The following is a list of activities performed in an office. Classify each one as a type of waste as represented by the acronym DOWNTIME (Defect, Overproduction, Waiting, Not utilizing people to their full potential, Transportation, Inventory, Movement, and Excess processing).
a. To retrieve inventory records, clerks must click through several menus in the program to get to the record needed.
b. Sales orders are put into the computer by the sales people in the field and paper reports are generated; these sales orders are then entered into the order processing system by clerks who type the orders based on the paper reports.
c. The office is run by the office managers; employees do as they are told.
d. The computer system requires frequent restarting; restarting takes five minutes.
e. Loan approval files frequently contain errors.
f. The files needed for loan approval are carried to and from the file storage office when the files are needed.
g. Office supplies are stockpiled in the supply closet; the office manager buys in large quantities when there are sales.
h. Paperwork (for orders that might change) is printed before it is needed.
i. The office computers are slow to do the processing; the computers need to be upgraded.
j. Orders in the system are frequently missing information.
k. Employees do not have the authority and responsibility to make routine decisions.
l. Pending vacation requests must be taken to the third floor offices to get the signature of the human resources manager.
m. Approval of loans is done in batches, once a week, rather than as the loan paperwork is finished for each individual loan.
n. Each time a document needs to be notarized, someone must search for the notary seal (used to make the seal impression on the document).
o. The accounting report produces segment reports because these reports have been produced for years even though managers use other reports to manage their divisions.
p. The office manager insists that a spreadsheet program is used to store customer records, even though it would be more efficient to use a database program.