While lean manufacturing unquestionably concerns itself with the elimination of waste, this waste is the greatest of all! You will find that it originates from one of the primary founders and influencers of the Toyota Production System (TPS)—from which lean manufacturing was first discovered and canonized. Some people call it the waste of people's skills, potential, creativity, or even genius (the eighth waste). We like to think of it as the waste of a wasted life.