My father introduced me to this concept called Muda. It is a Japanese term that means "activities that are wasteful or activities that are unproductive". It is one of several great concepts used by Toyota. Essentially, steps in a process are put into 2 buckets: productive or wasteful. There are various types of wastes. Attempts are made to eliminate the waste. See Wikipedia Article & Article in DMReview Magazine (Sep 2005)
I can think of lots of ways I can change my life to get rid of Muda in my daily life. I drove to the gas station today during the lunch hour, I could have just filled up on the way home. I consciously used the concept today - I used this as the theme for the day in our ToastMaster's meeting. I printed the agenda and voting slip using 1/4th the paper we typically use. It seems that Muda is just one of several wastages. I definitely plan to learn more and implement it in my life.
Join me in eliminating Muda!
