Does your team go looking for improvement opportunities? One of the central pillars of the lean movement is the idea of waste in a business. Not the rubbish that we find in bins kind of wastes, but the types of activity that we undertake as part of our jobs that doesn't really benefit the end customer. You probably recall these types of waste from posters in your business, or from courses that you have been on, they are: Defects Overproduction Transportation Waiting Inventory Motions Processes The ‘7 wastes’ is a simple way to communicate the idea of removing the waste within a business and it helps you to identify specific areas for improvement. However, as Lean is a people centric approach to business improvement, there is another waste not on the above list. The 8th waste is known as ‘ untapped human potential ’ and means that the people who work in your business know all kinds of things that could improve the business, but aren't telling you. They wi