The question is about identifying types of waste in a process. In the context of Lean methodology, which is often applied in healthcare quality improvement, waste is any activity that doesn’t add value to the end product or service1.
In the given scenario, the process for distributing paychecks to employees was analyzed and the following issues were identified:
Multiple checkpoints for approval
Delays in processing of the checks
Errors that caused extra work for staff
These issues can be mapped to the following types of waste:
Defects: Errors that cause extra work fall under this category. In this case, the errors in the paycheck distribution process that resulted inadditional work for the staff are considered defects1.
Waiting: Delays in processing checks represent the waste of waiting. This refers to the time wasted waiting for the next step in a process1.
Overprocessing: Having multiple checkpoints for approval can be seen as overprocessing, which refers to doing more work than needed1.
Therefore, the types of waste identified during the analysis are defects, waiting, and overprocessing, which corresponds to option B. This answer is verified as per healthcare quality documents and learning resources1.
