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Safety is freedom from injury and harm. The most obvious freedom is from immediate bodily injury. Safety switches, gate, guards, etc. help provide this, as does proper training and well-designed processes. Safety also includes freedom from chronic conditions that accumulate over time. This includes things like repetitive stress injuries, and Read more…
Continuous improvement focuses on cost reduction—the actual dollar savings that increase profit. The term “savings”, though, has many nuances to it. Hard savings vs. soft savings. Hard savings are the ones with a specific invoice, credit card statement, or payroll expense associated with it. Soft savings are the ones that Read more…
Scalability is the ability to easily ramp up or down to changing requirements. The term is in common use in information technology, specifically in reference to the ability of a system to grow to accommodate increasing traffic. In a continuous improvement sense, it is the ability of a process to Read more…
Schedules are an important part of a continuous improvement culture. Daily schedules are used for communication and coordination as well as to highlight problems and improvement activity. For example, many teams start the day with scheduled time to get their work areas checked out and ready to go. They also Read more…
The scientific method is one of many problem solving techniques. There are 5 basic steps to the scientific method. Observation: Gather facts and data about a situation. Form a hypothesis: In this step of the scientific method, the user makes a statement about what is happening and why. In effect, Read more…
The scope is the boundary of something in business. It may apply to an agreement, contract, set of responsibilities, or project. The scope defines what is covered and what is not. In Lean, the scope is most commonly used to refer to the boundary of what a project will cover. Read more…
Seasonality is the regular pattern of peaks and valleys related to the time of year. Seasonality may be due to weather. Umbrellas, for example, sell best in rainy seasons; skis sell best in the winter. Seasonality may also be due to recurring annual events and holidays. Christmas means toy sales Read more…
Many Lean afflictions reduce the effectiveness of your continuous improvement efforts. One such affliction is Selective Hearing Syndrome. In this disease, people filter out information that doesn’t support their views or that involves things they don’t want to do. They also interpret the meaning of this information exclusively based on Read more…
In Lean, the term sensei means “expert” or “master” and highlights the Japanese origin of modern Lean practices. Its use shows great respect to the recipient. It is normally bestowed upon Lean practitioners who have shown extraordinary skill in Lean implementation and are exceptional at passing that knowledge on to Read more…
Sensors are mechanical devices that are sensitive to their environment, and that communicate information about what they detect. Sensors can detect pressure, temperature, speed, and a host of other things. Sensors are commonly linked to either an alarm of some sort (a buzzer when a seat belt is not fastened), Read more…
People should not be standing watching machines or pulling levers. They are far more intelligent than that. Give them jobs that use that intelligence and sever their ties to machines. Focusing on this premise, that workers are more than just machines, shows great respect for people, one of the central Read more…
Setup reduction is the act of lowering the time it takes to switch from one product to another. In a traditional manufacturer, the switching time (changeover) is long. As a result, if they do more than an occasional switch, they run out of production time. So, they produce long runs Read more…
Setup time is the time it takes to reconfigure a machine to run a different part. Setup consists of two basic categories. Internal setup time. This type of setup time requires that a machine be shut down to do the tasks required to get ready for a different product. This Read more…
A shadow board is typically pegboard, often painted white, with a colored outline for the tool below each hook. Consider a tools storage setup such as this one. While it looks organized, it would be hard to determine which tool was missing if there was a blank space. So, what Read more…
There’s an old story about two lumberjacks who decided to have a contest to see who could chop the most wood. One was a young, energetic man who could chop relentlessly. He was convinced he would win easily against the older lumberjack who was on the back end of his Read more…
Walter Andrew Shewhart (March 18, 1891 – March 11, 1967) was an engineer, statistician, and physicist. He did a great deal of work in industrial quality with an emphasis on statistical process control. He is perhaps best known for his impact on the PDCA cycle. Deming reportedly adopted it from Read more…
This is a tricky entry. There is a lot of corporate politics, personal opinion, and vague memories that go into it. This consulting group, however, is important to the development of Lean in the US, so deserves a place in this list. A bit of background. In the rapid growth Read more…
The Shingo Institute is part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. Its namesake is Shigeo Shingo, the man responsible for documenting the early improvements made by Toyota and spreading Lean to the western world. While the Shingo Institute provides training, its most notable activity is awarding the Shingo Read more…
Shigeo Shingo (January 8, 1909 – November 14, 1990) is one of the early pioneers of the Toyota Production System. He worked with Taiichi Ohno, though there is some question as to how instrumental he was in the development of this new way of thinking. The debate ranges from him 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…
John Shook is a Lean author, and currently (as of 2020) the chairman of the Lean Global Network and a senior advisor to the Lean Enterprise Institute. He co-wrote Learning to See, the book that is most responsible for introducing Western manufacturing to value stream mapping. He also has the Read more…
