The 8 Wastes – Lean Series

The Eight Wastes in Construction: How to See Waste Everywhere and Start Eliminating It Today

Most people think waste is obvious.Trash. Scrap. Rework. A pile of material that got damaged.But Lean waste is sneakier than that. It hides inside “normal.” It hides inside “how we’ve always done it.” It hides inside crews walking back and forth all day, inside stockpiles that feel safe, inside meetings that feel necessary, inside email chains that replace decisions.Jason Schroeder says it plainly because it’s true: “Waste is all around you and you don’t even notice it.”This episode is about learning to see waste—and once you see it, you’ll never unsee it. And that’s the beginning of a real Lean journey.

The Current Condition: We Don’t See Waste—We Organize It

A lot of organizations don’t eliminate waste. They organize it.They build bigger laydown yards for inventory instead of stabilizing delivery. They create bigger tool rooms instead of 3S’ing the gang boxes. They hire expediters instead of improving make-ready. They add more schedule updates instead of fixing flow.Why? Because waste has become part of the environment, and when something is always around, you stop noticing it.

The system failed them; they didn’t fail the system. People aren’t blind because they don’t care. They’re blind because the system trained them to accept waste as normal. The job of Lean is to retrain the eyes.

Why Lean Feels “Basic” Until You Implement It

Some people hear Lean and think, “This is basic.”Yes—because it’s fundamentals. Clean. Organize. Reduce walking. Reduce waiting. Reduce rework. Improve flow.But fundamentals are only “basic” if you do them.Lean feels basic in a conference room. It feels revolutionary on a jobsite because most jobsites have lived in waste for so long that the waste feels like oxygen.Once you implement Lean, you realize: we weren’t missing fancy tools. We were missing daily discipline and visibility.

A Field Story That Proves It: The Lean Desk Disaster and the Cost of Not Thinking

Jason shares a story that illustrates multiple wastes in one sequence: a set of desks built in a batch, then discovered to be wrong, then reworked, then transported, then torn out, then rebuilt, with people waiting and walking the whole time.The point of the story isn’t the furniture. The point is the pattern.

Batching creates risk. Hidden defects become expensive. Rework creates schedule damage. Transportation adds handling. Waiting burns labor. Motion burns energy. Inventory piles up. And throughout it all, people are working hard while value creation stalls.That’s waste in its purest form: effort without progress.

The Eight Wastes, Explained in Construction Terms (Not Theory)

Jason teaches the eight wastes in a way that fits construction reality. The names don’t matter as much as the eyesight.Defects: mistakes, rework, punch, out-of-tolerance work, failed inspections.
Overproduction: doing work earlier than needed, building ahead of readiness.
Inventory: stockpiles of material, excess WIP, “just in case” deliveries.
Transportation: moving materials multiple times, long hauls, re-handling.
Motion: walking, searching, reaching, bending, climbing—unnecessary movement.
Waiting: waiting on information, inspections, access, layout, approvals, equipment.
Overprocessing: extra steps, duplicate reporting, unnecessary approvals, too much documentation.
Unused creativity: the biggest one—people see problems and aren’t empowered to fix them.

In construction, motion and waiting are everywhere. And unused creativity is the tragedy: the people closest to the work know what’s broken, but the system doesn’t let them improve it.

The Two “Parent” Wastes: Overproduction Creates Inventory, Then Everything Gets Worse

Jason emphasizes a common Lean truth: overproduction creates inventory, and inventory creates more waste.When you build ahead, you pile up work-in-progress. That WIP creates congestion. Congestion creates trade stacking. Trade stacking creates safety exposure. Safety exposure creates slowdowns. Slowdowns create schedule panic. Schedule panic creates more overproduction.It’s a loop.That’s why Lean favors flow over busy. Flow reduces WIP. Reduced WIP reduces chaos. Reduced chaos improves everything else.

Motion Isn’t Productivity: Why “Busy” Can Be Pure Waste

One of the most dangerous myths on a jobsite is that busy equals productive.A crew can be busy all day walking, hunting, carrying, searching, moving materials, waiting on access, and still not create value. Motion is not progress. Motion is often proof that the system is broken.This is where 3S becomes powerful. When you 3S an area, you reduce motion. Tools have homes. Materials are staged. Paths are clear. And suddenly people create more value with the same effort.This is why Lean works: it reduces the friction that steals energy.

