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Online 7 Wastes Training Course
Eliminate the 7 wastes in your factory with practical, real-world exercises designed to maximise efficiency and productivity!
✓ Learn as you go, right on the shop floor
✓ Access on desktop, tablet, or mobile for total flexibility
✓ Get step-by-step guidance from industry experts
✓ Make an immediate positive impact on your P&L
✓ Improve skills by up to 50% after just one course
✓ Surpass your SQDCPE targets
✓ Build essential skills for career growth
What are the 7 Wastes?
In short, the 7 Wastes are inefficiencies in manufacturing that don’t add value to the product or service. You might know them as TIMWOOD. Here’s a quick rundown:​
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Transportation: Moving products or materials around when it’s not necessary. This eats up time, energy, and can increase the risk of damage.
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Inventory: Having too much stuff sitting around that’s not needed right away ties up money, takes up space, and risks damage or spoilage.
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Motion: Extra movement, like walking back and forth or constantly reaching for tools, wastes time. It’s all the little things that slow down getting the actual work done.
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Waiting: Standing around, waiting for materials, equipment, or approvals leads to downtime and delays.
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Overproduction: Making more than what’s needed or making it too early. This just piles up inventory and adds to storage costs.
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Overprocessing: Doing more work or higher-quality work than necessary. It could mean adding features no one asked for or taking extra steps that don’t really add value.
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Defects (or Bad Quality products): When something doesn’t meet quality standards, you’ve got to spend time and resources fixing or scrapping it, which wastes materials and effort.
Why is it important to tackle the 7 Wastes?
Tackling the 7 Wastes is all about making your processes smoother and cutting out inefficiencies, which means better productivity, higher quality, and saving costs. When you combine it with other Lean tools like 5s and standardised work, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success on the shop floor.
Free up working capital
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Cut unnecessary processes and waste, reducing production costs and freeing up capital for reinvestment
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Eliminate overproduction and excess stock holding to free up both space and cost for investment elsewhere in the business
Reduce material and labour cost
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Streamline processes to reduce waste and employee downtime, boosting overall efficiency
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Reducing overproduction and excess inventory leads to more sustainable operations with lower material and energy use
Increase productivity and performance
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Streamline processes by reducing unnecessary steps, employee wait times, and optimising equipment for better OEE
Make the business more competitive
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Ongoing kaizen-driven improvements enhance productivity, shorten lead times, and improve product quality, giving a competitive edge
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Foster a culture of continuous improvement to enhance quality, efficiency, and eliminate delays, overproduction, and excess inventory
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Reducing defects improves product quality and increases customer satisfaction
Achieve more with the SempaiGuide 7 Wastes course
SempaiGuide courses deliver real, measurable impact that will transform the way you and your team work on the shop floor!​
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The 7 Wastes course is broken into 9 easy-to-follow sections where you’ll learn how to spot and eliminate waste to improve your team’s performance. Here’s how you’ll do it:
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Understand the 3 types of work and how they impact efficiency
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Recognise the 7 wastes and pinpoint exactly when and where they show up on the shop floor
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Use a 'Problem Follow-Up' (PFU) sheet to track and fix waste step by step
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Run a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) trial to test improvements and lock in these changes for lasting results
On average you’ll see a 7x ROI* and a 50% boost in skills after going through the course just once!
* See case study examples.
7 Wastes Course Outline
The course breaks down what value-added tasks really are and helps you spot the 7 Wastes in your workplace. You’ll dive into real-world factory scenarios, learn from expert video tutorials, and tackle practical tasks right on the shop floor—plus, you’ll get downloadable guides for hands-on learning.
It’s designed to fit right into your workday, so you can start, pause, and pick up whenever it works best for you.
01.
Introduction to the 7 Wastes
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What’s in it for me?
What’s the purpose of lean?
What is Work & Cost or Value?
Choose an operation to improve
Capture your current cycle time
02.
3 types of work
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Types of work
Work and waste
What the customer wants
The three types of work in action
Examples of types of waste
Which will you tackle first?
Person first
How to get more value added
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03.
The 7 Wastes
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Have you heard of the 7 Wastes?
The 7 Wastes
The 7 Wastes in the ABC game
ABC Game Cycle
Compare your results
Identify the wastes
Doing it better
04.
Eliminating waste
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How to eliminate waste
Prioritising wastes
Which one?
Eliminating wastes in your area
Categorise the wastes
Prioritise the wastes
How many and what type?
The most important part
05.
