How does reducing waste improve quality?
Of the Seven Office Wastes defined in the Agile & Lean Glossary, the seventh one, defects, is the one (and only one) usually associated with quality problems. However, reducing any of the Seven Office Wastes leads to increased quality. When there is less overproduction, waiting, transportation, etc., there is less waste produced within an organization. But when each of those wastes reduced, defects are also reduced and overall quality improves. For example, overproduction by definition creates work products that are not needed right away. If defects are included in the overproduction, they will not be discovered until later when the work is needed, leading to lots of rework. If overproduction is reduced, then defects as soon as they are created, allowing the process to be fixed before more defects are introduced. Another example is variation. Having multiple ways to do the same thing leads to confusion. Confusion leads to mistakes. If one person always checks something before passing i
