Stefanie Sendelbach (asker) Aug 7, 2006:

To Anne Thank you for the link. The explanation fits my context very well. I hope someone else knows the German term.

Stefanie Sendelbach (asker) Aug 7, 2006:

To Wenjer Nope, there are no explanations. What I described above is just my own interpretation of why the other terms are referred to as waste.

Anne Spitzmueller Aug 7, 2006:

http://newsletter.plmworld.org/archive/Vol4No4/fine_tuning.p...

Anne Spitzmueller Aug 7, 2006:

Hi Stefanie, unfortunately I cannot provide a translation (that's why I refrained from posting an answer) but I found an explanation which might be of interest to you or other answerers who know more about the subject:

Wenjer Leuschel (X) Aug 7, 2006:

Aha. I think these item are listed first and explained later. There must be some explanations later about why they are wastes, something like you explained above.

Stefanie Sendelbach (asker) Aug 7, 2006:

Hi Wenjer, Thanks for your note. The above items are considered waste in the context of Lean Manufacturing. Sleeping material refers to material that is not used and takes up space. Tall racks and storage areas means that the workers need more time to get/bring stuff from/to these racks. Complex machines might refer to more time that is needed for the workers to learn how to deal with these machines.

Wenjer Leuschel (X) Aug 7, 2006:

Frankly speaking, all those in the lists are not considered waste by me. It is a puzzle. Can you provide some more context?