3D’s | Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous – work conditions to be avoided. Can be used as a Kaizen focus |
3F’s | Floor, Fact, Find – go to the shopfloor, look for the actual facts, find the root cause of the problem |
3P | Pre Production Planning. A concurrent engineering approach developed at Toyota |
5M’s + I | Men/Women, Methods, Measurements, Machines, Materials, Information – a way of classifying the inputs into a manufacturing system |
5 Why’s | Asking Why 5 times in sequence in order to discover the potential root cause of a problem |
| | Sort, Set Locations and Limits, Shine and Visually Sweep, Standardise, Sustain – translation of 5 Japanese words beginning with S (Seiri etc). A very powerful Workplace Organisation Improvement approach |
5W + 2H | What, Who, Why, Where, When, How, How Much – a mnemonic used in improvement implementation planning (based on a famous quote from Rudyard Kipling) |
7 New QC Tool | 7 Quality Management Tools (Affinity Diagram, Matrix Data Analysis etc.) developed to complement the original 7QC tools. Most of these are qualitative matrices showing relationships between factors |
7 QC Tools | Used by Japanese Quality Circles, a set of quantitative improvement tools including Histograms, SPC etc. |
7 Wastes | Originally defines as part of the Toyota Production System – Transportation, Inventory, Over-Production, Over-Processing, Waiting, Unnecessary Motion, Defects and Rework |
Activity Boards | Display Boards, often in a Green Area, showing the status of improvement activities
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Andon | A signal light used to alert workers to problems. Combined with Jidoka, machines can be designed to stop automatically and then signal the problem with an andon light |
APQP | Advanced Product Quality Planning. A quality assurance procedure used in the automotive industry to certify supplier production of new components |
Asset Care | Term used for TPM, particularly in the Brewing and Distilling industries |
Autonomous Maintenance | A TPM process to restore deteriorated equipment and develop operator maintenance standards |
Breakdown Maintenance | The practice of only maintaining equipment when it fails. Appropriate in some circumstances
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BTS | Build to Schedule, a plan adherence measure based on Quantity, Mix and Sequence of products produced against plan |
CAPDo | A version of the PDCA cycle which starts with checking – Check, Act, Plan, Do |
CEDAC | Cause and Effect Diagram with Addition of Cards. An 8 step improvement process developed by Ryuji Fukuda based on a modified Ishikawa Diagram |
Cell Design | Arranging equipment in process sequence to achieve one piece flow |
Check Sheet | Simple form to collect data in the workplace. One of the 7 QC tools |
Chronic Losses | Fundamental but unseen deterioration of equipment which combine to produce Sporadic Losses (Breakdowns) |
| Continuous Improvement, Kaizen. The practice of engaging all staff in small incremental improvement activity in their work areas |
| (see CI)
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Concurrent Engineering | The practice of designing the production process at the same time as designing the product. Also called Simultaneous Engineering
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Condition Based Maintenance
| Using technologies such as Thermography, Vibration Analysis and Oil Debris Analysis to predict impending failure and perform maintenance accordingly
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Corrective Maintenance | Using failure history data to improve equipment and prevent breakdowns recurring |
DMAIC | Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control – the Six Sigma improvement cycle |
DoE | Design of Experiments. A technique for testing the effect of changing more than one variable at the same time. Also called Taguchi Methods after one of the developers of the orthoganol arrays used in the procedure. |
DTD | Dock to Dock – a leadtime measure based on the time from material arriving at the receiving dock to leaving the factory from the shipping dock. Calculated by counting inventory. Used as a primary measure on Value Stream Maps |
Early Equipment Management | The TPM approach to equipment design and commissioning, including like cycle costing
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ECRS | Eliminate, Combine, Re-Arrange, Simplify – the fundamental industrial engineering improvement approach of analysing a process into elements and then applying ECRS to each element |
Error Proofing | Using devices to ensure a process cannot produce defects. Poka-Yoke in Japanese |
Focused Improvement | Kobetsu Kaizen, one of the pillars of TPM. Focusing Kaizen efforts on a particular issue |
Focused Improvement Diagram | Also called Principles Diagram, a large wall chart incorporating a problem solving process similar to CEDAC, starting from a diagram of the equipment or process
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FIFO Lane | First In First Out – a method to ensure that parts are used in the order in which they are produced |
FTT | First Time Through. A quality measure based on the percentage of product produced right first time, without any rework
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FMEA/FMECA | Failure Mode Effect (and Criticality) Analysis. A study based on Seriousness, likelihood of Occurrence and ease of Detection of an error. The three factors are multiplied together to give a Risk Priority Number |
FTA | Fault Tree Analysis. A form of analysis using known component failure rates to predict the likelihood of an (usually electronic) assembly failing |
Gauge R and R | Reliability and repeatability of any measurement process |
Go-Go Tools | A set of 5 shopfloor improvement tools developed to replace the 7QC tools and revitalise quality circle activities in Japan. Go is the number 5 in Japanese |
GPM | Guess, Probably, Maybe – a way of telling people they should be using real data, not just guess work
Green Area Team meeting area, usually containing performance and activity boards. |
Heijunka | Production levelling by allocating production slots at regular intervals to different models |
In-process Supermarket | Small inventory holding areas used where one process is feeding many others. The process tops up the supermarket to standard inventory levels and only produces parts to replace those taken from the supermarket. |
Jidoka | Separation of man from machine, allowing workers to control more than one piece of equipment. Also the name of devices to automatically stop equipment when a problem occurs
