A Japanese term meaning signboard or graphic

A report adapted from Toyota, in which one 11’’x7’’ page is used to describe a problem and propose a solution

A maintenance philosophy designed to integrate equipment maintenance into the manufacturing process. The goal of any program is to eliminate losses tied to equipment maintenance or, in other words, keep equipment producing only good product, as fast as possible with no unplanned downtime

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

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

Standardized Work

Statistical analysis used to assess whether a system is statistically able to meet a set of requirements and specifications, calculates the values within which the system is expected to operate – either minimum or maximum acceptable values

Process Capability Analysis

Application of statistical methods and procedures to analyze the inherent variability of a process or its outputs to achieve and maintain a state of statistical control, and to improve the process capability

Statistical Process Control

The process of smoothing the type and quantity of production over a fixed period of time, production leveling

Heijunka

waste (over processing), unevenness in operations, overburdening of people and equipment

Muda, Mura, Muri

Integral part of lean manufacturing, signaling replenishment via kanban signal

Supermarket Pull System

A diagram representing the physical path taken by a product (or service) as it travels through all the steps required to transform a requirement into a deliverable. This can also be used to draw the path walked by those involved in completing the required activities to deliver the product (or service). The diagram derives its name from the way it commonly looks after mapping a process that within a function based organization because the diagram looks much like a plate of spaghetti

Spaghetti Diagram

The method of production in which operators or machines work on single units and pass them along to the next process when requested

One Piece Flow

It is the cost of NOT creating a quality product or service, any cost that wouldn’t have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality

Costs of Quality

fluctuation caused by unknown factors resulting in a steady but random distribution of output around the average of the data, is any identifiable factor which causes variation in a process outside the predicted limits, thereby altering quality

Common Cause vs Assignable Cause Variation

Planning is more than a compass for steering the direction of your business processes. It is a strategic means of control that allows your organization to make quick turns, changes, and adjustments before you become trapped in crisis. Success in a highly competitive world requires more than focus and direction. You must have innovation. Planning is the means for keeping the actions and innovations of your people aligned with your organization’s strategic intent

Hoshin Kanri

Japanese approach to ‘mistake proofing’ in all aspects of manufacturing, customer service, procurement, etc. It employs visual signals that make mistakes clearly stand out from the rest, or devices that stop an assembly line or process if a part or step is missed. Its older name is baka yoke (fool proofing)

Poka Yoke

He is considered to be the father of the Toyota Production System, which became Lean Manufacturing in the U.S. He devised the seven wastes as part of this system. He wrote several books about the system, including Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production

Taichi Ohno

Often used interchangeably with “quick changeover.” Quick changeover is the practice of reducing the time it takes to change a line or machine from running one product to the next in as little time as possible. Refers to the target of reducing changeover times to a single digit, or less than 10 minutes. The need for quick changeover programs is more popular now than ever due to increased demand for product variability, reduced product life cycles, and the need to significantly reduce inventories

SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die)

A process used to capture the requirements and feedback from the customer (internal or external) to provide the customers with the best in class service/product quality. This process is all about being proactive and constantly innovative to capture the changing requirements of the customers with time; The term used to describe the stated and unstated needs or requirements of the customer

Voice of the Customer

Given by the President of the United States to businesses – manufacturing and service, small and large – and to education and health care organizations that apply and are judged to be outstanding in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results

Malcolm Baldridge Award

Method used for improvement, acronym that stands for: define goals of the improvement activity, measure the existing system, analyze the system to identify ways to eliminate the gap between the current performance of the system or process and the desired, improve the system, control the system

DMAIC Cycle

Translates to “Intelligent Machines” and it refers to the machine’s ability to detect a problem and stop iteself

Jidoka

Known as a teacher and is deeply respected for having knowledge and wisdom. They can coach and teach people in the company and have learned through deep experiences. Key thing about the Sensei is that they are there to teach and not to do it for you

Sensei

A Japanese industrial engineer, distinguished himself as the world’s leading experts on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System, created the Prize which recognizes world-class organizations and operational excellence, created the principle known as SMED

Shigeo Shingo

Activities identified and categorized as non-value adding events or processes that limit profitability in a company: overproduction, waiting/delay, transporting, over-processing, unnecessary inventory, unnecessary movement, and defects

7 Lean Wastes

Approach used during the narrow phase of root cause analysis, in which teams brainstorm successive answers to the question “why is this a cause of the original problem?” For each new answer, repeat question until there are no new answers

5 Why’s

six sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection, six sigma is disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminated defects in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. Corporations such as early Six Sigma pioneers General Electric and Motorola developed certification programs as part of their Six Sigma implementation, verifying individuals' command of the Six Sigma methods at the relevant skill level (Green Belt, Black Belt etc.)

Six Sigma Belt Certifications

a process; identify and analyzing the problem, developing and testing a potential solution, measuring how effective the test solution was and analyzing wheter it could be improved in any way, implementing the improved solution fully

Plan Do Check Act

Gradual approach to ever higher standards in quality enhancement and waste reduction, through small but continual improvements but continual improvements involving everyone from the chief executive to the lowest level workers

Kaizen

a prominent concept in lean, refers to a visual signal that workers would get if there is any type of malfunction in manufacturing, it completely stops the process and avoids any mishaps

Andon Cord

one of the five core values of Toyota: going to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus and achieve goals

Genchi Genbutsu

The number of defects for every million opportunities, it is possible for one unit to have many chances of having a defect, part of the Six Sigma process is to try to attain 3.4 or fewer defects per million opportunities

Defects Per Million Outputs (DPMO)

The name given to a series of decision making techniques created by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt around 1980 and later applied and augmented by others, has been applied to production planning, production control, project management, supply chain management, accounting and performance management, applies techniques of the hard sciences such as cause-and-effect, to soft sciences such as business management

Theory of Constraints

a lean production term which in Japanese means radical overhaul of inactivity to remove waste and create greater value. It is also called break through kaizen

Kaikau

A function created by which measures the financial impact when a project is deviated from its target goal

Taguchi Loss Function