Lean thinking is often associated with manufacturing floors, production lines, and complex value stream maps. Yet waste exists in every type of process. Once you begin to see it, you realize that inefficiencies appear not only in factories but also in the everyday services we interact with.

A recent rental car experience during a business trip served as a vivid reminder of this reality. What should have been a routine pickup became a surprisingly clear illustration of Lean’s eight wastes, often remembered by the acronym DOWNTIME. The experience highlighted how these wastes frequently appear in service environments and why the often-overlooked **eighth waste—unused human talent—may be the most significant of all.

A Simple Process That Wasn’t So Simple

After landing at the airport, I headed to the rental car counter expecting a quick transaction. The reservation had been made in advance, and I was enrolled in the company’s loyalty program. In theory, everything should have been streamlined.

Instead, the process took nearly thirty minutes.

While waiting in line, I watched the same interaction repeat itself for each customer. An agent would greet the traveler, search for the reservation in the system, type through several screens, print multiple documents, ask a few questions, and sometimes restart steps along the way. The line slowly grew longer as each transaction moved through the same sequence of steps.

Individually, none of these issues seemed particularly severe. But when viewed through a Lean lens, the process contained nearly every form of waste.

Defects

The first issue appeared when the agent assisting me struggled to locate my reservation. After several minutes of searching, she discovered that the reservation had been duplicated under two different confirmation numbers, requiring the transaction to be restarted.

In Lean terms, this represents a defect—an error that requires correction or rework. Even relatively small data entry or system issues can create delays that ripple through the rest of the process.

Overproduction

During the transaction, the printer produced a surprising number of documents: contracts, promotional materials, insurance information, and receipts. Most customers glanced at the paperwork briefly before folding it away or discarding it later.

Providing more information or documentation than the customer actually needs is a form of overproduction, one of the fundamental wastes Lean seeks to eliminate.

Waiting

Waiting is often the most visible waste in service environments. As agents navigated multiple system prompts and verification steps, customers in line spent significant time simply standing idle.

From a Lean perspective, waiting occurs whenever people, information, or materials are delayed in the flow of work. Airports, healthcare systems, and many service industries struggle with this waste because processes evolve over time without being intentionally redesigned.

Non-Utilized Talent (The 8th Waste)

Perhaps the most striking observation during the experience was the underutilization of employee knowledge. The agent assisting me clearly understood the process well and even mentioned that certain steps were unnecessary or redundant. She also noted that customers frequently expressed frustration with the same delays.

Despite this awareness, she had little ability to influence or improve the process.

Lean practitioners often refer to this as the eighth waste—unused human potential. When organizations fail to capture the insights and ideas of frontline employees, valuable opportunities for improvement are lost. Those closest to the work often understand the problems better than anyone else.

Transportation

After completing the paperwork at the counter, customers were directed to another location for verification before proceeding to the vehicle lot. From a customer perspective, this additional step felt unnecessary.

In Lean terms, transportation refers to moving materials, products, or people without adding value. While transportation is sometimes required, excessive movement often signals opportunities to simplify a process.

Inventory

Walking through the rental lot revealed rows of vehicles waiting to be assigned. Some level of inventory is necessary to meet customer demand, but excess inventory ties up resources, space, and capital.

In service environments, inventory may also appear in less obvious forms, such as queued transactions, pending approvals, or backlogged requests.

Motion

The final steps of the process required walking to several kiosks and inspection points before reaching the assigned vehicle. Each additional stop involved locating information, confirming details, and retrieving keys.

Lean identifies motion as unnecessary movement by people within a process. While each step may seem small, collectively these movements increase time, effort, and complexity.

Overprocessing

The final verification step required entering some of the same information into another system before exiting the lot. This duplication of effort represented overprocessing—performing more work than the customer requires.

Overprocessing often develops gradually as systems, policies, and compliance requirements accumulate over time. Without periodic review, processes become more complex than necessary.

Seeing Waste Everywhere

What made this experience particularly interesting was how easily the wastes became visible once I began looking for them. None of the employees involved were doing anything wrong. In fact, they were doing their best to navigate the process as it had been designed.

The inefficiencies were embedded in the process itself.

This is why Lean thinking emphasizes the importance of going to see the work and asking a simple question: does this step create value for the customer? If the answer is no, it may represent an opportunity for improvement.

Why the 8th Waste Matters Most

While each of the eight wastes contributes to inefficiency, the most significant may be the failure to engage people in improving the work. Frontline employees interact with processes every day. They see the delays, the workarounds, and the frustrations customers experience.

When organizations fail to capture those insights, they overlook one of their greatest sources of improvement.

Lean organizations create environments where employees are encouraged to identify problems, suggest improvements, and participate in solving them. In doing so, they not only improve operational performance but also strengthen engagement and ownership.

Lessons for Quality and Lean Leaders

The rental car experience reinforced several important lessons. Waste exists in every type of process, not just manufacturing. Small inefficiencies accumulate and create significant delays over time. Observing everyday experiences can reveal valuable improvement opportunities, and engaging employees is essential for sustaining those improvements.

Learning to see waste is one of the most important capabilities Lean thinking provides. Once we begin to view processes through that lens, opportunities for improvement appear everywhere—from factory floors to airport rental counters.

Sometimes all it takes is a routine experience to remind us just how much opportunity still exists to make work flow better for customers and employees alike.