Seems like a lot of things in manufacturing end up with acronyms.  Occasionally you’ll step into a room and think that Robin Williams stepped out of Good Morning Vietnam to conduct the morning training session.

A lot of time the acronyms are just created to avoid something long to say, but the ones that are truly useful help you to remember a concept.  Here are a couple I’ve heard regarding the wastes in manufacturing.  This one I heard while at Pella Corporation when I was part of one of their teams a couple weeks ago:

TOM D WIP

• Transportation
• Overproduction
• (Excess) Motion
• Defective Products
• Waiting
• Inventories
• Processing

WORM PITT

This alternative spin on the letters was shared with me by Paul Vollmer from Specialty Manufacturing in St. Paul, MN.  I like this one because it also includes a nice visual that they can hand out to people to remember.

• Waiting
• Overproduction
• Rework
• Motion
• Processing
• Inventories
• Transportation
• Talent

This version also includes the eighth waste that some companies have adopted, and that is the under-utilization of talent.