Lean
Lean Lexicon
Cultural Background |
Training Within Industry (TWI) | |
| Kaizen and the Tools of Lean | Performance Measurement | |
|
Lean Supply Chain | |
|
Lean Lexicon | |
|
Lean Library | |
|
||
Batch-and-Queue: Producing more than one piece of an item and then moving those items forward to the next operation before that are all actually needed there. Thus, items need to wait in a queue.
Benchmarking: The process of measuring products, services, and practices against those of leading companies.
Continuous Flow Production: Means that items are produced and moved from one processing step to the next one piece at a time. Each process makes only the one piece that the next process needs, and the transfer batch size is one. Also called "single-piece flow" or "one-piece flow."
Current State Map: Helps visualize the current production process and identify sources of waste.
Cycle Time: The time required to complete one cycle of an operation.
Flow: A main objective of the lean production effort, and one of the important concepts that passed directly from Henry Ford to Toyota. Ford recognized that, ideally, production should flow continuously all the way from raw material to the customer and envisioned realizing that ideal through a production system that acted as one long conveyor.
Five S: Five terms utilized to create a workplace suited for visual control and lean production. Sort means to separate needed tools, parts, and instruction from unneeded materials and to remove the latter. Simplify means to neatly arrange and identify parts and tools for ease of use. Scrub means to conduct a cleanup campaign. Standardize means to conduct Sort, Simplify, and Scrub at frequent intervals to maintain a workplace in perfect condition. Sustain means to form the habit of always following the first Ss.
Kanban: A signaling device that gives instruction for production or conveyance of items in a pull system. Can also be used to perform kaizen by reducing the number of Kanban in circulation, which highlights line problems.
Lean: Business processes requiring less human effort, capital investment, floor space, materials, and time in all aspects of operation.
Mistake Proofing: Any change to an operation that helps an operator to reduce or eliminate mistakes.
Muda: Anything that interrupts the flow of products and services through the value stream and out to the customer is designated Muda or waste.
Non-Value Added: Activities or actions taken that add no real value to the product or service making such activities or action a form of waste.
PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act):
PLAN: Senior management should use the visioning process in the context of it Business Plan. HP translates the Business Plans to action plans, meaningful to all levels of the organization.
DO: Answer the whats, hows, and whos for the total number of tiers for your organization; remember, the fewer the number of tiers, the better. Also, this is the time to bring management together and provide them with a basic understanding of HP mechanics.
CHECK: On a periodic basis, review the measurements and note what you´ve learned that could help in the future.
ACT: Make the necessary adjustments to plans and priorities in order to ensure the success of the strategy breakthroughs.
Processing Time: The time a product is actually being worked on in a machine or work area. PULL: A system of cascading production and delivery instructions from downstream to upstream activities in which the upstream supplier waits until the downstream customer signals a need. A pull system means producing only what has been consumed by downstream activities or customers.
Pull System: One of the 3 elements of JIT. In the pull systems, the downstream process takes the product they need and pulls it from the producer. This customer’s pull is a signal to the producer that the product is sold. The pull system links accurate information with the process to minimize waiting and overproduction.
Push System: In contrast to the pull system, product is pushed into a process, regardless of whether it is needed. The pushed product goes into inventory, and lacking a pull signal from the customer indicating that it has been bought, more of the same product could be overproduced and put in inventory.
Sensei: An outside master or teacher that assists in implementing lean practices.
Seven wastes: Taiichi Ohno¹s original catalog of the wastes commonly found in physical production. These are overproduction ahead of demand, waiting for the next processing stop, unnecessary transport of materials, over processing of parts due to poor tool and product design, inventories more than the absolute minimum, unnecessary movement by employees during the course of their work, and production of defective parts.
Standards: These involve comparison with accepted norms, such as are set by regulatory bodies.
Standard Work: A precise description of each work activity specifying cycle time, takt time, the work sequence of specific tasks, and the minimum inventory of parts on hand needed to conduct the activity.
Takt Time: The available production time divided by the rate of customer demand. For example, if customers demand 240 widgets per day and the factory operations 480 minutes per day, takt time is two minutes; if customers want two new products designed per month, takt time is two weeks. Takt time sets the pace of production to match the rate of customer demand and becomes the heartbeat of any lean system.
Value: A capability provided to a customer at the right time at an appropriate price, as defined in each case by the customer.
Value Stream: The specific activities required to design, order and provide a specific product, from concept to launch, order to delivery, and raw materials into the hands of the customer.
Value Stream Mapping: Highlights the sources of waste and eliminates them by implementing a future state value stream that can become reality within a short time.
Visual Control: The placement in plain view of all tools, parts, production activities, and indicators of production system performance so everyone involved can understand the status of the system at a glance.
Waste: Anything that uses resources, but does not add real value to the product or service.