Welcome to Season 5 and the 111th episode of the podcast series.

Today, Brent Sutton is joined by Brent Robinson, and they discuss the relationship between the eight types of waste from Demming’s work and Lean and Six Sigma, compared to safety clutter from the safety science research of Rae, Provan, Weber, and Dekker at Griffith University.

Waste, as defined in Lean methodology, includes any activity that does not add value to the customer. Safety clutter refers to safety-related activities, documents, and procedures that do not contribute to actual safety improvements.

In this episode, the two Brents explore the concepts of waste and safety clutter, their interconnections, and how they could be mitigated using the 4Ds (Dumb, Dangerous, Difficult and Different) to enhance both safety and productivity in operations.