“B” Entries From Our Lean Glossary, Part of The Continuous Improvement Companion
Our extensive Lean Glossary contains several hundred terms and is growing all the time. These Lean definitions go way beyond the ordinary, though. Most are extremely long and packed with content about how the term affects you in building a continuous improvement culture.
These listings are part of our Continuous Improvement Companion, and are critical to developing a Lean Business System.
See all we have in our Lean Glossary (and other posts about the subject you want to learn about) with our search function.
The terms “back office” and “front office” refer to customer contact. Those that have direct customer contact are the front office. Others who work in administrative roles are the “back office”. The terms originally came from the physical layout of an office building, but with the advent of improved communication, Read more…
Backflushing is an accounting method that applies costs to production but can also be used to manage inventory. It is also known as “postproduction issuing.” When an operation is completed, the appropriate materials and other resources are issued against the production order. The inventory levels in the system of all Read more…
The concept of an order backlog is pretty simple. It is the queue of orders that are waiting to be fulfilled. This queue occurs when customer demand exceeds the ability to immediately supply items to the customer. Backlogs tend to be dynamic. That simply means that they grow and shrink Read more…
Backsliding it the act of reverting to a pre-improvement process. If you were to plot improvement over time on a run chart, backsliding would give the curve a saw-tooth look to it. A gain followed by a drop, followed by a gain and another drop. Backsliding is reduced by standardization Read more…
Employee backups are the people who fill in when the regular operator is absent. Having backups implies something. It means that the team has regularly assigned positions and does little or no job rotation. In great Lean companies, standard work is in full force and people rotate in and out Read more…
Baka yoke is the Japanese term for “fool proofing” or “idiot proofing”. Needless to say, it is not the most politically correct of terms, and has been replaced in common use by poka yoke, or “mistake proofing”. The principle is the same for both terms. Prevent mistakes rather than correct Read more…
The Balanced Scorecard is a management tool developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton and published in their book titled The Balanced Scorecard. The book focuses on four areas: Financial performance Customer knowledge Internal business processes Learning and growth The term “balanced”, as explained in their preface, is many faceted. Read more…
Bar charts are generally used to differentiate between the values of a parameter for buckets of data. The length of the bar shows the relative value of that data point. That just means that the bars represent a group, such as types of fruit in these examples, and the longer Read more…
Barriers to entry are the variety of factors that keep new entrants from competing in a particular industry. It may be the strength of the brands of the incumbents. It may be the cost of developing competing technology. It may be access to raw materials or distribution channels. It may Read more…
Most continuous improvement efforts, either directly or indirectly, are centered on improving flow. Flow is the condition where work moves from one process to the next without stopping. Improving flow means taking out all the efficiencies that keep that continuous movement smooth and direct. When flow doesn’t exist, it is Read more…
Baselines are essential to improvements. They are the starting point for a process to be changed or are reference points for ongoing processes. Baselines can be used in two main ways. First, they can be used to establish current conditions prior to a project. This is essential to knowing if Read more…
A baseline metric is a snapshot of the state of a process or operation prior to making improvements. In effect, it is the “before” measures of a process. It is important to know baseline metrics prior to making any changes. Without a clear understanding of your initial capabilities, you’ll be Read more…
In traditional manufacturing, there is a tendency to run large lots, or batches. This occurs for a variety of reasons—large distances between processes, long setup times, or simply poor processes. When the batch is transferred to the downstream process, it sits in line. That is the ‘queuing’ part of batch Read more…
Batch manufacturing is the traditional form of manufacturing where production is completed in lots of various size, and the lots are passed along en masse to the next step. Typically, layouts in batch manufacturing are done by function—a weld shop, a paint shop, a fabrication shop, etc. Another name for Read more…
Batches are groups of products that go through a process together. Batches work against the Lean principle of flow, because the first parts that are produced have to wait until the rest of the parts are completed before they can all move to the downstream process. Batches tend to drive Read more…
“Bells and Whistles” are the extras on a product…or on a process. On a product, bells and whistles are the features that enhance the product, but don’t significantly change the function. Years ago, power windows were part of the bells and whistles packages that carmakers used to distinguish cars from Read more…
Benchmarking is simply the practice of finding someone who does something well and using it as a reference to set the bar for improvement. This can be done within the same industry (i.e. comparisons to competitors), or in other industries to spur revolutionary thinking. One frequently overlooked opportunity for benchmarking Read more…
The term ‘best practice’ is commonly used to describe a standout process that is the best known way to do something. ‘Best practice’ is really a misnomer. There is no such thing as a ‘best’ practice—only a ‘best known practice’. The term itself goes contrary to the whole premise of Read more…
