Lean and Kanban terms every manufacturer should know.

Yield

How much of what you start finishes as something good.

Value-Added Ratio

The fraction of lead time the customer would actually pay you for.

Throughput

How fast good parts actually leave your shop. Not how busy you look.

Standard WIP

The minimum WIP a cell needs to keep flowing.

Scrap Rate

The parts that go straight to the bin. Your most costly output.

Schedule Adherence

How honest your plan is with your floor. The internal-facing twin of OTD.

Rolled Throughput Yield

Each step's yield is fine. The whole stream is not.

Rework Rate

The defects you fixed instead of preventing. They still cost money.

Process Cycle Efficiency

How much of lead time is adding value. Usually under 10 percent.

Parts Per Million

How customers grade you when one bad part in a hundred is too many.

On-Time Delivery

The customer-facing grade. Everything else is a story you tell yourself.

Lean KPI

The handful of numbers that steer the shop.

Labor Productivity

Output per labor hour. Useful as a thermometer. Dangerous as a target.

Inventory Turns

How many times your shelves cycle each year. The lean test.

First Pass Yield

Parts that come out right the first time. No rework detour.

Dock-to-Dock Time

Receiving truck to shipping truck. The whole inside-the-walls clock.

Defects Per Unit

Counting how many things went wrong, not just how many parts went out.

Defects Per Million Opportunities

The Six Sigma yardstick. Useful for complex parts. Overkill for most.

Days of Inventory on Hand

How long your shelves would last if no truck arrived tomorrow.

Capacity Utilization

How much of your capacity is in use. Why 100 percent is the wrong answer.

Build-to-Schedule

Right mix, right volume, right sequence. Strict adherence.

Yokoten

One cell's win, copied to every cell that can use it.

X-Matrix

One page. Four quadrants. Your whole annual plan in plain sight.

True North

An ideal you don't expect to reach. That's exactly the point.

Training Within Industry

The 1940s training program that quietly built the modern lean shop floor.

Toyota Kata

Practiced routines that turn improvement into a daily skill.

Tiered Meetings

A cascade of huddles from floor to front office. Every morning.

Suggestion System

A suggestion box is not a system. The closure loop is.

Standardization

Lock in the current best way. So you have something to improve.

Skills Matrix

One grid tells you who can cover what. And where you are exposed.

Servant Leadership

The leader's job is to clear the road. Not to drive.

Quality Circle

A small operator-led group that meets weekly to fix what bugs them.

Production Preparation Process

Design it lean from day one. Cheaper than removing waste later.

Point Kaizen

One spot, one small fix, before lunch. Most kaizen is this.

Obeya

A room where the whole project lives on the walls. Not in slide decks.

Nemawashi

Prepare the roots quietly. So the meeting is a confirmation, not a fight.

Multi-Skilling

A workforce where one absence does not stop the shop.

Lean Transformation

A direction, not a project. Multi-year. No finish line.

Lean Team Leader

The leader closest to the work. Lean's nervous system runs through them.

Lean Maturity Assessment

An honest score of how deep lean has gone. Not a target.

Lean Leadership

Not a mindset. A calendar of huddles, walks, and coaching cycles.

Lean Culture

Culture follows practices. You cannot install it on a Monday.

Lean Coaching

Ask the questions. Resist the urge to answer. That is the whole skill.

Leader Standard Work

The leader's calendar is the lean system. Schedule it or skip it.

Kaizen

Small changes, every shift. That's the whole engine.

Kaizen Event

A focused week to tear apart one specific problem.

Kaikaku

Sometimes the floor doesn't need a tweak. It needs a teardown.

Job Instruction

Four steps. Twenty minutes. The most reliable training method in industry.

Improvement Kata

Four steps, one small experiment at a time, toward a target you can see.

Idea Board

A wall full of post-its is not a system. The closure loop is.

Hoshin Kanri

A few breakthrough goals. Cascaded so every shift knows their part.

Hansei

An honest look at what didn't work. Not the polished version.

Group Leader

Between team leaders and the front office. Make or break every shift.

Go and See

The dashboard lies. The floor does not. Walk over and look.

Gemba

The real place. Where parts get made and problems get seen.

Gemba Walk

Leave the office. Watch the work. Ask, don't tell.

Front-Line Leadership

The layer where lean is made or unmade. Every shift, every day.

Flow Kaizen

Fix the river, not just one stone in it.

Employee Engagement

Not a survey score. Whether people fix problems without being asked.

Daily Management System

The routines that make tomorrow look like a better version of today.

Daily Huddle

Ten minutes at the board, every morning. The rhythm a lean shop runs on.

Cross-Training

One person out should not stop the shop. Train for it before you need it.

Continuous Improvement

A habit, not a program. Runs every shift, not every quarter.

Coaching Kata

Five questions, asked daily, until the answers come without thinking.

Catchball

Toss the goal back and forth until it lands somewhere everyone owns.

Andon Response

A cord pulled is a clock started. The response time is the whole game.

TPM Pillars

Eight things a full TPM program has to do. Not just the cleaning checklist.

Total Productive Maintenance

Equipment uptime is everyone's job, not just the maintenance guy's.

