Stopgaps

Stopgaps are simply temporary measures put in place to prevent the defects from a known problem within a system, process, or product from escaping to a customer. This is in stark contrast to a countermeasure, in which a permanent solution is implemented. Stopgaps are intended to be temporary, but they Read more…

Standards

A standard is a rule or principle that sets a minimum level of acceptable behavior. It is also something to which other things may be compared, such as a breed standard to evaluate dogs, or a measurement standard used to certify meters and testing devices. Standards in business are useful Read more…

Sensei

In Lean, the term sensei means “expert” or “master” and highlights the Japanese origin of modern Lean practices. Its use shows great respect to the recipient. It is normally bestowed upon Lean practitioners who have shown extraordinary skill in Lean implementation and are exceptional at passing that knowledge on to Read more…

SMED

SMED means “single minute exchange of die”. It is one of the great enablers of Lean manufacturing for the simple reason that it reduces batch sizes. Simply put, when changeover takes a long time, a machine that makes many parts needs to run big batches all at once to be Read more…

Six Sigma

“Six Sigma®” is one of two most common continuous improvement methods. Lean is the other. The term Six Sigma comes from the Greek letter ‘σ’ (sigma) that is used as the symbol for standard deviation. Six Sigma refers to how many standard deviations of the measured output of a process Read more…

Symptoms

In the medical world, a symptom is just the visible evidence of a disease or injury. For example, swollen painful joints may be a symptom of arthritis, or nausea might be a symptom of food poisoning. In continuous improvement, symptoms are similar. They are the “tells” that let you know Read more…