A list of Japanese Lean Terms from The Continuous Improvement Companion
With Lean tracing its roots back to Japan, it is not surprising that the continuous improvement philosophy is chock full of Japanese Lean Terms.
This Japanese Lean Dictionary gathers up all those Japanese terms in one place for your convenience.
If you want more information, also check out our complete Lean dictionary of over 500 terms.
See if we have any additional information about your Japanese Lean Term by entering it in our search function.
An andon light is one of the most common forms of visual management that is used in Lean. It is a staple in the bag of Lean tools because it is highly effective at keeping operations running smoothly. In Lean, the term “andon” most often refers to a signaling system 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…
A chaku-chaku line has a series of machines, each equipped with a hanedashi device, or autoejector. This enables the operator working a chaku-chaku line to: walk up and immediately insert the part he is holding into a machine press a start button, and then pick up the previously ejected part. Read more…
A concrete head is someone who is resistant to the changes that Lean brings. Obviously, this is a derogatory term. The term “concrete head’ is the result of a translation from Japanese. In working with Japanese consultants, it appeared that the term was applied to individuals who displayed resistance, but Read more…
Literally translated, “gemba” means “the real place”. To experienced practitioners of Lean, this means the place where work is actually being done or value is being created. NOTE: You may also hear the term as genba, with an “N”. Those who focus more on the traditional manufacturing roots of Lean Read more…
Gembutsu is a Japanese word meaning “real thing”. It is one of the components of the ‘Three Reals‘ meaning go to the real place (gemba) to see the real thing (gembutsu) and collect the real facts (genjitsu). This term simply means that there is no substitute for seeing something with Read more…
“Genchi genbutsu” is a Japanese term that loosely translates to “go and see”. Essentially, it means to go to the actual spot where actual work is happening on the actual product to confirm your conclusions. Similar to the term “go to gemba“, the spirit of genchi genbutsu is to avoid 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…
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…
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 most common definition of jidoka is “autonomation”. It is Japanese in origin, as are many specialized words in Lean. The term traces its roots back to the early 1900’s at Toyota in Japan, then a textile manufacturing company. Sakichi Toyoda, an inventor and the founder of Toyota, developed a Read more…
Kaikaku is revolutionary change. Where kaizen is generally evolutionary in nature, Kaikaku requires radical shifts in thinking. Revolutionary changes tend to be far more challenging in nature and much less common than incremental improvement. Because of the broad, sweeping changes that kaikaku brings, it is generally driven by higher level Read more…
Kaizen is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “change for the good”. Many people equate this to putting together a team of people from several work areas to do a week-long project to reduce waste or improve a process’s flow. These projects may be called a kaizen blitz, a Read more…
A kaizen charter is a form that lays out the scope and goals of a rapid improvement project. Get Our Kaizen Charter Form for FREE The kaizen charter is a living document that evolves throughout the planning process. It establishes the team, and scopes the project, setting the goals and Read more…
A kaizen event is a discrete continuous improvement project with a defined start and end point, usually done in a single week. A typical kaizen event consists of a day of training, a day of process walking and analyzing the information gathered, followed by two days of improvement activity. The Read more…
A kanban is a signal that gives an instruction to get, move, produce, order, or take some other activity with production materials. Its literal translation from the original Japanese term, though, is “signboard” or “billboard”. Kanbans tell you when to order, what to order, how much to order, and where Read more…
Many Lean terms can trace their origins to Japan. Muda is one of those terms. It really translates to “wasteful activity”, but in common practice most people equate muda to waste. Since one of Lean’s main goals is reducing waste to improve flow, it is no surprise that muda has Read more…
Mura is one of three Japanese terms meaning waste. The others are muda, the traditional form of waste in which resources are not effectively used, and muri, meaning overburden or overexertion. Mura means inconsistency or excess variation in either processes or demand. When processes can’t be standardized because of the Read more…
Muri is a Japanese term for a specific form of waste. It means unreasonableness or overexertion. It is often referred to with two other Japanese terms. Muda is the traditional view of waste in which resources are used without adding to output. Mura is inconsistency or unevenness, usually as a Read more…
Nagara is a Japanese term meaning “while doing something”. It simply means to do more than one thing at a time. For example, a person may be able to assemble two parts while walking. In practice, though, the application of the nagara principle is limited. In most cases, a process Read more…
A good definition of poka yoke is simply “mistake proofing”. Of note, the term is of Japanese origin and is one of the handful of the more commonly used Japanese terms that have become mainstream in Lean circles. Poka yokes keep processes from producing errors. Preventing errors obviously improves quality, Read more…
Shojinka is a form of flexible manufacturing, where the number of workers vary to match demand requirements. This is obviously superior to a static system that staffs work areas without consideration for fluctuations in production requirements. Being able to reassign people to exactly where they are needed will help keep Read more…
A water spider or ”mizusumashi” in Japanese (see our listing of Japanese Lean terms), is a person who has a prescribed set of tasks to keep materials in stock at the point of use in production areas. NOTE: The water spider is alternately called a water strider. This differs from Read more…
Yokoten is a Japanese term that loosely translates into “horizontal deployment”. Essentially, it is the spreading of information across the organization. A key point to this is that it is not just the result that is shared, but also the process that led to the result. Most organizations have numerous Read more…