RE: The real definition

[rpojasek@sprynet.com]

Janet Clark,

I believe that the definition I proposed does indeed address worker safety and 
input materials.  Workers are the first to be exposed to any form of waste (I 
call them process losses).  By reducing loss, you reduce the amount of material 
used.  Cause and effect diagrams address material changes along with technology 
change, method change and worker activities changes.  Products will be addressed 
when there is take back legislation and the materials become a waste then they 
are returned.  I think the use of the word waste is sometimes a problem.  The 
real beauty of the Japanese definition of just-in-time is that it addresses all 
seven forms of waste in the Toyota manufacturing system.  As pollution 
prevention practitioners we are only dealing with the physical form of waste.  
The problem is much bigger.  We need to integrate our work into this larger 
picture instead of isolating ourselves behing the myriad of terms that we have 
invented to make our work sound important.

Bob Pojasek
Cambridge Environmental Inc.
58 Charles St.
Cambridge MA 02141
rpojasek@sprynet.com