Tools Glossary!  

5 Why's

A simple but effective method of analyzing and solving problems by asking 'why?' five times (or as many times as needed to find the root cause). 

5S

The principle of waste elimination through workplace organization. Derived from the Japanese words seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. In English the 5S are sort, straighten, sweep, standardize, and self-discipline.

7 Wastes

There are 7 types of waste that describe all wasteful activity in a production environment. Elimination of the 7 wastes leads to improved profits. The 7 wastes are 1) Overproduction, 2) Transportation, 3) Motion, 4) Waiting, 5) Processing, 6) Inventory, and 7) Defects.

A3 Report

This "A3" sized (11 inches x 17 inches) form is used at Toyota as a one-sheet problem evaluation, root cause analysis, and corrective action planning tool.

Abnormality Management

Being able to see and quickly take action to correct abnormalities (any straying from Standard Work). This is the goal of standardization and visual management.

Activity Based Costing ABC)

A management accounting system that assigns cost to products based on the resources used to perform a process.

Agile Manufacturing 

Agile manufacturers must recognize the volatility of change, and put mechanisms in place to deal with it.

Andon

A tool of visual management, originating from the Japanese word for 'lamp'. Most commonly, andons are lights placed on machines or on production lines to indicate operation status.

Assembly Buffer 

The time buffer placed before an assembly operation on non drum parts where Drum components are assembled with non drum components.

Automatic Time

The time when a machine is running on auto cycle and a person does not needed to be there to operate the machine.

Autonomation

Stopping a line automatically when a defective part is detected.

Back Flushing

A method of recording accounting transactions for labor and materials based on what was shipped rather than by using material issues or cards. The aim of back flushing is to reduce the number of non value-added transactions.

Balance on Hand (BOH) 

Inventory levels between component parts.

Balanced Plant

A plant where capacity of all resources are balanced exactly with market demand.

Balanced production

All operations or cells produce at the same cycle time. In a balanced system, the cell cycle time is less than takt time.

Batch Manufacturing 

A production strategy that moves significant quantities of subassemblies from operation to operation in a batch.

Batch-and-Queue

Producing more than one piece of an item and then moving those items forward to the next operation before that are all actually needed there.

Benchmarking

Comparing key performance metrics with other organization in similar or relevant industries.

Best-in-Class

 A best-known example of performance in a particular operation. One needs to define both the class and the operation to avoid using the term loosely.

Bill of Activities 

A hierarchical, indexed listing of all the activities required to build a product or provide a service.

Bill of Materials (BoM)

A hierarchical, indexed listing of all the materials required to build a product or provide a service.

Black Belt 

Six Sigma team leaders responsible for implementing process improvement projects within the business 

Blitz

A fast and focused process for improving some component of business ­ a product line, a machine, or a process. It utilizes a cross-functional team of employees for a quick problem-solving exercise, where they focus on designing solutions to meet some well-defined goals.

Bottleneck

Any resource whose capacity is equal to, or less than the demand placed on it.

Breakthrough Objectives

Objectives that are 'stretch goals' for the organization, representing a significant change for the organization.

Brown Field

An existing and operating production facility.

Capacity Buffer 

The time buffer placed between the drums in multiple project.  This buffer protects the later project from the knock on effect of delays in earlier projects.

Capacity Constraint Resources (CCR)

Where a series of non-bottlenecks, based on the sequence in which they perform their jobs can act as a constraint.

Catch-Ball

 A series of discussion between managers and their employees during which data, ideas, and analysis are thrown like a ball. This opens productive dialogue throughout the entire company.

Cause and Effect Diagram

A problem solving tool used to identify relationships between effects and multiple causes (also Fishbone Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram). 

Cellular manufacturing 

The layout of machines of different types performing different operations in a tight sequence, typically in a U-shape, to permit single piece flow and flexible deployment of human effort.

Chaku-Chaku

 A method of conducting single-piece flow, where the operator proceeds from machine to machine, taking the part from one machine and loading it into the next.

Change Agent

The catalytic force moving firms and value streams out of the world of inward-looking batch-and-queue.

Change Management

The process of planning, preparing, educating, resource allocating, and implementing of a cultural change in an organization.

Changeover

The time from when the last good piece comes off of a machine or process until the first good piece of the next product is made.

Cloud 

This is the thinking process used to precisely define a problem, to surface the underlying assumptions and to enable the identification of the direction of a solution that will remove this problem.

Concurrent Engineering

Designing a product (or service), its production process, the supporting information flow, and its delivery mechanism at the same time.

Constraint

Anything that limits a system from achieving higher performance, or throughput.

Continuous flow

A concept where items are processed and moved directly from one processing step to the next, one piece at a time. Also referred to as "one piece flow" and "single piece flow."

Continuous Improvement

The never-ending pursuit of waste elimination by creating a better workplace, better products, and greater value to society.

Control Chart

A statistical problem solving tool that indicates control of a process within established limits.

Control Element

Any specific process variable that must be controlled. The measurement of a control element indicates whether the process is operating under stable conditions. 

Core Problem (CP) 

The constraint of a system where it is not a physical resource, it may be: a policy, or the belief in a false assumption, out dated measures or ineffective behaviours.

Cost of Quality

Costs associated with supplying a quality product. Categories of cost include prevention, appraisal, and failure.

Counterclockwise Flow

A basic principle of Lean manufacturing cell layout is that the flow of material and the motion of people should be from right to left, or counterclockwise. The origin of this idea came from the design of lathes and machine tools with the chucks on the left side, making it easier for right-handed people to load from right to left.

Critical Capacity Resource (CCR) 

 A CCR is a resource that may prevent the system moving closer towards its goal.

Critical Chain 

This is the longest dependent chain of events in a project plan when both resource dependency and task dependency are taken into account.

Critical Chain Completion Buffer (CCCB) 

See Project Buffer.

Critical Chain Feeder Buffer (CCFB) 

See Feeder Buffer.

Critical Path 

A Critical Path is the longest path of dependent tasks in a project network not taking resource dependency into account. (From Goldratt

Current Reality Tree (CRT) 

The TOC Thinking Process diagram that shows through solid logic how the UnDesirable Effects are linked together.  The CRT is used to pin point where improvement actions can have the greatest leverage. 

Current State Map

Helps visualize the current production process and identify sources of waste.

Cycle time

 The time required to complete one cycle of an operation. If cycle time for every operation in a complete process can be reduced to equal takt time, products can be made in single-piece flow.

Days Supply of Inventory (DSI)

Total number of days (if the production level equals zero) that it would take to deplete finished goods inventory for the specified product line.

Demand Flow 

The concept of demand flow is to pull raw materials and products through the process strictly according to the dictates of customer demand.

Dependency 

Unable to do without.  In TOC it is usually referring to two tasks or actions where one is a prerequisite for the other.

Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Design for Manufacturing is an approach to design that fosters simultaneous involvement of product design, process design, and manufacturing. 

Design of Experiments (DOE)

Planning and conducting experiments and evaluating the results. The outcome of a design of experiment includes a mathematical equation predicting the interaction of the factors influencing a process and the relevant output characteristics of the process.

Disruption 

An event that was not predicted that delays tasks, resources or materials or reveals extra work that was not expected. 

Drum 

The Drum refers to the CCR that is used to build the schedule around in an operation. 

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