Lean Terminology from The Continuous Improvement Companion
Customer behavior is the way the average customer, in a specific target group, will act in a given situation. Customer behavior depends on a host of factors—economic class, psychology, region, culture. Like-minded customers tend to behave in similar ways. That is why ads are targeted to specific groups. In the Read more…
Frequently, people will have their teams sign a contract of change that clarifies what their role is in whatever project or initiative they are taking part in. For some reason, when people sign their names to something, they are more likely to follow through on it. These contracts generally include Read more…
A compromise involves mutual concessions by both sides during a disagreement. A compromise is characterized by each party getting less than they originally wanted in order to reach an agreement. Compare compromise to collaboration and cooperation where two parties work together to achieve common (or overlapping) goals. In those types 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 from the failure of a process.
Continuous improvement is the art of relentlessly attempting to make people, organizations, operations, and processes better. It is an all-the-time thing. It includes the reduction of costs (primarily through waste reduction), adding more value to customers, and increasing sales by offering better products and services. True continuous improvement has a Read more…
A cycle is the time from the start of a process until the operator (or machine) is ready to start the next time through the process. An alternative definition of cycle says it is the time from the start of one part until the start of the next part. The Read more…
Countermeasures are the actions taken to reduce or eliminate the root causes of problems that are preventing you from reaching your goals. In many cases, this is a formal process for a company. A company does its strategic planning, which cascades down through the levels of an organization, creating targets, or Key Performance Indicators Read more…
Costs are simply our outlays or expenses for which we get something in return. It is most often money, but it can be anything—time, money, or even something that you trade in barter. That expectation of getting something in return, given the assumption of a rational market, always implies a Read more…
Correlation is a statistical term that describes the relationship between two different, measurable factors. The relationship may be positive (same direction—one goes up, the other goes up, like temperature and the number of people on the beach), or negative (like temperature and the number of people wearing coats). The relationship Read more…
In nearly all continuous improvement projects, it is important to know how long work takes to accomplish, known as the cycle time of the process. So, what is cycle time? Lean defines cycle time as the time it takes to do a process. It includes the time from when an Read more…
Conveyors are automated systems for moving products and materials between two points. Roller tables perform the same function, but without the automation. Some are built on the ground; others are elevated to bench level. Some even hang parts from an overhead track. While conveyors certainly have an application in many Read more…
A continuous improvement culture is a shared value system that promotes the belief that what is good enough today is not good enough for tomorrow. Cultures do not change overnight. It takes time, patience, strong communication skills, and most importantly, trust between managers and their teams. A continuous improvement culture Read more…