Lean

Question 1

Lean (also known as Lean Synchronisation)

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Just-in-time (JIT)

Answer 2

a method of planning and control and an operations philosophy that aims to meet demand instantaneously with perfect quality and no waste

Question 3

Kanban

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Buffer inventory

Answer 4

an inventory that compensates for unexpected fluctuations in supply and demand; can also be called safety inventory

Question 5

Muda

Answer 5

all activities in a process that are wasteful because they do not add value to the operation or to the customer

Question 6

Mura

Answer 6

a term meaning lack of consistency or unevenness that results in periodic overloading of staff or equipment

Question 7

Muri

Answer 7

waste because of unreasonable requirements placed on a process that will result in poor outcomes

Question 8

Gemba

Answer 8

also sometimes called Gamba, term used to convey the idea of going to where things actually take place as a basis for improvement

Question 9

Kaizen

Answer 9

Japanese term for continuous improvement

Question 10

Continuous improvement

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Value stream map

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Pull control

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Seven types of waste

Answer 13

types of waste identified by Toyota, they are overproduction, waiting time, transport, process waste, inventory, motion, and defectives

Question 14

Visual management

Answer 14

an approach to making the current and planned state of an operation or process transparent to everyone

Question 15

Andon

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Levelled scheduling

Answer 16

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’

Question 17

Statistical process control (SPC)

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Set-up reduction

Answer 18

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

Question 19

5 S’s

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Total productive maintenance (TPM)

Answer 20

an approach to maintenance management that adopts a similar holistic approach to total quality management (TQM)

Question 21

Bottleneck

Answer 21

the capacity-constraining stage in a process; it governs the output of the whole process

Question 22

Optimised production technology (OPT)

Answer 22

software and concept originated by Eliyahu Goldratt to exploit his theory of constraints (TOC)

Question 23

Theory of constraints (TOC)

Answer 23

philosophy of operations management that focuses attention on capacity constraints or bottleneck parts of an operation; uses software known as ‘optimised production technology’ (OPT)

Question 24

Drum, buffer, rope

Answer 24

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

Question 25

P:D ratio

Answer 25

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)

Question 26

Push control

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Programme evaluation and review technique (PERT)

Answer 27

a method of network planning that uses probabilistic time estimates