MIT16 660JIAP12 Glossary PDF
MIT16 660JIAP12 Glossary PDF
MIT16 660JIAP12 Glossary PDF
Term Description
5 Whys A process of asking why? five times in a row to get to
the root cause for something. Five is a guideline or rule
of thumb. Sometimes fewer or more questions are
needed. 5 Whys is not a unique process. Different
people may arrive at different root causes.
5S Sort, Straighten, Scrub, Standardize, Sustain.
A disciplined approach to improve workplace efficiency
by eliminating non-value added clutter and materials,
making it easy for workers to find just what they need,
just when they need it. The original Japanese 5S terms
are Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke.
Various translations into English are found, each
keeping S as the first letter. There is an implied
progression to start with the first S and move towards
the final S.
6S Americans added Safety to 5S, and there are various
versions of where Safety fits and its actual verbiage.
The LAI Lean Academy uses Sort, Safe, Straighten,
Scrub, Standardize, and Sustain.
8 wastes Categories of waste (muda) used to help identify non-
valued added activities: overproduction, inventory,
transportation, unnecessary movement, waiting,
defective outputs, over processing, unused employee
creativity. The first seven originated from Toyota. The
eighth was added, realizing that non-engagement of
employees in continuous process improvement was a
waste of human resources. Variations of these
wordings are found.
A3 Named for the A3 size of paper (approx 11 x 17) used
to capture an improvement plan. A3 is both a tool (a
formatted piece of paper) and a way of thinking about
continuous process improvement.
Activity time Another name for processing time, the time that work is
being done on a task.
Andon A specific visual control device, usually a set of red-
yellow-green lights, to show the current status of a
process station.
Balanced work Having the time for each step of a multistep process be
approximately the same as the overall takt time to
enable smooth flow with no bottlenecks.
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