“Shop floor” is a generic term used to describe the work areas where production is done. The terminology is important because there has been a migration of Lean from the shop floor to office, healthcare, and other service environments. Because there are differences in the way some tools are applied Read more…
“Go to Gemba” is a frequent refrain in Lean. It has two basic meanings. The first is that leaders should get down to the shop floor regularly to see what is happening. The second is meaning is to keep people from debating provable facts. When a discussion starts about something Read more…
While Lean and other continuous improvement efforts can make impressive changes in an organization, there are often some unintended side effects. The Lean side effects include: Possible accounting issues. The dramatic changes in inventory and the way costs are applied can be disruptive to financial documents. In some cases, it Read more…
Simplicity is, simply put, the lack of complexity. In the modern world, complexity is looked upon as a sign of advancement and prowess. Simplicity is viewed as the earmark of an amateur. Fortunately for Lean companies, this is not true. It is much harder to accomplish something with simplicity than Read more…
One of the core principles of Lean is to create flow. But flow is impossible to achieve with long setup times. When it takes an extensive amount of time to switch from one product to another, operators must run large lots to produce enough parts to keep production flowing. With Read more…
The SIPOC Analysis Sheet is a tool to help understand the flow of value from supplier to the customer. SIPOC is the acronym for Supplier-Inputs-Process-Outputs-Customer. Click Image to Get Our SIPOC Analysis Sheet(Get This Form for Free) In practical use, a simple form such as this has limitations. Suppliers often Read more…
“Six Sigma®” is one of two most common continuous improvement methods. Lean is the other. The term Six Sigma comes from the Greek letter ‘σ’ (sigma) that is used as the symbol for standard deviation. Six Sigma refers to how many standard deviations of the measured output of a process Read more…
Skew, in layman’s terms, means that data is distorted. The data points don’t fall evenly around the center of a distribution. Consider this example. Assume ten people are in a room, and you want to know what their average household income is. If this was a typical cross section of Read more…
The simple definition of a skill is the ability to do something well or having a particular expertise in an activity. In typical organizations, the set of skills required by individuals tends to be fairly narrow for frontline employees and leaders. For the most part, they are asked to do Read more…
“SMART” is a commonly used mnemonic device that helps you set effective goals. SMART stands for… Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely Detailed Explanation of SMART Goals Specific: Goals should be well-defined and unambiguous. The person or group the goal is assigned to should also be specified. Measurable: There has to Read more…
SME is a non-profit organization that is geared towards helping companies with innovation and growth through the promotion of manufacturing technology. It also emphasizes training the workforce and “connecting the manufacturing industry”. Its original target audience was manufacturing engineers, but it has since rebranded itself to appeal to a wider Read more…
SMED means “single minute exchange of die”. It is one of the great enablers of Lean manufacturing for the simple reason that it reduces batch sizes. Simply put, when changeover takes a long time, a machine that makes many parts needs to run big batches all at once to be Read more…
Bill Smith (1929-1993) is the little-known inventor of Six Sigma while working at Motorola. Reportedly, his early version of the problem-solving steps was “MAIC”, or measure, analyze, improve, control, with “Define” added later to make it the current version, “DMAIC”. As a result of Smith’s efforts, Motorola was the first Read more…
Soft savings are the intangible benefits of continuous improvement. Contrast this with hard savings which are those that can be directly pointed to as a line item on some sort of financial record such as a receipt or an invoice. Soft savings include things like reduced frustration, improved job satisfaction, Read more…
Solutions in a Lean environment tend to be temporary. The rationale behind the statement lies within the term “continuous improvement”. Any new process you develop, by definition, will eventually change. “Solution” implies that a problem is solved once and for all. The two terms don’t play nice together. I don’t Read more…
SOPs are instructions that describe how to behave in a particular situation. SOP stands for standard operating procedure, or, alternatively, standing operating procedure though the latter term is falling out of use. Both are generally used interchangeably. An SOP should be documented. Informal SOPs exist but, more often than not, Read more…
A spaghetti chart is a visual depiction of the flow of a person through their workstation. The spaghetti chart may also be used to depict the flow of information and materials as well. Typically, the chart is done on a Standard Work Sheet, mostly out of convenience. The sheet may Read more…
When someone is happy, they say “I am happy.” They do not say, “I am not sad.” When people speak in negatives, they are typically meaning, at least subconsciously, whatever they are saying with the “not” removed. In the case above, if a person says, “I am not sad”, it Read more…
Special cause variation is one of the two main categories of variation. Common cause, the other type, is the consistent, recurring fluctuation within a system, sometimes referred to as “noise”. Special cause variation, in layman’s terms, are the spikes that are caused by problems outside of those that regularly affect Read more…
Specifications are the stated design parameters of a product or service. Specifications can cover any of a variety of features, from physical dimensions, to operating range, to battery life. Some specifications are given with a margin of error, such as “12.00 +/- 0.10 inches”. Other specs are given with a Read more…
