Category Archives: Lean Glossary

Flow: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, , ,

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

Flow: What Is It?

Flow is defined as the Flow of a product as it moves through a process.  In Lean, the aim is “Continuous Flow”, where a product can move through the process stream uninhibited by queues, wait time, down time, re-work or other wastes, and with each step making only what is requested by the next step.

The ultimate Flow is “One Piece Flow”, where a product is made in as close to one place and time as possible and at the demand of the customer.

Flow production was introduced originally by Henry Ford, with the aim to drastically reduce human effort and the throughput time of the product.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagram: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, , , , , ,

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

Fishbone Diagram: What Is It?

First implemented by Kaoru Ishikawa, a Fishbone diagram is a method of getting to the root cause of a problem, challenge or opportunity.  It is often used in conjunction with a Kaizen meeting or event, and the 5 Whys.

To use a fishbone diagram, the problem (or “effect”) is stated at the “head” of the fish, and different areas are noted as the “bones” of the fish.

Traditionally from manufacturing environments, the bones for each area were noted as:

  1. Man
  2. Material
  3. Method
  4. Machine

In an office environment, it is often clearer and easier to state the areas as “PIPS”:

  1. People
  2. Information
  3. Process
  4. Systems

With a fishbone diagram, you brainstorm reasons with your team for why the problem is happening, and associate these with each area.

fishbone diagram

Once completed, these reasons are grouped together – for instance there may be three main “causes” that are similar, but relate to people and to process.  They are given the same number so the causes can be chunked together.  We can then delve deeper using the Five Whys.

Also check out this excerpt on finding the Root Cause from the book Five Minute Lean! It goes into the 5 Whys, Fishbone Diagrams and more.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

FIFO Lane: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, ,

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

FIFO Lane: What Is It?

FIFO Lane stands for “First In, First Out”.  It is the method of ensuring that the first part to enter a process or storage location is also the first to be used or taken.

A good example of this is the bread isle in your local supermarket, where bread is loaded at the top of the lane, and typically taken from the bottom.  This ensures that the oldest bread is taken first.

A FIFO Lane works extremely well with other Lean Principles.  If the lane is full, no more product needs to be made (avoiding over production).  An Andon can be used as a visual trigger for full or empty lanes.  As an item is taken, it can trigger production once again, and this is often done with a Kanban.  As product is only made as it is pulled by the customer, it becomes an excellent example of a Pull System.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Cycle Time: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary,

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Cycle Time: What Is It?

Cycle time is the amount of time it takes an operator to complete their process step from start to finish.

It is not to be confused with Lead time, which is the total amount of time starting when the customer places an order to when the product (or service) is delivered.

It is the opposite of Takt time, that is the rate of demand for a product as determined by the customer.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Customer: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, ,

  – Back to Lean Glossary –

“Customer”: What Does It Mean?

In Lean terms, the Customer is any person, department or work station that is downstream in the process from you.

Also in Lean terms, Value is always determined by the Customer (as a product or service they would be willing to pay for), takt time is defined as the rate of demand for a product as determined by the Customer, and implementing a Pull System in your workplace means waiting for your customer to request an item before creating the product.

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

Batch Processing: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary,

  – Back to Lean Glossary –

Batch Processing: What Is It?

Batch processing is producing large amounts of the same item, often in advance based on forecasting made by the company.

Batch processing is the enemy of Lean – as it often results in  over production (one of the Eight Wastes) requires much larger warehousing, additional travel of goods and is not based on real-time customer demand.  Batch processing can also result in unevenness (another enemy of Lean), as large batches are created followed by periods of downtime.

The opposite of Batch Processing is Continuous Flow, and especially One Piece Flow where an item is created in the same space and time based on the demand (Pull) of the customer.

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

Autonomation or Jidoka: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, ,

  – Back to Lean Glossary –

Autonomation: What Is It?