The Biggest Waste: Unused Employee Creativity and the Genius of the Team

Jason calls out unused creativity as one of the biggest wastes because it’s the one we rarely measure.How many times have you heard someone say, “We should fix this,” and nothing happens?People learn that ideas don’t matter. They stop speaking up. They stop trying. And then leadership complains about “lack of ownership.”But ownership can’t survive in a system where improvements are ignored.If you want Lean to work, you have to unlock the genius of the team. The people closest to the work are your best improvement engine—if the system lets them participate.

The River of Waste: Stop Raising the Water Level and Start Removing the Rocks

Jason uses the “river of waste” analogy. When you have rocks in a river (problems), you can hide them by raising the water level (adding buffers, inventory, overtime, expediters). Or you can lower the water level and remove the rocks.Most projects raise the water level. They hide problems with inventory, extra manpower, and constant resequencing. That feels safer short term, but it creates long-term instability and cost.Lean says: remove the rocks. Fix the system. Improve flow.That’s how you create stability without burnout.

Signals You’re Surrounded by Waste but Have Stopped Seeing It

• Crews spend time on treasure hunts for tools, material, or information.
• Inventory piles up “just in case,” and the jobsite starts looking like a warehouse.
• Rework loops feel normal: fix it, redo it, patch it, explain it, repeat.
• Materials get moved multiple times because staging and logistics aren’t planned.
• People wait on layout, inspections, access, decisions, or approvals every day.

How to Teach the Eight Wastes: Cards, Daily Huddles, and Stories That Make Waste Annoying

Jason’s approach isn’t to lecture people once and hope it sticks. It’s to teach the waste daily, in simple language, through repeated exposure.Use examples. Use stories. Use cards. Use daily huddles. Make waste visible. Make waste annoying.Because once people are trained to see waste, they naturally start eliminating it. And that’s the goal: a culture where improvement is normal and daily.

How to Scale Excellence: Before/After Videos and a Simple Incentive That Works

Jason also talks about capturing improvements and sharing them before/after videos, simple recognition, showing wins in huddles. Not as a marketing stunt, but as a reinforcement system.When people see improvement celebrated, they participate more. When improvement is invisible, it fades. Culture is reinforced by what you highlight.And when you create total participation, Lean stops being a program and becomes a habit.

What Happens When Culture Shifts: Workers Uphold Standards Even When You’re Not There

The real proof of Lean isn’t what happens when leadership is watching. It’s what happens when leadership isn’t there.When a culture shifts, workers uphold standards because the environment supports them and because they believe in the purpose. They stop accepting waste as normal. They fix what bugs them. They protect flow because they’ve felt how much better it is.That’s respect for people. That’s building people who build things.

A Simple Daily System to See and Remove Waste

• Teach the eight wastes in plain language and keep them visible in the work area.
• 3S one area so motion and searching drop immediately.
• Hold a quick daily huddle: identify one waste you saw yesterday and one fix today.
• Make one improvement and capture it with a quick before/after photo or video.
• Share the win so participation spreads and waste becomes unacceptable.

Connect to Mission

At Elevate Construction, the mission is stability field teams that can plan, schedule, and flow without burnout. Jason Schroeder teaches waste elimination because waste creates chaos, and chaos hurts people. LeanTakt and Takt rely on flow, and flow requires reducing motion, waiting, rework, and inventory. When teams learn to see waste daily, they remove the friction that steals time, energy, and dignity.If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Conclusion

If you want to start Lean, start with your eyes.Learn the eight wastes. Walk to your jobsite. Watch where people are walking, waiting, searching, and redoing. Notice where inventory is hiding problems. Notice where creativity is being ignored.Then start removing waste one improvement at a time.And remember Jason’s quote because it’s the wake-up call: “Waste is all around you and you don’t even notice it.”Start noticing. Start fixing. Start building a culture.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the eight wastes in Lean?
They are categories of non-value-added work: defects, overproduction, inventory, transportation, motion, waiting, overprocessing, and unused employee creativity.

Which wastes are most common in construction?
Motion, waiting, rework/defects, and inventory are especially common because jobsites have changing conditions and often lack visual systems and stable flow.

How does 3S help eliminate waste?
3S (Sort, Straighten, Shine) reduces searching and unnecessary motion, makes problems visible, improves safety, and creates a foundation for daily improvement.

What does “unused creativity” look like on a jobsite?
It looks like people see problems daily but are not empowered to fix them, share ideas, or improve the system so they stop trying and ownership declines.

How does this connect to LeanTakt and Takt?
LeanTakt and Takt depend on predictable flow. Eliminating waste reduces variation, prevents trade stacking, and supports stable handoffs, making flow achievable.