Another of several Lean afflictions, Squirrel Chasing Syndrome is the inability to remain focused on the goal or task at hand when something enticing comes into view. This generally means abandoning the current task and switching to the new task without any real planning. This form of distraction is harmful Read more…
The term stability is the tendency of something to keep its current state. The opposite of stability is Lean operations is variation, or the state of things fluctuating wildly, or drifting away from normal. Stable processes tend to not only produce high quality outputs, but also do it in a Read more…
Staffing in a Lean organization is a bit different than it would be in most other companies. First of all, in general, a Lean organization will need fewer people to do the same amount of work that is done in a non-Lean company. But there is more to it than Read more…
Stakeholders are the people that are vested in the outcome of something. They are not necessarily people who actually do the process, but they do have some skin in the game. Stakeholders that are indirectly affected by a process frequently have a negative effect from the change. In many cases, Read more…
A stand-up meeting is a quick team gathering to make sure that the day is properly planned out. Topics generally include the current day’s goals and issues, previous day’s results, ongoing project status, and anything special on the agenda. The stand-up meeting is part of a daily management program, and Read more…
In Lean, Standard Work is the cornerstone of any continuous improvement effort. It locks in gains and provides a foundation for future advances. It helps companies reach their improvement targets, but also provides a stable, reasonable working environment for frontline employees. Learning how to standardize a process using this tool Read more…
A Standard Work Combination Sheet (SWCS) is also known as a Standard Work Combination Chart, or a Standardized Work Combination Table. Regardless of what you call it, it is one of the most critical documents to your Lean success. Standard Work Combination Sheets goes hand-in-hand with Standard Work Sheets. In Read more…
The Standard Work Sheet is a staple form for Lean Manufacturing. It provides a graphical view of the workstation, the path of the operator, and the amount of standard work-in-process required to keep the process flowing smoothly. This form goes hand-in-hand with the Standard Work Combination Sheet. Directions for the Read more…
Standard work-in-process (or Standard WIP, or SWIP) is the designated minimum amount of material needed to keep your Standard Work flowing. It is one of the three main components of Standard Work. The other components include balancing the work to the takt time, and assigning it to a single operator. Read more…
Standardization is the act of establishing a specified condition, process, or practice. It is a very general, blanket term which covers a variety of ways to add consistency to whatever is being standardized. Standardization is one of the most important concepts in continuous improvement because it provides a stable platform Read more…
Standardized Work Sheets are another name for Standard Work Sheets, the more common of the names, as well as the entry under which we post our free form. They are one of the basic forms used for documenting Standard Work in Lean.
Standardized Work Sheets show header information, defining the process, and they show the layout of the area on graph paper.
A standard is a rule or principle that sets a minimum level of acceptable behavior. It is also something to which other things may be compared, such as a breed standard to evaluate dogs, or a measurement standard used to certify meters and testing devices. Standards in business are useful Read more…
The status quo is defined as the current or existing state or condition. In plain English, it is how things are today. There is an old adage that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting different results. Getting better requires that something is done differently. Read more…
Stopgaps are simply temporary measures put in place to prevent the defects from a known problem within a system, process, or product from escaping to a customer. This is in stark contrast to a countermeasure, in which a permanent solution is implemented. Stopgaps are intended to be temporary, but they Read more…
Everyone, of course, knows what a stopwatch is. They may not, though, understand why someone is standing over them with one. In a Lean company, processes are based on facts and data. One of those facts is the time it takes to accomplish a task. Unfortunately, people who are highly Read more…
A sunk cost is an expense that has already been incurred and has no bearing on future decisions. Imagine that you are working on restoring an old car and have budgeted $2000 to complete the project. After all the repairs are made and you turn the key, you hear nothing. Read more…
Supervision is the act of providing oversight to people or processes. The amount of direct supervision required is generally inversely proportionate to the structure of the operation. What that means is simply this: if you have strong processes, people have less of a need for supervisors telling them what to Read more…
There are many ways to learn about your customers, vendors, or employees. You can watch how they behave. You can do research or purchase data about them. You can analyze the data you already have. Each of these, though, is somewhat passive, and thus limits the information you can gather. Read more…
SWAG is an acronym, likely originating in the US Army, for “scientific wild-ass guess”. It is used to describe a hypothesis or decision that is based on a small amount of factual evidence, but nowhere near enough to have certainty. Any organization with a fast pace of change, at some Read more…
SWOT analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a structured approach for assessing a project, new business venture, ongoing concern, or similar situation. By itself, SWOT analysis has limited utility. It has much more value when used with a purpose, such as a product launch, an annual Read more…
In the medical world, a symptom is just the visible evidence of a disease or injury. For example, swollen painful joints may be a symptom of arthritis, or nausea might be a symptom of food poisoning. In continuous improvement, symptoms are similar. They are the “tells” that let you know Read more…