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Lean Jargon Buster
Let's go through some of the Jargon Words associated
with Continuous Improvement:
1. Lean
When we talk about an Organisation getting "lean" we are talking about becoming very successful with the
minimum amount or resources. This can be achieved by eliminating wasted time.
2. Muda
Muda means "wasted time" or "non value add". Muda is things that we waste time on that does not add
value for our customers. e.g. having to put items on a trolley, go up three floors to deliver work to the next stage
of the process.
3. Kaizen
Kai - literally means change and zen - for the better. So kaizen literally means change for the better or continuous improvement. It's all about changing your culture to one that is always thinking about how you can improve ways
of doing things.
4. Kaizen Blitz
A Kaizen Blitz is a facilitated structured event held over 5 working days. A blitz event is usually organised to
support
an overarching goal for the business. Typically it involves a multi level/multi disciplined team of
8-12 people. The basic format for the event is as follows:-
-
Day 1 Training
- Day 2 Understanding current condition
- Day 3 Identify Improvements
- Day 4 Make improvements and run new process
- Day 5 Presentation of results and 30 Day Action Plan
5. Turnaround time
The turnaround time is the time from a customer requesting something to us satisfying that request. e.g. If
our office dealt with some sort of application form it would be the time it takes from us receiving the application
form to sending out our response to the application.
The longer the lead time then the more the process costs .One of our primary goals using the kaizen
approach is to strip out wasted time and so reduce the lead time.
6. Pull System
A pull system is one where we request work from the previous process by some form of signal.
7. Kanban
Kanban literally means signal and it is a primary element of creating a pull system.
A Kanban can take many forms but its main aim is to visually indicate in some way that it is time to pull
work from the previous process.
The ultimate in "kaizen" is to pull one piece of work at a time.
Often geography prevents us achieving this "goal" due to lack of Process thinking at the initial Office design
phase.
8. One Piece Flow
Where a piece of work flows through the end to end process without delays.
9. Poka Yoke
Poka means inadvertent error and yokeru means to avoid.
One of the main themes of kaizen is to never pass on an error to the next stage of the process.
Doing this just adds delays, rework and costs.
A poka yoke is something that we put in place to prevent us making mistakes.
An example would be at data entry.
Say you had to enter a 10 digit code.
A poka yoke may be that if you only entered 9 digits then the system would come back to you indicating
that you haven't provided the correct information.
Poka Yokes work best for chronic errors that occur on a frequent basis.
10. Takt Time
Takt Time is the beat rate that all parts of your end to end process should be achieving to meet average
customer demand for your service.
The Takt time can obviously vary over time depending on the seasonality of your service.
11. Red Tags
Red Tags are used as part of the 5S Workplace Organisation Process.
The first S of 5S is Sort and we use red tags to identify items that are either no longer required or are not
properly stored.
Red tagging an office can eliminate lots of clutter and is a step towards making things easier to find.
It can also help free up valuable office space.
We never red tag people although there have been occasions where I've been tempted!
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Graham Ross
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