Six Big Losses

Six ways a machine quietly gives back capacity. Sorted, named, and fixable.

Quality Rate

Of the parts that came out, how many came out right.

Quality Maintenance

Keep the machine in a shape that physically can't produce a bad part.

Preventive Maintenance

Service the machine before it breaks. Pick the right interval.

Predictive Maintenance

Let the data tell you when to service. Not the calendar.

Planned Maintenance

Maintenance work the team chose to do. Before something forced them.

Performance Rate

How close to its rated speed the machine actually runs.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

One number that tells you how much capacity is actually showing up.

Mean Time to Repair

How fast you can get the machine back. Faster is better.

Mean Time Between Failures

How long a machine runs before it lets you down. Higher is better.

Early Equipment Management

Design reliability in before the machine arrives. Not after it breaks.

Downtime

Every minute the machine isn't making parts. Sort it before you fix it.

Changeover Time

From last good part of A to first good part of B. Every minute counts.

Breakdown Maintenance

Fix it when it dies. Sometimes that's actually the right call.

Availability

Of the time the machine was supposed to run, how much it actually did.

Autonomous Maintenance

The operator owns the machine they run every day.

Control Chart

A time chart that tells you when to act, and when to leave a process alone.

Process Mapping

Draw the steps. See the handoffs. Find the gaps.

Standardized Work

Three elements: takt, sequence, and WIP. Disciplined standard work.

Poka-Yoke

Make the wrong move impossible. The right move automatic.

Seven Basic Quality Tools

Seven small tools that cover most shop-floor quality work.

Standard Work Combination Table

Manual, walk, and machine time across one cycle.

Plan-Do-Study-Act

PDCA with one word swap. Study, do not just check.

Yamazumi Chart

Stacked bars of work, one per operator. See line imbalance fast.

Single-Minute Exchange of Die

Setup under ten minutes. Shingo's strict quick changeover.

Time Study

A stopwatch and a clipboard. How long the work really takes.

Pareto Principle

Most of your trouble comes from a few causes. Same with most of your money.

Check Sheet

The simplest data-collection tool. Tally marks beat memory every time.

SIPOC

One page of context before you start mapping. Five columns, no jargon.

Scatter Diagram

Do these two things move together? The dots will tell you in two minutes.

Root Cause Analysis

Find the cause underneath the cause. Stop fixing the same problem twice.

A3

One sheet of paper. One problem. One disciplined story.

The 3Ms

Three enemies that feed each other. Fix one alone and the others bite back.

The 4P Model

Philosophy, Process, People, Problem-solving. The Toyota Way's spine.

5W2H

Seven questions that frame a problem before anyone proposes a fix.

6S

5S with safety pulled out of the footnotes and onto its own step.

The 7 Wastes

Ohno's original waste list. The one every lean shop still starts from.

The 8 Wastes

Eight names for what is eating your margin every shift.

8D Problem Solving

Eight steps for the customer-facing problem you cannot repeat.

Andon Cord

A rope any worker can pull. The authority is what makes it work.

Batch-and-Queue

Big lots, long queues. The default flow most shops never named.

Built-in Quality

Design the work so the right outcome is the default.

Color Coding

The fastest way for a shop floor to say something without saying it.

Continuous Flow

Work moves without stopping. The carts between stations come out.

Countermeasure

A word lean prefers to "solution." It assumes the problem can come back.

Current State Map

The honest picture of how the value stream runs today. Warts and all.

Cycle Time

How long one part takes at one station. The number a stopwatch can answer.

Defects

Every part you have to scrap, rework, or apologize for.

Environmental Waste

The waste your customers and your utility bill both pay for.

Every Part Every Interval

How often you cycle through the full mix. Shorter means more responsive.

Excess Inventory

The cash sitting on your shelves you forgot you spent.

FIFO Lane

A queue that has to drain in order. First part in, first part out.

Fishbone Diagram

Lay out every possible cause before you guess at the right one.

The Five Principles of Lean

Value, value stream, flow, pull, perfection. In that order.

Floor Marking

Tape on the floor that quietly tells the shop where everything goes.

FMEA

List every way it could go wrong. Rank by damage. Fix the worst first.

Future State Map

Designed, not aspirational. The flow you can actually build.

Gemba Waste

The waste you see by standing on the floor. Not the waste in the reports.

Genchi Genbutsu

Go to where the work happens. Look with your own eyes. Trust nothing else.

Hidden Factory

The shift that runs every day but never shows up on the schedule.

Histogram

The shape of your process, drawn in bars. Read the shape, find the problem.

Jidoka

Stop when something's wrong. Don't pass the defect forward.

Just-in-Time

Only what's needed. Only when it's needed. In the amount that's needed.

Kamishibai Board

A wall of cards that makes routine audits hard to skip.

Kanban Board

A wall that tells you, without asking, where every job actually is.

Kanban Card

A piece of cardstock that tells the shop when to make the next thing.

Kanban Loop

The closed circuit a single card travels. The heartbeat of pull.

Lean Enterprise

Lean for the whole organization, not just the shop floor.

