The 8 Wastes in a Jewellery Business: One Example for Each

Most owners can feel that their business could run more smoothly, but it is hard to say where the time and money go. Lean gives a simple lens for that: eight kinds of waste, remembered by the word DOWNTIME.

This is the fourth article in our Lean for Jewellery Retail series. For each waste below we give one concrete example from a jewellery business. They are illustrative situations, not statistics or named clients, and your business will have its own versions.

What counts as waste?

In Lean, an activity is waste if the customer would not be happy to pay for it. A salesperson helping a family choose a bridal set is adding value. Searching for the right tray, correcting a bill or walking to the vault for the third time is not. Some of these steps are still necessary today, for example record-keeping, but you should look for ways to make them smaller.

D: Defects

Anything that has to be done again because it was not right the first time. Example: a bill is printed with a wrong weight or a wrong HUID entry, so it is cancelled and re-issued while the customer waits. A ring returns from the workshop in the wrong size and goes back again. Each defect costs the repair itself, the customer’s time and some of their trust.

A first step: keep a simple tally of corrections for one week and note the most common reason.

O: Overproduction

Making or ordering more than is needed, or earlier than needed. Example: a showroom orders a large batch of one design for the festive season because it sold well last year, and a good part of it is still in the trays months later. Overproduction also shows up as printing too many brochures or preparing more gift boxes than the season needs.

A first step: before the next large order, check last season’s sell-through for that design and order a smaller first lot.

W: Waiting

People or customers idle because something upstream is not ready. Example: customers who ask the same questions again and again, such as ‘what is today’s rate?’ or ‘is my repair ready?’, wait for a staff member to check and answer each time, and the staff member stops what they were doing. A salesperson waits for the owner to approve a discount while the customer stands there.

A first step: list the five most repeated customer questions and put the answers on a card, a screen or a phone message template, so the answer takes seconds.

N: Non-utilised talent

Not using people’s skills, ideas and experience. Example: an experienced salesperson who understands bridal customers spends the festive evening packing boxes. A karigar’s idea for a quicker finishing sequence is never asked for. A young staff member who is good with social media is not asked to help with the showroom’s photographs.

A first step: ask each team member, ‘What is one thing that slows you down that we could fix?’ Then act on one answer.

T: Transportation

Moving things, people or paperwork further or more often than necessary. Example: stock moves from the vault to the counter, to the billing desk, back to the vault, and then again for photography, with a register entry at each stop. A repair item passes through three hands before it reaches the workshop.

A first step: trace one piece from vault to customer on paper and count the handovers. Look for the ones you can remove or combine.

I: Inventory

More stock than the business needs, or stock that is not moving. Example: stock ageing. Designs that have been in the showroom for a long time tie up money that could have bought better-selling designs, and the older they get, the harder they are to sell without a discount. Excess packaging, stationery and display props are inventory too.

A first step: group your stock by how long it has been with you, for example under three months, three to six, six to twelve and over twelve months. See which designs sit in the oldest group, and ask why. (Choose your own ageing bands.)

M: Motion

Unnecessary movement by people. Example: the billing desk is at the far end of the showroom, so a salesperson walks across the floor with each customer’s selection several times an evening. Keys, rate cards or a bill book are kept in different places, and people look for them each morning.

A first step: watch one salesperson for 30 minutes and mark their steps on a rough floor plan. Look for long, repeated paths. 5S, covered in the previous article, helps here.

E: Extra-processing

Doing more work than the customer needs, or doing the same work twice. Example: the same sale is written in a register, then typed into a spreadsheet, then entered into billing software. A discount needs three signatures. A piece is polished again after it has already passed final inspection.

A first step: for one transaction, list every place where the same information is written. Ask which of these could be removed or made automatic.

A 30-minute waste walk

You can find most of these with a simple walk:

1. Take a notebook, a pen and one colleague.
2. Walk the path a customer takes, from the door to the packed bag, and then the path a piece of jewellery takes, from the vault to the customer.
3. At each step ask, ‘Would the customer pay for this?’ and ‘Is anyone waiting, searching, walking or re-doing?’
4. Write each finding next to its letter in DOWNTIME.
5. Pick the top three and run a small improvement on one of them, using PDCA.

A note on tone

When you share findings with the team, describe the waste in the process, not the person. ‘Our process makes people walk to the vault three times’ invites ideas. ‘You waste time walking’ closes the conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Next step

If you would like help applying Lean in your showroom, workshop or back office, book a consultation with APJ Advisory. We will look at how your business runs today and talk through practical options. You may also like our guides to written SOPs for jewellery and retail stores and policies and SOP designing.