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Techniques for the Evaluation, Reduction, and Elimination of Excess Material Flow within Industrial Facilities

By Grace Barton Updated

The flow of material represents 2, and practically even 3, of the 7 wastes as defined by LEAN practitioners. As such, the methods for evaluating, reducing, and eliminating excess material handling are fundamental to any LEAN improvement initiative.

The 7 wastes defined by LEAN practitioners include the following:

  1. Overproduction
  2. Waiting (reduced by eliminating storage locations)
  3. Transportation handling more than once
  4. Inventory
  5. Motion
  6. Over-processing
  7. Defective production

Material handling involves the Movement (relocation) of Materials (container, parts, tooling, kanban triggers) using Methods (fork trucks, people, carts). The focus of any improvement study is aimed largely at improving, or eliminating the Movement because the Materials and Methods themselves may neither be conducive to change nor offer significant benefits for cost and time savings.

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Grace Barton

Marketing Specialist

About the Author Latest Posts

Grace Barton is a digital marketing and competitive intelligence professional who crafts strategic narratives by bridging marketing insights with analytical expertise. At Advantive, she creates engaging, data-driven content tailored to the distribution, manufacturing, packaging, and quality industries. Her goal is to deliver impactful messaging that drives engagement and growth based on specific gap closure needs, whether responding to sales organization requirements, pinpointing gaps in content, or meeting immediate market trends.
She thrives on transforming competitive intelligence into actionable insights for the sales organization. Grace manages Advantive’s competitive intelligence platform, Klue, to equip the sales team with the battlecards and market data they need to stay ahead of competitors. Since launch, she’s built 28+ battlecards across four lines of business, ensuring the GTM strategy stays sharp.
Grace has a passion for leveraging market insights with storytelling to guide strategic decision-making, empower sales organizations, and nurture organizational growth.

Areas of Expertise: Digital Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Strategic Narratives, Marketing Insights, Analytical Expertise

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