Waste A%

Possible reasons for a resource not being available for productive use include:

The cost of a resource being unavailable can be disproportionately high viz:

• A key team member goes absent, delaying any work by the rest of the team until he returns eg the surgeon heading an operating team

• Regular absenteeism by team members, a sign of low morale, puts more pressure on team-mates or more staff, or more overtime, having to be employed if customers’ demands are to be met

• A key component is out of stock, stopping all work further down the line

• A key piece of equipment or a computer breaks down, stopping all services until it’s repaired

• A hospital operating theatre which closes every night, over weekends and on bank holidays, causing many patients to suffer for longer

There’s a limit to availability percentages, however – 100% is impossible to achieve:

• People need holidays and inevitably some will fall ill – they also need ‘rest-breaks’ throughout their working day, especially to refresh their grey cells

• Suppliers will not always be able to deliver on time

• Customer demand will fluctuate and sometimes cause even the best stock control systems to suffer stockouts

• Machines will break down, and need regular maintenance stops

• Hospital beds cannot be made available 100% of the time – downtime is needed for vital cleaning and changing of sheets, otherwise the risk of cross-infections is greatly increased