Lean Manufacturing

Make more of what your customers actually want. Stop making everything else.

Lean Thinking

The book that made Toyota's shop floor practice portable.

Lean vs Six Sigma

Different methodologies. Different problems. Stop treating them as the same.

Mixed-Model Production

Multiple variants on one line. Not all of A, then all of B. Interleaved.

Mizusumashi

The water spider. Delivers parts on a timed route, so operators stay put.

Monozukuri

The art and spirit of making things. The deeper why behind every lean tool.

Motion

Every step a worker takes that isn't producing anything for the customer.

Muda

Japanese for waste. The umbrella the seven and eight wastes specify.

Mura

Unevenness in flow. The waste that creates the other two.

Muri

Overburdening people or equipment. The hidden cost of pushing too hard.

Necessary Non-Value-Added

Waste that has to stay this week. Not waste that has to stay forever.

Non-Utilized Talent

The improvement ideas your best operators stopped offering three years ago.

Non-Value-Added Activity

Every step the customer would refuse to pay for if they saw the invoice.

Over-processing

Extra work that looks like quality and costs like waste.

Overproduction

Making more than the next process needs. The waste that causes the others.

Pareto Chart

Rank the few causes worth fixing. Ignore the long tail.

Pitch

The interval at which finished work moves. Takt times pack-out quantity.

Production Control Board

A board that shows the plan, the actual, and the gap, hour by hour.

Quick Changeover

Stop running giant batches to amortize the setup. Shrink the setup instead.

Red Tagging

Tag the maybe-junk, walk away, see what nobody claims.

Reorder Point

The line on the rack that says, time to call the supplier.

Replenishment Pull

Refill what got taken. The kanban-and-supermarket flavor of pull.

Respect for People

Develop people through challenge. Don't insulate them from it.

Runner-Repeater-Stranger

Three demand profiles. Three schedules. Sort the parts before scheduling.

Sequenced Pull

Build in the order requested. Pull for variants you cannot stock.

Set in Order

A place for everything, and that place obvious to anyone walking past.

Shine

Cleaning is the means. Inspection is the point.

Sort

First, remove what does not belong. Then everything else gets easier.

Standardize

Capture the way it works now so the way it works next can be even better.

Sustain

The S that decides whether 5S is a habit or a memory.

Swimlane Diagram

A process map that names names. Most waste lives in the handoffs.

Takt Time

The drumbeat your customers set. Match it or fall behind.

Throughput Time

How long a part takes to travel the whole stream, start to finish.

Toyota Production System

The operating system Toyota built to make only what was ordered.

The Toyota Way

The 14 principles behind every kanban card and andon cord in Toyota's system.

Transportation

Every foot of travel your parts take that the customer isn't paying for.

Value-Added Activity

The work the customer is actually paying for. Usually less than you think.

Visual Controls

A glance at a gauge tells you if something is off. That is the whole job.

Visual Management

Make the state of the work obvious. Stop relying on memory.

Visual Work Instruction

A picture of the work, at the workstation, where it can actually help.

Visual Workplace

A shop floor that answers questions before anyone has to ask them.

Waiting

The hours your parts sit between operations doing nothing for anyone.

Waste Walk

45 minutes on the floor. One concrete fix list.

WIP Limit

An explicit cap between operations. The rule that makes pull actually pull.

Work in Process

Everything between raw stock and finished goods. Usually too much of it.

5S

Five steps to a workplace that does not ask you to remember anything.

Andon

A light, a sound, a signal that says help is needed now.

Autonomation

Machines smart enough to stop themselves. Humans still required.

Buffer Stock

The cushion at the finished end. Absorbs the customer's lumpy order book.

DMAIC

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. Built for variation.

Five Whys

Ask why until the answer points at a system, not a person.

Heijunka

Level the schedule. Stop letting Friday's panic whiplash Monday's shift.

Heijunka Box

A slotted box that turns a lumpy schedule into a steady drumbeat.

Kanban

A card moves. Parts move. That is the whole system.

Lead Time

The clock starts when the order lands. It stops when the truck leaves.

One-Piece Flow

One part, one process, one move at a time. The extreme end of flow.

Pacemaker Process

The one process that gets scheduled. Everything else pulls from it.

Plan-Do-Check-Act

Lean's basic improvement loop. Small, fast, and built to repeat.

Point-of-Use Storage

Store the parts where the work happens. Stop sending people walking.

Production Leveling

A steady shop instead of a heroic one. Wobbles stay in the order book.

Pull System

Make it because the next station took one. Not because of the schedule.

Push System

Make to a schedule. Hope the next station can absorb it. Usually it cannot.

Safety Stock

A cushion for your supplier's bad week. Not the customer's order spike.

Shadow Board

Every tool has a shape on the board. A missing tool has a missing shape.

Spaghetti Diagram

Draw the actual path. The mess on the page is the mess on your floor.

Standard Work

The current best-known way to do the work. Until you find a better one.

Supermarket

A sized store. The customer pulls. The supplier refills what got taken.

Two-Bin System

Two bins. When one empties, signal for more. That is the whole system.

Value Stream Mapping

Walk the floor, draw what you see, then redraw what should be there.