Autonomation or Jidoka is combining the efforts of person and machine to stop a process when a defect is detected.  In other words, it is Automation with a human touch.

By stopping a process as soon as a defect is discovered, team-mates are better able to discover the cause of a problem, close to the source.  In fact the steps associated with implementing Autonomation in a workplace are often:

1.  Defect is detected
2.  Stop and notify
3.  Fix the immediate condition
4.  Investigate the root cause and install a countermeasure

Jidoka is most often used with an Andon – a signal that is triggered when things are not running as they should, however it can also be built in to a process where work automatically stops if something is wrong.

The most famous example of this is the original work of Sakichi Toyoda in the early 1900s, where he invented an automatic “stop” if a thread broke on his looms, helping people to avoid wasting an entire piece of work for just one broker thread.

 – Back to Lean Glossary –

A/B Testing or Split Testing: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, ,

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Split Testing: What is it?

Split testing is the method of testing different versions of the same product, message or process and gathering the results to determine which works better.

It is most commonly used in marketing using two different advertising styles, which is the reason it is also called “A/B” testing.

Split testing, or A/B testing can be implemented with more than two different versions, but it often pays to test only two at a time and test the winner against new criteria in another split test.  For the savvy among you, this is where using AGILE methodology for fast iterations and feedback on each of your A/B tests can work wonders.

An Example of Split Testing

Michael the Marketing Manager wants to find out which ad gets the highest response rate.  He has a list of 1000 existing customers, so he sends one version of the ad to 500 customers with a link to one website landing page, and the other version of the ad to the other 500 customers and a different website landing page.

When the website from his second ad gets 150 hits more than the first one, he knows he is on to a winner.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Andon: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, ,

– Back to Lean Glossary –

Andon: What Is It?

Andon is the Japanese term for “lamp”.  In Lean terms an Andon becomes a visual management tool that shows the status of operations at a single glance, and highlights when things are not working as they should.

The typical Andon can show things like production status, machine downtime and faults or delays in a process step.  It is often shown on a board with the process stations numbered, and lit either green (normal operations) or red (defect or delay).

An Andon cord or button refers to how a team-mate notifies everyone that the process is not working as it should – by pulling the chord or pushing the button the process can stop, the Andon can be changed to red, and passing on defective product to downstream processes can be avoided.

An Andon is a part of Autonomation (Jidoka) and Visual Management.

– Back to Lean Glossary –

The Eight Wastes: Lean Glossary

Lean Glossary, , , ,

 – Back to Lean Glossary – 

The “Eight Wastes”: What Are They?

Waste, (known as “Muda” in Japanese) was traditionally a list of the seven most common form of wasteful steps, processes and blockages in an organisation.  They have evolved over the years to the “Eight Wastes” below.  They are a great standard to refer to during your Lean transformation and an easy way to showcase where problems might be occurring.

Most people will be able to identify with two or three of these in their business, and often you will be able to note five or more.

The Eight Wastes are best remembered as “DOWNTIME”, as you can see below:

  1. Defects:      Mistakes that require rectification (rework; or worse, scrap).
  2. Over Production:      Producing goods or services that do not meet the specific eeds of customers.
  3. Waiting:      Groups of people in downstream processes waiting for the completion of upstream work.
  4. Non-use of Talent:      Failure to fully utilize the time and talents of people.
  5. Transport:      Unnecessary transport of material and sub-assemblies.
  6. Inventory:      Production of inventory that no one wants.
  7. Motion:      Unnecessary movement by employees active in the production process.
  8. Excessive Processing:      Processing steps that are not needed.

It is good practice to call these out during your Kaizen meeting or event and note them on your Value Stream Map, and do a root cause analysis on why they are needed or why they are occurring.

Additional to the Wastes, and just as important, are “Muri” (OverBurden) or staff and “Mura” (Unevenness) in a process that forms peaks and troughs in a workload.

 – Back to Lean Glossary –