Lean Lexicon

By Roberto Michel, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/1/2005

Here are the various lean manufacturing terms you should know:

Five Ss. Five related Japanese terms—all beginning with the “S” sound—that describe orderly workplace practices that center on removing unneeded items from the workplace, and keeping what remains neatly arranged and clean.

Kaizen. A continuous improvement methodology for improving a work process or processes, often applied to assembly steps in manufacturing.

Kanban. A manual signaling device for regulating material flow in a pull system.

Lean manufacturing. Broadly interpreted, lean means reducing waste. More specifically, lean manufacturing refers to a “pull” style of production in which actual orders dictate the pace of work and materials replenishment for a plant.

Pull production. A production control method in which downstream activities signal requirements to upstream activities.