What is the Value of Waste?

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary[1] defines WASTE amongst other things as damaged, defective, rejected material, scrap, it even goes further to describe it as “gradual loss or decrease by use, wear or decay”. Uncultivated land even got a mention in the description of waste.

Tearing down the description of waste creates a realization of how wasteful we have been at one point or the other. Of the descriptions above, the one that strikes me the most is “uncultivated land”. Should the land be so fertile as to support the growth of crops suitable for exports, possess natural endowments such as oil, gold or other rare minerals, only the physical act of exploitation through cultivation will reveal this. Invariably, untapped market is a waste!

Organizations annually spend millions of dollars on training, purchasing new technology, product support and such other ventures all in a bid to improve performance. Would I be correct at this point to say performance improvement means waste reduction? The improvement in performance largely depends on what is to be achieved by such an activity and the strategy an organization adopts. Whatever the strategy used, if the customers cannot feel the immediate outcome, then it is a sure sign of waste.

I have paid keen attention to the business re-engineering effort by many organizations and how much fanfare this generates. In my knowledge and experience, re-engineering efforts are supposed to noticeable to customers by a shorter cycle time, eliminate rework, scrap and waste. In order words, it is supposed to lead to an improved process (most noticeable in improved quality in service delivery) that make all happy. Permit me to mention the case of the banking sector in Nigeria as a case study. The very first and obvious sign of the business process re-engineering I observed in one of the banks is a change in Logo. This in itself is a wonderful concept and personally, I prefer the new design, colors, cool customer care lines (though not toll free) and beautifully designed corner-piece structures. While claiming to conform to ISO 9001 quality standards, it is most important that this quality standard leads the process to be customer-centric, by this, I mean customer oriented service delivery. As a Six Sigma believer and certified practitioner, I expected a total turn-around towards excellent customer experience. Before re-engineering, customers waited on long queues while tellers “worked” behind their “crawling” computer systems. It was also a common practice to find a particular teller working fast and attending to many customers while some cash dispensing points are totally empty or other available tellers converse on telephones, or attend to some other things one cannot comprehend. These practices are still evident even after the process re-engineering. I am sticking to the word “re-engineering” instead of process improvement because I did not and have not seen any improvement in the business processes.

Why do I come to a bank that keeps me outside its banking hall with a security door that permits only one person to enter at a time under the watchful eyes of a security personnel with a handheld metal detector? Is this not another waste of my time? Maybe an investment in superior technology that permits multiple entries or a door that scans faster would just be sufficient with few exceptions. I watch “valued customers” wait in the hot African sun for their turns to be scanned first and then denied entry by the usually “please go back and remove all metal objects…” shrill and female-sounding voice only to be physically scanned with the handheld metal detector. This is another waste to the system. What happened to the re-engineered process? Where did it start? What were customers’ inputs to the redesigned process? These are the numerous questions that come to my mind. If only one could place a monetary value on the time spent going through all these access control and non-value adding motions, one would be amazed by the result. Great losses happen daily due to wait times either on queues within or outside of the banking halls. Out of frustration, a number of customers leave and find other alternatives. They sure will tell tales of their experiences to others. This sad story does not include that attitude of tellers who dish out services like doing the customers a really desired favor. While this situation is not peculiar to this bank used as a case study, most banks in Nigeria have the same problem. Could this result as a post-consolidation bonus? In dealing with the same problem described above, another bank in Nigeria is piloting an off-site approach. They have built a galleria that houses several ATM machines. I hear that provisions are also in the pipeline for dropping personal checks at all their branded ATMs. These checks are “hopefully” picked-up timely and processed. One can only hope that public infrastructure especially power supply will not frustrate this effort. Many banks have invested in ATMs and have placed them onsite and at other strategic places, they are still epileptic in their operations.

What is the value of waste? I ask once again. The value of waste to a service consumer is measured in opportunities lost waiting to cash a check in a bank, amount spent on undelivered service by a telephone operator, ISP or other service provider and so on. To a business, it is millions of un-earned cash, lost business opportunities, valuable monies thrown down the drain in the name of re-engineering, time spent writing apology letters for poor service delivery, scrap, rework, consequences suffered for not meeting government regulations, lost business and investment time, lower profits or even outright losses incurred as a result of all the above and much more. To the practitioner, it could be withdrawal of practicing license, loss of investment and livelihood, cost of image laundry, etc. The list goes on and on. Who looses the most, businesses, investors or the society at large? Waste in any business is grossly undesired!


[1] http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waste