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JIT | Just-in-Time – the original name given to the Toyota Production System – now called Lean Manufacturing |
Kami Shabai | Auditing system where supervisors check if standard operating procedures are being followed |
| The Japanese word for improvement see CI above |
Kaizen Teian | Improvement through suggestions – the Japanese approach to suggestion schemes, focusing on participation rates rather than the value of specific ideas. |
| Sometimes written Kamban. Literally ‘ticket’, used as the name for any signalling system between processes to facilitate Just-in-Time production and low inventories |
| | Term coined by Womack and Jones to describe the Toyota Production System in their book, ‘The Machine That Changed the World’ |
Levelling-Up | Improvements following the sequence of the 5M’s – method improvement before engineering improvement. |
Losses | Categories of stoppages etc. used for analysis in TPM, which has a Zero Loss goal. 7 losses are used in OEE analysis, 16 in TPM as a whole. |
MDL | Maintenance Decision Logic. A decision process using FMEA to define the optimum maintenance requirements of particular equipment |
Milk Run | Picking up small shipments from multiple suppliers for delivery to manufacturing. Can be either internal or from external suppliers. Facilitates lean manufacturing as each load contains small quantities of many different parts |
MTBF | Mean Time Between Failure. A measure of maintenance effectiveness – the average time between stoppages caused by equipment failure. |
MTTR | Mean Time To Repair. A measure of maintenance efficiency – the average length of stoppages caused by equipment failure. |
Muda, Muri, Mura | Waste, Irrationality, Inconsistency. Waste is using too much input to produce the output, Irrationality trying to produce the output with too little input. Inconsistency is sometimes one, sometimes the other |
Nagara | The practice of integrating totally different machines in one flow line or cell. Often used to refer to small scale machines with one single use which facilitates this |
NTED | No Touch Exchange of Die (see SMED). Changeovers performed within the cycle time of the operation. One of the two most important Toyota patents in the 1920’s was for NTED on their automatic looms (the other was for Jidoka on the same machine) |
OEE | Overall Equipment Effectiveness, a measure of equipment performance developed in TPM. Combines Availability, Performance and Quality of output |
One Piece Flow | Linking machines to process one piece at a time through a number of operations. A Fundamental tool of Lean Manufacturing. See Nagara |
OTIF | On Time in Full – a common measure of performance to agreed schedule – see also RTIF |
OTED | One Touch Exchange of Die (see SMED). Variously defined as less than one minute or less than 100 seconds for changeover |
Pareto Diagram | Bar graph showing factors in descending order of importance and cumulative effect. Used to focus activity on the most important factors in a problem. |
PDCA | Plan. Do. Check. Act – the sometimes called the Deming Wheel or Shewhart improvement cycle
Performance Board Shopfloor visual management board indicating status of production deliveries, quality problems etc |
Planned Maintenance | Any maintenance, preventive or corrective, which aims to eliminate problems through planned activity |
Policy Deployment | Also called Hoshin Kanri – linking individual and departmental objectives to company objectives |
Poka-Yoke | Japanese for Mistake-proofing. Any device which ensures an error cannot be made |
Pre-Control | Simplified SPC procedure used by Japanese companies |
Preventive Maintenance | Any time or condition based activity which aims to prevent failures
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QCDSM | The 5 outputs of a production process – Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety and Morale. Often now supplemented by E – Environmental impact. |
Quality Maintenance | The TPM pillar which uses Process Capability studies to improve the Quality factor of OEE |
RCM/RCM2 | Reliability Centred Maintenance – a procedure for ensuring zero failures in safety critical applications |
RTIF | Requested Time in Full – a measure of performance to original customer delivery requirements |
| Measure of Process Capability used as name of improvement process originally developed by Motorola. A Six Sigma process produces 3.4 dpmo (defects per million opportunities)
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Small Group Activities | Improvements carried out by natural work teams |
SMED | Single Minute Exchange of Die. The acronym invented by Shigeo Shingo to indicate changeovers of 9 minutes 59 seconds or less. Also the name of his three stage approach to achieving SMED |
SOP | Standard Operating Procedure. Documents the agreed standard way of performing a particular operation |
Sporadic Loss | Failure of equipment which has noticeable effects on production |
SPC | Statistical Process Control. Control of equipment usually based on measuring data and recording on average/range charts to detect process variation due to assignable causes |
Standard Work Combination Sheet
| Tool used in Cell Design to meet Takt time through flexible manning |
Takt Time
| The rhythm of production – shift time divided by number of parts required, ie one per takt (beat of the conductors baton in an orchestra) |
| TPM | Total Productive Maintenance. Equipment improvement approach developed by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance |
TP Management
| Total Productivity Management. Policy Deployment and Improvement process developed by Japan Management Association |
TQC
| Total Quality Control. Introduced to Japan in the 1950’s by Dr Edwards Deming in order to improve quality levels through process control |
TQM
| Total Quality Management. Management development of TQC re-introduced to the West from Japan in the 1980’s |
TRIZ
| Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. Innovation process which uses matrices to resolve apparent contradictions eg high quality, low cost |
| Value Adding | Anything which the customer is willing to pay for in the transformation of material into customer requirements. The opposite of Waste |
| Value Stream Mapping | A process mapping technique distinguished by mapping both material flow and information flow |
| Waste | Any activity which does not transform material into customer requirements. See Muda and 7 Wastes |
Glossary of terms