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Jeff Hajek is the author of this reference guide you are reading and Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?, a primer on Lean for frontline employees. He also publishes the Velaction.com website, which contains an extensive online directory of Lean terminology and the Gotta Go Lean Blog. He is a Read more…
Half-life is generally a scientific term that denotes the time it takes for half of something to decay, or otherwise degrade. It is commonly used to describe the time it takes for half of the unstable atoms in radioactive material to decay. It also used in the drug industry to Read more…
Enter a heavy manufacturing facility, and you will likely hear the “clank, clank, clank” of metal hammers, or the dull thud of a dead blow hammer. Hammers are used to compensate for a quality problem elsewhere. In most cases, they are used to “adjust” a component, or install something that Read more…
Handoffs occur when work is passed from one person to another person. In most cases, a handoff entails reorienting the work and getting it ready to add value to it. Handoffs in manufacturing act a little like speed bumps. They create hiccups in the flow of work. When a handoff Read more…
A hanedashi device is an automatic part ejector. It reduces waste when an operator approaches a machine to load the next part. In a machine without a hanedashi device, the operator would have to set down the new part that he would be carrying to the machine, pull out the Read more…
Hansei is a Japanese term that loosely translates to self-reflection. In practice, though, it is much more than that. Hansei requires several things. A person must recognize that there is a problem in personal performance. Hansei is not a run-of-the-mill assessment tool. It looks at personal failings rather than system Read more…
Hard savings are those that are directly linked to reducing to an actual expense. There should be no confusion about how much was actually saved, as there is an invoice, payroll stub, bill, receipt, or the like associated with the expense. Even though there is a specific, quantifiable expense, there Read more…
The Hawthorne Effect originated from experiments at the Hawthorne Works, owned by Western Electric, in Cicero, Illinois in the first half of the 1900’s. While there were a variety of experiments, the most commonly referenced study was about illumination. Researchers conducted a series of experiments to identify the optimal lighting Read more…
Heijunka is the Japanese term for level-loading or production leveling. It is intended to smooth out the peaks and valleys of customer demand into something flatter to create conditions that make standardization easier. It also stabilizes the product mix to support Standard Work. Heijunka, pronounced High-June-Kuh, is a workaround for Read more…
A hidden factory is the set of undocumented and unstaffed processes that are done in an organization. When you dive into a process, you will often find two methods of doing it. The first is the documented method, or the one described by the operator as what he or she Read more…
A histogram is a specialized form of bar chart that shows the distribution of the data it is representing. Each bar represents a uniform range of data values, with the height of the bar showing the number of occurrences that fall into that range. Because a histogram shows a distribution, Read more…
Workspaces work best when there is minimal clutter, and everything has a specific purpose. This goal is derailed by hoarderism, one of several Lean afflictions that can prevent your company from reaching its potential. Hoarderism is the inability to throw anything out, or even send it to the red tag Read more…
Hoshin kanri is a Japanese term meaning policy deployment or strategic planning. Hoshin kanri has a few characteristics to it: Stretch goals: Hoshin kanri requires leaders to develop stretch goals that may take a number of years to achieve. These goals should come from business opportunities or risks on the Read more…
The “How You Think Links” model depicts an overview of the process that a person typically follows to progress from an event occurring, to taking action, and ultimately, to getting a result. The basic steps are: Event Interpretation Emotion Decision Action Result Most people think an emotional reaction to an Read more…