Circumstances outside control - Pitched

Circumstances outside of your control (or “Shit happens!”). Don't let this become the excuse why one of the other waste reasons occurred. It should become a red flag that alerts you to see if you can avoid the problem next time. Not knowing that John had his 3 week holiday of a lifetime booked in the middle of a key piece of development is not an excuse for missing a deadline, it should be the reason why the deadline was originally moved!

Take another example from my personal history... The government passes a law that affects your customers. Suddenly you need to drop what you are doing and focus on this new feature or functionality change. Whilst you may not have been certain the work would be needed until the law was passed, you could easily have prepared two plans, one for each circumstance! Not only would the business run more smoothly, but perhaps your customers would appreciate knowing they are in the safe hands of people who plan for this type of eventuality