Lean Terminology from The Continuous Improvement Companion
Cherry picking is the practice of taking on the easiest work first. It generally has a reputation as being a bad practice. In continuous improvement, though, there are times that cherry picking is a desired practice. As a rule of thumb, if a process is intended to flow, you should Read more…
Work with Japanese Lean consultants for any length of time, and you will almost certainly hear the term “concrete head”. It is a derogatory term used to indicate people who are generally opposed to not only making changes, but even discussing them. People who are extremely susceptible to displaying this Read more…
Changeitis is an innate resistance to change, regardless of the merits of the new situation. It is one of many Lean afflictions that hamper the full potential of continuous improvement efforts. Some people get set in their ways and oppose change on general principle. These people might even complain about Read more…
Strong communication is an important ingredient for effective teams, and continuous improvement relies heavily upon teamwork. Some people, though, suffer from Clarity Impairment, a Lean affliction in which they are unable to provide information without ambiguity. This might fall into the realm of just not making sense with what they Read more…
Co-location describes dissimilar processes being placed near each other to facilitate flow. This typically happens when you are creating a product-oriented work cell on the shop floor, or when you use value stream management and have administrative teams assigned to specific product groups in the office. Like all things, there Read more…
Consumer’s risk, also known as beta risk or type-II risk, is the chance of a bad product being identified incorrectly as good and escaping to the purchaser. In technical terms, it is the act of accepting the null hypothesis (that the product is good), when the alternate hypothesis (that the Read more…
One of the most commonly told stories about Lean is of the chalk circle. Taiichi Ohno, the father of modern Lean, would draw a circle on the floor in chalk and tell his engineers or managers to stand in it to watch an operation. His instruction was simply “Watch.” After Read more…
Lean Certifications (or Six Sigma Certifications) comes in several forms. Company Internal Lean Certification. This type of certification has the drawback of being internally run, so there is little information outside of the company as to the quality of the training, the rigorousness of the training, or the resulting abilities Read more…
Central tendency is a statistics term that is used to describe where the middle of a data set lies. The challenge is that there are a few different ways to describe where that middle lies. There are three common ways to describe the centering of data. Mean (or average): the Read more…
Capability Analysis is the act of determining process capability, or the ability of a process to meet a designated set of specifications. It involves a set of statistical calculations to determine whether the spread of the performance of a process fits within the desired specification. There are several terms embedded Read more…
The word “Can’t” is not compatible with continuous improvement. It is surprising how many things that “can’t” be done get accomplished by people and teams when they actually try. “Can’t” becomes an excuse for not attempting. It also is frequently treated as gospel when people say something “can’t be done.” Read more…
Control limits are lines established 3 standard deviations from the mean on a control chart. Keep in mind that the control chart depicts averages, so exhibits a normal distribution. (See Central Limit Theorem) 99.7% of all random variation (common cause) will fall within the upper and lower control limits. Outliers Read more…