8 W ASTES Defects Over production W aiting Nonutilized talent T ransportation Inventor y Motion Extra processing 8 W ASTES PROGRAM Small W ins Y ield Big Savings At T ennant Company we are always looking for new ways to improve our productivity and reduce our environmental impact Last year we took our commitment around continuous improvement to another level with the introduction of the 8 W astes program to our Minneapolis Minn production operations W ith waste elimination as the underlying theme the goal of this program is to drive change throughout the company to make our business more effcient and effective in a variety of ways W e are working to Deploy employees and other resour ces usefully and effectively Educate employees to be able to identify activity that doesn t add value as defned by our customers and Optimize our inventor y and processing through thoughtful use of our time and energy W e kicked off the program in 2012 in a series of eight meetings with front line employees to explain each of the 8 wastes focusing on one waste per week Our employees were then asked to return to work and look for examples of the week s featured waste in action Employees would regroup the following week to share their fndings discuss possible solutions and learn about the theme for the coming week These meetings went on for about ten weeks providing our employees with a solid foundation of knowledge in how to identify and address waste in the workplace Armed with this knowledge our employees began to take action W e installed continuous improvement boards large poster boards where employees track and monitor their fndingsin all areas of the plant available for ever yone s use The boards include An explanation of the identifed waste The problem or issue posed by the waste Possible solutions The name of the employee who identifed the waste and the possible solutions 14