Lean Flashcards
Lean (also known as Lean Synchronisation)
an approach to operations management that emphasises the continual elimination of waste of all types, often used interchangeably with just-in-time (JIT); it is more an overall philosophy whereas JIT is usually used to indicate an approach to planning and control that adopts lean principles
Just-in-time (JIT)
a method of planning and control and an operations philosophy that aims to meet demand instantaneously with perfect quality and no waste
Kanban
Japanese term for card or signal; it is a simple controlling device that is used to authorize the release of materials in pull control systems such as those used in JIT
Buffer inventory
an inventory that compensates for unexpected fluctuations in supply and demand; can also be called safety inventory
Muda
all activities in a process that are wasteful because they do not add value to the operation or to the customer
Mura
a term meaning lack of consistency or unevenness that results in periodic overloading of staff or equipment
Muri
waste because of unreasonable requirements placed on a process that will result in poor outcomes
Gemba
also sometimes called Gamba, term used to convey the idea of going to where things actually take place as a basis for improvement
Kaizen
Japanese term for continuous improvement
Continuous improvement
an approach to operations improvement that assumes many, relatively small, incremental improvements in performance, stressing the momentum of improvement rather than the rate of improvement; also known as ‘kaizen’, often contrasted with breakthrough improvement
Value stream map
a mapping process that aims to understand the flow of material and information through a process or series of processes, it distinguishes between value-added and non-value-added times in the process
Pull control
a term used in planning and control to indicate that a workstation requests work from the previous station only when it is required, one of the fundamental principles of just-in-time planning and control
Seven types of waste
types of waste identified by Toyota, they are overproduction, waiting time, transport, process waste, inventory, motion, and defectives
Visual management
an approach to making the current and planned state of an operation or process transparent to everyone
Andon
a light above a workstation that indicates its state, whether working, waiting for work, broken down, etc.; andon lights may be used to stop the whole line when one station stops
Levelled scheduling
the idea that the mix and volume of activity should even out over time so as to make output routine and regular, sometimes known by the Japanese term ‘heijunka’
Statistical process control (SPC)
a technique that monitors processes as they produce products or services and attempts to distinguish between normal or natural variation in process performance and unusual or ‘assignable’ causes of variation
Set-up reduction
the process of reducing the time taken to change over a process from one activity to the next; also called ‘single-minute exchange of dies’ (SMED) after its origins in the metal pressing industry
5 S’s
a simple housekeeping methodology to organise work areas. Originally translated from the Japanese, they are generally taken to mean sort, strengthen, shine, standardised, and sustain. The aim is to reduce clutter in the workplace
Total productive maintenance (TPM)
an approach to maintenance management that adopts a similar holistic approach to total quality management (TQM)
Bottleneck
the capacity-constraining stage in a process; it governs the output of the whole process
Optimised production technology (OPT)
software and concept originated by Eliyahu Goldratt to exploit his theory of constraints (TOC)
Theory of constraints (TOC)
philosophy of operations management that focuses attention on capacity constraints or bottleneck parts of an operation; uses software known as ‘optimised production technology’ (OPT)
Drum, buffer, rope
an approach to operations control that comes from the theory of constraints (TOC) and uses the bottleneck stage in a process to control materials movement
P:D ratio
a ratio that contrasts the total length of time customers have to wait between asking for a product or service and receiving it (D) and the total throughput time to produce the product or service (P)
Push control
a term used in planning and control to indicate that work is being sent forward to workstations as soon as it is finished on the previous workstation
Programme evaluation and review technique (PERT)
a method of network planning that uses probabilistic time estimates