Keeping Track
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Problem Follow-up Sheet
PFU Explained
Examples of PFUs
PFU Download
06.
Running Trials
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Running a PDCA trial
What is PDCA?
Capturing your new (AFTER) cycle time
Before v After cycle time
07.
The Mother of all Wastes
Duration: 3 mins
The Mother of all Wastes
The River of Inventory
08.
Test your knowledge
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09.
The End
Duration: 4 mins
Take a bow
Certificate
Let us know what you think
SempaiGuide Case Studies
The SempaiGuide Approach
With 25 years of global Lean experience and insights from today’s industry leaders, SempaiGuide courses are crafted to transform your manufacturing operations and equip you with essential skills for career growth.
Learn
with real-world examples
We start with the types of work and waste before showing you how to identify and elimiate waste using simple, practical steps with examples in real factories with real employees.
Track
the impact in real-time
In-situ improvements are captured throughout the course with built-in improvement trackers for quantifiable ROI. ​
Why choose a 7 Wastes course from Sempai?
100% of team leaders love or like the courses
Based on 50 users across 10 businesses in 5 manufacturing sectors
Immediate, tangible SQDCPE results
Each course features built-in improvement trackers for immediate, quantifiable results aligned to SQDCPE targets
Building the leaders of tomorrow
Each course, fosters a culture of continuous improvement whilst embedding essential skills for career advancement
Lean learning, on the shop floor
We understand that shop floor employees face frequent interruptions, so SempaiGuide courses are designed to seamlessly integrate into the natural flow of the working day on the shop floor.
Improved course engagement
Instant feedback loops provide positive reinforcement, improving course completion rates and scores.
Looking for additional support?
SempaiGuide Plus is a blended offering, giving you access to an annual subscription of Lean courses plus additional virtual support from our team which includes:
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Remote check-ins
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Q&A sessions
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Guidance on a scenario you want to address
Our customers find that regular check-ins and reviews, with targeted support, help to embed lean habits and sustain great results from the team.
Sempai consulting is a truly bespoke option where you can draw heavily on our expertise to work alongside you and your team to tackle a range of projects including:
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Senior management coaching to grow and embed a strong, high performing lean culture throughout your business
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Support for HR with employee development i.e. performance reviews and talent identification at all levels
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Development pathways across all levels in Operations Management, from Operator to Operations Director, Materials Management, Engineering, Quality & Maintenance
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Q. Can I track my/my employee’s progress?A. Yes! You will have a login which provides you an overview of your progress through the course and your score. A certificate is awarded at the end of the course but the focus is centered around the in-built trackers that showcase the real-world results achieved from implementing the 5s principles.
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Q. How much time am I going to have to invest? A. The course length varies but typically takes 10 hours to complete which includes the practical application. The course heavily focuses on the practical application of the 5s skills. We have designed the courses to work alongside you during the normal working day on the shop floor. It is broken down into bitesize sections, with the added option to pause at any point, making it easier to 'pick up and put down' where you left off.
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Q. What if I want additional support?A. SempaiGuide Plus gives you access to the online course plus additional in-person or virtual support from our team of experts. Over the years we have supported organisations and individuals with a vast array of projects from the creation of employee development pathways to ongoing coaching to develop Lean strategy across the business.
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Q. Will it deliver sustainable change?A. Each course is developed using an active learning approach within a 'micro-learning' framework, proven to deliver tangible, long-lasting results. If unsure if this course is right for you, we offer a free trial of one of the course sections.
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Q. What if staff leave the business – will I have to start again?A. Absolutely not! From a practical perspective, if you've purchased a course for several team members and someone leaves, you can easily transfer the course to someone else. When it comes to making changes, a key part of all SempaiGuide courses is demonstrating how to standardise these improvements so they become a natural part of your business workflow. Additionally, embedding Lean principles across your organisation not only improves workflow and safety but also helps reduce staff turnover. By enhancing work-life balance, involving employees in decision-making, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, Lean practices reduce burnout, increase employee loyalty, and support career development.
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Q. I’m concerned employees just won’t use the course.A. From a study of 50 users across 10 businesses in 5 different sectors, we found a 95% course completion rate, with 100% of team leaders recommending our courses. We offer free demos and trials, so if you're unsure, why not try it out for yourself!
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Q. How does the cost compare to the results achieved?A. Our courses are designed to be flexible, with on-demand courses starting at just £419 with up to 7x ROI achieved often after just one pass of the course. 5s, as part of team leader development, has led to promotion of team leaders to fill the talent pipeline.
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