Free Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Lean Concepts and Waste Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A hospital's patient registration process requires staff to enter the same patient information into three separate, non-integrated software systems. This adds extra steps and time to the process without changing the outcome for the patient. Which of the 8 Wastes of Lean does this scenario best represent?
- Defects
- Motion
- Overprocessing (Correct answer)
- Waiting
Correct answer: Overprocessing
Overprocessing refers to performing more work, adding more steps, or using more complex tools than necessary to produce a product or service. In this case, entering the same data multiple times is a redundant activity that does not add value from the customer's perspective and is therefore a form of overprocessing.
Question 2: Which of the following is considered a 'Non-Value-Added' (NVA) activity from the customer's perspective?
- Assembling a product according to specifications.
- Moving finished goods into a storage warehouse. (Correct answer)
- Delivering a completed service to the client.
- Transforming raw materials into a final product.
Correct answer: Moving finished goods into a storage warehouse.
Non-Value-Added (NVA) activities consume resources but do not add value in the eyes of the customer. Moving and storing products (Transportation and Inventory) are classic examples of waste because the customer does not perceive these activities as something they are willing to pay for. Assembly, transformation, and delivery are all core value-adding steps.
Question 3: In a busy restaurant kitchen, a chef frequently has to walk across the room to get common spices and utensils from a central storage shelf, even though they are used at their individual workstation for almost every dish. This unnecessary movement is an example of which type of waste?
- Inventory
- Motion (Correct answer)
- Overproduction
- Transportation
Correct answer: Motion
The waste of Motion refers to any unnecessary movement of people that does not add value to the product or service. The chef's repeated walking to a distant shelf is a classic example of inefficient workplace layout causing wasted motion. Transportation waste, by contrast, typically refers to the movement of materials or products.
Question 4: The Lean methodology of 5S is a workplace organization system designed to reduce waste and improve efficiency. Which 'S' focuses on removing all unnecessary items from the workspace?
- Shine (Seiso)
- Sustain (Shitsuke)
- Standardize (Seiketsu)
- Sort (Seiri) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Sort (Seiri)
The first step of the 5S methodology is Sort (Seiri), which involves going through all items in a work area and removing everything that is not essential for the process. This declutters the workspace and eliminates waste associated with searching for tools and materials.
Question 5: Which of the following is NOT one of the traditional 8 Wastes of Lean, often remembered by the acronym DOWNTIME or TIMWOODS?
- Overproduction
- Inventory
- Competition (Correct answer)
- Defects
Correct answer: Competition
The 8 Wastes of Lean are Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-Utilized Talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra-Processing. Competition is a market force and is not considered a process waste within the Lean framework.
Question 6: A software development team consistently pushes new features to the quality assurance (QA) team before the QA team has the capacity to test them. This results in a large backlog of untested features sitting in a queue. This is a primary example of which type of waste?
- Overproduction (Correct answer)
- Waiting
- Motion
- Non-Utilized Talent
Correct answer: Overproduction
Overproduction is producing more than is needed or producing it before it is needed. In this scenario, the development team is producing features faster than the next step in the process (QA) can handle, leading to an excess inventory of work-in-progress (the queue of untested features).
Free Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Lean Concepts and Waste Questions and Answers
A hospital's patient registration process requires staff to enter the same patient information into three separate, non-integrated software systems.
This adds extra steps and time to the process without changing the outcome for the patient.
Which of the 8 Wastes of Lean does this scenario best represent?