an hour (example figures)
  • Racks of part-finished stock blocked a walkway and were moved twice a shift by forklift
  • A wrong press setting made a whole batch faulty before welding spotted it
  • Wastes tagged: Over-production, Inventory, Transport and Defects
  • What we tried: smaller batches, quicker changeovers, and a marked floor square for a set number of parts — when it is full, the press stops

What changed

Less stock between the machines, a clear walkway, and faults found after a handful of parts instead of a whole batch. The marked square made the pull rule visible to everyone.
Common mistakes

What goes wrong

  • Treating Lean as cost cutting — people stop sharing ideas the moment it feels like a threat
  • Copying the tools without the thinking — a board or a workshop on its own changes nothing
  • Deciding from the office instead of going to see the work
  • Speeding people up instead of taking waste out of the job
  • Big launch, no follow-through — a burst of activity, then back to the old way
  • Cutting necessary steps, such as safety checks, because they 'add no value'

⚠ Watch for this

If a change makes the job harder, riskier or more stressful for the person doing it, it is not Lean — it is just pressure.
Try it this week

A 10-minute waste walk

1
Pick one process

One route, one bench, one desk or one pick wave.

2
Watch for 10 minutes

Just watch — no fixing yet. Note every waste against TIMWOODS.

3
Share it with the team

Put the list up and ask which waste annoys people most.

4
Agree one small fix

Something the team can try within a week without spending money.

Bring it back

What did you see most often? What did you try? What happened? One small change that worked is the best start there is.
Over to you

Discussion questions

  • Which of the 8 wastes do you see most in your own job?
  • What do you do every day that a customer would never pay for?
  • Where do you wait most during a shift — and what are you waiting for?
  • What idea have you had that never got heard?
  • If you could remove one frustration from your job tomorrow, what would it be?

For the presenter

Write the answers up where everyone can see them. Thank people for every idea, even ones you can't use, and say what happens next.
Quick check

Check your understanding

1
Who decides what counts as value?

A) The manager    B) The customer    C) The finance team

2
What does the W in TIMWOODS stand for?

A) Workload    B) Waiting    C) Wear and tear

3
Making 500 parts when the next step needs 50 is:

A) Inventory    B) Over-production    C) Waiting

4
A pre-use forklift check adds no value for the customer. Should Lean remove it?

A) Yes    B) No — it is a necessary safety step    C) Only on night shift

Answers

1 B  ·  2 B  ·  3 B  ·  4 B
Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Is Lean just about doing things faster?
No. Lean is about removing waste so the work flows. Often the job gets easier as well as quicker. Pushing people to work faster without changing the process is not Lean and usually creates mistakes and injuries.
Does Lean only work in factories?
No. It started in car manufacturing, but the same ideas — customer value, flow and the 8 wastes — are used in warehouses, transport, hospitals, offices and public services.
What is the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?
Lean focuses on removing waste and improving flow. Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation and defects using data and statistics. Many organisations combine the two as Lean Six Sigma.
For whoever runs this talk

Delivery notes & attendance record

Suggested length: 10–15 minutes. A toolbox talk is a short briefing on one topic, given by a supervisor or team leader to the people doing the work.

Before you start

Best delivered near the work, so people can point at real examples. Put the TIMWOODS slide on screen or print it, and ask people to come with one thing that slows them down.

How to run it

Slides 2 to 4 explain the idea in about five minutes. Use the worked example closest to your site, then spend the rest on the discussion questions and agree one small action for the week.

Where this fits

This is the first talk in the Continuous Improvement series, and the others build on it.

The worked examples are illustrations to start a discussion, not real case studies or measured results.

Attendance record
TopicLean Basics: See the Waste, Then Remove It
Date
Site / location
Delivered by
Actions agreed
Next talk due
Attendees
NameSignature

Use the Print handout button to print this record. General guidance on a working method — not legal, health and safety or HR advice. Before changing how a job is done, check the risk assessment and safe system of work for that job, and involve the people who do it.

Continuous Improvement series

Keep
improving

Seven short talks that build on each other. Run them in order, or pick the one your team needs next.

Next talk
5S
ukworkrights.co.uk/toolbox-5s.html
After that
Kaizen & PDCA
ukworkrights.co.uk/toolbox-kaizen.html
The full series
All 7 talks
ukworkrights.co.uk/toolbox-talks.html#continuous-improvement
This talk
Lean Basics
ukworkrights.co.uk/toolbox-lean.html

General guidance on a working method — not legal advice · Updated October 2026 · © UK Work Rights Ltd · Company No. 17228507 · ICO Registration No. ZC239465 · Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ  ·  hello@ukworkrights.co.uk
Directed and published by Matt Thompson, founder
Content is produced with AI assistance.