More
HR Insights
Career Advice
Industry Insights
Friddy Hoegener
09 October 2025
At its foundation, lean methodology identifies waste as anything that doesn't contribute direct value to the customer. Yet many organizations inadvertently build waste into their operations daily.
Consider these common forms of operational waste:
It occurs when you manufacture products before demand exists. Every moment a finished product sits on a shelf represents tied-up capital, storage costs, and potential obsolescence risk.
This happens each time you physically relocate inventory. Every forklift movement, warehouse transfer, and cross-dock operation adds cost without adding customer value.
It emerges when you commit resources too early. Once you've customized a product, you've limited its flexibility and potential applications.
Research from McKinsey & Company demonstrates that lean manufacturing principles can unlock efficiency improvements of 15-20%, with companies reducing machine downtime by 30-50% and improving labor productivity by 40-50%. These are transformative results achieved through common-sense waste elimination.
We asked operations and supply chain professionals a simple question: What's one type of "hidden waste" most companies overlook, and how did you address it? Here's what they see happening in the field and how they fixed it.
One form of hidden waste I've often seen in supply chains is information lag — the time lost between when an issue occurs and when it's actually reported or acted upon. It doesn't appear on expense sheets, but it quietly increases costs through delays, unnecessary storage, and reactive decision-making.
At BASSAM Shipping, we noticed that minor communication gaps between transporters, port agents, and operations often caused avoidable waiting periods. Instead of investing in expensive software, I implemented a simple shared tracking sheet that updated every movement in real time. Everyone involved in a shipment could view the same data simultaneously.
This small change reduced miscommunication, improved scheduling accuracy, and saved hours of coordination time each week. Within two months, our missed-handling incidents dropped noticeably.
Addressing hidden waste isn't always about automation or new systems. Sometimes it's about creating shared visibility so every person in the chain can make faster, more informed decisions. That's where most savings quietly come from.
Murtuza Mohammed, Operation Support Supervisor, BASSAM
Our investigation revealed that unnecessary packaging materials existed throughout our supply chain starting from our raw material suppliers and extending to our final product packaging. The additional packaging materials increased our expenses while generating unnecessary plastic waste. Our supplier collaboration enabled us to establish bulk delivery systems with reusable totes which eliminated unnecessary packaging materials from vendor operations. Our company achieved more than 30% reduction in nonessential packaging waste through internal tracking after implementing quality assurance requirement adjustments that took multiple production cycles to achieve. The small changes we made to our systems have generated substantial value throughout the years.
Hans Graubard, COO & Cofounder, Happy V
One type of "hidden waste" that many companies overlook in their supply chain is excessive packaging. While packaging plays a crucial role in protecting products, over-reliance on unnecessary materials often leads to increased costs, environmental harm, and inefficiencies. At RestoPack, we addressed this by auditing our packaging processes. We identified areas to minimize materials or substitute them with sustainable alternatives like recycled or biodegradable options. We also collaborated with suppliers to ensure the entire supply chain adopted eco-friendly practices. By redesigning our packaging to prioritize functionality and sustainability, we not only reduced waste and cut operational costs but also reinforced our commitment to environmental responsibility. This approach has been invaluable, supporting a greener future while meeting our clients' expectations for quality and innovation.
Sun Jing, Package Designer, Restopack
On big utility jobs, the time equipment just sits there will kill you. I've seen diggers idle for days during phase transitions. We started using trackers to see when machines were down, then just sent the idle ones to another site that needed them. It keeps everything moving. You'd be surprised how much moving equipment between jobs can help your budget and your schedule.
Brian Tetreault, Co-Founder, Kitching & Co. Dirtworx
The biggest hidden waste I see is parcel invoice errors and redundant accessorial fees. Most companies never audit their freight invoices systematically, and carriers are getting incredibly creative with pricing, adding fees mid-year without warning, redefining weight brackets, and charging for services that weren't actually rendered.
Implement real-time invoice auditing with actual contract terms, not just what the carrier bills you. We caught $240K in overcharges for a single client in their first quarter alone. Carriers count on the fact that you're too busy to verify every shipment's dimensional weight calculation or zone classification. Your shipping data tells you exactly where money is leaking if you actually look at it. Most companies treat freight invoices like utility bills; they just pay them. That's leaving serious money on the table.
Mike Erickson, Founder & CEO, AFMS
One of the most powerful lean principles involves maintaining maximum flexibility for as long as possible. An unfinished piece of wood can become a chair, a table, or a cabinet. But once you've built it into a table, that's all it can ever be.
Consider manufacturing pacifiers. Once placed in branded packaging, you've committed to a specific product, market, and price point. If market demand shifts, you're stuck with obsolete inventory. Delay packaging until closer to the point of sale, and you maintain flexibility to respond to real-time market signals.
This principle extends beyond physical products. Delay final assembly until orders are confirmed, maintain raw materials rather than finished goods when possible, and implement postponement strategies that push differentiation downstream.
The challenge is balancing flexibility against operational efficiency. Sometimes, the investment required to maintain flexibility exceeds the benefit it provides.
Not every flexibility investment pays off. Consider these factors:
Market Volatility: Rapidly changing customer preferences make flexibility more valuable. Stable markets may not justify the same investment.
Product Lifecycle: Short lifecycles demand greater flexibility to avoid obsolescence.
Customization Requirements: Industries requiring extensive customization benefit more from delayed differentiation.
Cost of Capital: Higher interest rates increase carrying costs, making flexibility more economically attractive.
Organizations seeking to build world-class operations teams understand that implementing these principles requires talent that thinks strategically about trade-offs, not just tactically about processes.
These same waste-elimination principles apply to talent acquisition. Just as you wouldn't manufacture products without confirmed demand, forward-thinking organizations avoid building rigid structures without clear strategic need.
Minimize "Hiring Waste" by ensuring every position directly contributes to customer value creation.
Maintain Talent Flexibility through cross-training and agile team structures.
Reduce Turnover Waste by investing in retention before replacement. The cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training represents pure waste when preventable.
SCOPE Recruiting has helped companies reduce vacancy time by 40% by applying lean principles to hiring. For organizations looking to optimize their supply chain talent strategy, SCOPE has been recognized by CIO Women Magazine as one of the best supply chain recruiting firms.
Lean principles are common sense, but common sense isn't always common practice. The challenge is maintaining the discipline to identify and eliminate waste consistently, even when it's embedded in "the way we've always done things."
Successful lean implementation requires honest assessment, cultural commitment, strategic patience, and talent investment in people who naturally think in terms of value and waste.
By consistently asking "Does this add value for the customer?" and "Am I creating waste?" you can transform operational performance without complex frameworks or expensive consultants.
The path forward is straightforward: identify waste, eliminate it, maintain flexibility where it matters, and build a team that thinks this way naturally.
Ready to build a supply chain team that thinks lean? Work with SCOPE Recruiting to find operations and supply chain talent that brings both technical expertise and lean thinking to your organization.
Want to hire smarter and faster? Download our FREE Interview Guide & Candidate Scorecards. This resource helps hiring managers streamline interviews, ask the right questions, and evaluate candidates fairly and consistently.
SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm founded by former ABB global category managers, Friddy and Melissa Hoegener. Unlike generalist staffing agencies, every recruiter at SCOPE has hands-on supply chain experience before moving into executive search. That insider perspective allows us to speak the language of procurement, logistics, planning, and operations - delivering smarter matches, stronger retention, and faster hiring results.
If you're building or scaling a team and want to work with one of the best supply chain recruiters in the U.S., visit scoperecruiting.com.
Complete the form below to start your search for top-tier talent.
