Waste: an essential

At the moment many people are demanding the elimination of "waste". We can all save money by cutting out waste. Politicians are very fond of this mantra because they claim that this method will enable them to save public expenditure and maintain services. But is this really feasible?

I am reminded of the story of Shylock who only wanted his "pound of flesh" but could not get just his pound of flesh. Perhaps it is the same with waste. Is waste the oil that stops the engine overheating, does it provide the flexibility when things go wrong? If there was no waste everything would have to work perfectly all the time. Systems would be designed to work at the limits of their capabilities at all times.

It would be dangerous for planes to fly with no waste, extra back up facilities, exactly the amount of fuel if the everything went according to plan. So why do we expect organizations to work up to their maximum capacity all the time without back-up facilities. If we could eliminate waste from all systems would they just become arthritic and seize up.

The question is how much waste, or spare capacity, do we need?