Muda of waiting refers to any idle time in a process, it could be the case of an employee or machine is working below capacity or is not working at all due to waiting on inputs from another part of the process.
Waiting occurs when steps in the process are not properly coordinated, when processes are unreliable, when work is batched too large, during rework, and during long changeovers between staff or machines.
For example, some offices have policies requiring an official IT staff member to handle any computer issue. Whether it’s a software glitch, a troubleshooting error, or simply the need to switch out an underperforming mouse, regular office staff must send a support ticket or make a phone call and wait for IT staff to solve the problem.
You can eliminate waste of waiting within many processes by balancing machinery, people and production. Scheduling is a key component in eliminating waiting.
In the IT example above, a company can reduce wait times by maximizing IT staffing at high-volume times or implementing processes within the IT department to create more efficient responses to help tickets. An auxiliary IT staff member can be hired to handle less technical issues such as switching out an under-performing mouse