Lean Terminology from The Continuous Improvement Companion
Call centers are simply clusters of people answering phones for a particular purpose. It might be to provide information, as in a hotline for a recall. It could be for placing orders, for technical support, or for customer service. Call centers can be inbound, where customers are calling in, or Read more…
Credibility is trustworthiness. Credibility comes from a track record of getting things right. Lean, despite its global success, has to earn its credibility within a company. It is not enough for a leader to talk about the virtues of Lean, or to point to external examples. Employees have to see Read more…
Confusion is a lack of certainty. This uncertainty translates to waste. This waste is cause by two main things: Delays: Confusion creates delays in processes when operators try to figure out what to do. This leads to variation in cycle time. With enough of these delays, lead times also become Read more…
Competition is the act of trying to get your needs met over the needs of someone else. It could be competing in sports (your need to win over their need), in a job hunt (you against the thousand other applicants). Or it could be in a marketplace (trying to fight Read more…
Creativity is the ability to break the mold of traditional thinking. Most people think of creativity as the ability to come up with new ideas. But creativity is also exhibited when people use existing ideas or information in new ways. Creativity is very important to Lean. It is easy to Read more…
Conflict is the state of disagreement or opposition. Conflict is a normal part of any Lean effort. When a process is changed, people invariably have differing opinions about the best way to fix things. In some cases, there is even conflict about whether something is even a problem. Conflict is Read more…
Complacency is the state of being content with achievements while simultaneously being unaware of the pending dangers. One of the greatest risks successful Lean companies face is complacency. They make massive gains, and become highly competitive in their markets. Then they become complacent and rest on their laurels while the Read more…
Cycle time reduction is the strategy of lowering the time it takes to perform a process in order to improve productivity. In addition, cycle time reduction often improves quality. When a cycle time is too close to the takt time, there is little margin for error. If a process is Read more…
Criticism is negative feedback about something. At work, criticism can be about personal performance or a process. In a Lean culture, discussing problems is an essential part of making improvements. The key to success at addressing these issues is to make every attempt to separate the failure of a person Read more…
Changeover is the time it takes to go from the last good part of one product run to the first good part of the next product run. Quick changeover is critical to Lean. It provides the flexibility to match the product mix to actual demand. In turn, this prevents the Read more…
Who is a customer in the modern world? He is demanding. He wants his product immediately. He wants value, but that doesn’t mean cheap. It just means that he wants to feel like he gets a little more for his money. And he wants products that work, and services that Read more…
Eliyahu Goldratt put together his “Theory of Constraints” and presented its principles in his book The Goal. He explained that systems generally have a single (sometimes more) bottleneck that limits, or constrains, production. In a more general sense, a constraint is anything that prevents you from accomplishing something that you Read more…