Next, in order to determine which activities were value added, work cell employees
identified where waste was taking place in their process and which could consequently
be reduced over time. Although most work cell employees were able to
intuitively identify where waste existed in a process, this analysis helped them
focus their efforts on tracking the progress being made. At this point, industrial
engineering performed time-and-motion studies of at least two separate products
within each work cell to develop a baseline. It was possible to have more than
two products, but it is important to strike a balance between quality of the data
and the cost of obtaining it. Upon the completion of the study, an agreement
was reached among industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, and work
cell team members on what sections of the process were value added v. non-value
added.