Beta risk, statistically speaking, is the risk associated with accepting a null hypothesis when it is actually false. In other words, beta risk is a false negative in which a product is said to be free of defects when it actually has one. Beta risk is also known as a Read more…
Better, not perfect is a mantra about conserving resources. It does not mean to stop seeking perfection. It just means that for now, don’t seek perfection in one area while others are still struggling. Generally, improvement costs rise as low hanging fruit is picked. That means that perfection is elusive. Read more…
There are two ways to look at the term “bias”. The first is the technical, statistical meaning. It is the systematic error component, or the difference between what the observed value is and what the actual value is. You might have selection bias in which a non-representative sample is chosen. Read more…
A bimodal distribution is a distribution that has two separate and distinct peaks in it. A distribution of a data set describes the relative frequency of the occurrence of outcomes within each defined set of ranges. The term “bimodal” comes from the prefix “bi” meaning two. “Modal” comes from the Read more…
The term “birdcage” has two basic meanings in continuous improvement. The most common usage applies to when a work area encloses a person, trapping them inside. It is usually commonly applied to manufacturing areas where material racks and workbenches isolate a person, but cubicles act in a very similar way. Read more…
There are a variety of certification ranks in continuous improvement environments. Most use the belt system that originated with Six Sigma, but has spread to Lean. Typically, Green Belts are people who have been trained in a general manner to do basic projects. Black Belts have more expertise and are Read more…
In good Lean operations, blame is never the goal of problem-solving efforts. It is sometimes a byproduct, as, on occasion, the facts lead you to a specific person. But even then, in most cases, their shortcomings are the result of either a poor process or poor training. True people problems Read more…
A blitz is an intensive project, typically a week long, with focused gains in mind. The term kaizen or kaizen event are sometimes used interchangeably with blitz. Kaizen, in a broader sense though, is any effort to make something better. It makes for a bit of confusion about whether you Read more…
Boredom, not surprisingly, is simply tedium or a lack of excitement in your job. Boredom (or lack thereof) plays a big role in job satisfaction. Nobody wants to go to work and face eight or ten dull, monotonous hours every day. What a lot of people fail to recognize is Read more…
The term “bottleneck” (capacity constraint) comes from the area at the top of the bottle that limits the flow coming out. It doesn’t matter how big the rest of the bottle is—liquid will only flow out as fast as the size of the neck will allow. That is stating the Read more…
“Bowling chart” is the nickname given to the tracking sheets used to monitor either KPIs or policy deployment objectives. Its name comes from the similarity to a bowling scorecard. You may also hear the term “bowler” used to describe these forms. The form compares the targets (plan) to actual performance Read more…
Brainstorming techniques have varying degrees of structure, but they are all used to generate ideas. Brainstorming techniques include: A brainstorming session in which everyone in the room blurts out ideas. A brainstorming session that takes a round-robin approach, with each person presenting an idea in turn. A brainstorming session in Read more…
This may seem obvious, but a brand is the identifier that lets customers know the company producing the product or service they are buying. It distinguishes between the products of different businesses. In many cases, brands are trademarked. To prevent confusion with consumers, other companies are not allowed to use Read more…
The break-even point is the point (number of units sold) where the company can “break-even” and start earning profit. When a product or service is sold to a customer, the company incurs both fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are the same regardless of the number of units sold. Variable Read more…
Breakthrough improvements are major changes in processes that yield business-altering results. Continuous improvement, on the other hand, is the relentless attack on waste that makes companies get better at a steady pace. A strong, improvement-oriented company will have both breakthrough improvements and a continuous improvement culture as part of its Read more…
Breakthrough objectives are targets that can only be achieved with significant changes to the way the company operates. A company cannot achieve them by doing business as usual. Breakthrough objectives often cascade down from an aggressive strategic plan. Sometimes a breakthrough objective is established based on an opportunity. For example, Read more…
The process of giving instructions often leaves a significant amount of room for misinterpretation. People are often distracted during the briefing, or skim the email containing instructions. Or, the recipient may just make some different assumptions than the person delivering the instructions. Regardless, as in the childhood game of “telephone”, Read more…
A production buffer is a type of inventory allocated specifically as a hedge against variation. The root cause of the unpredictability may be due to the normal variation of a process, or any of a variety of types of special cause variation. The latter causes include things like supplier unreliability, Read more…
Buffer time, in project management, is the extra time added into a time estimate to keep a project on track. The purpose of this leeway in planning is risk management. It allows project managers to be able to account for unforeseen situations without having to change the coordination of a Read more…