Lean vocabulary: the dictionary for your organization's performance

Master the meaning of lean terms and concepts. Get clear definitions that turn the language of management into practical results in your day-to-day work.

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L

2 terms

Lean Mindset / Lean Thinking

A five-step thought process proposed by Womack and Jones in 1996 to guide managers through a lean transformation. The principles are: Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by product family.
Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family, eliminating, whenever possible, those steps that do not create value.
Make the value-creating steps occur in a continuous sequence so the product will flow smoothly.
As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the

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Lean Production/Lean Manufacturing

A business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations. Compared with mass production, lean production requires less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products with fewer defects to precise customer desires. See : Toyota Production System.
Compare with : Mass Production.

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M

5 terms

Mass Production

A business system developed in the early 20th century to organize and manage product development, production operations, purchasing, and customer relations. See : Batch and Queue.
Compare with : Lean Production.

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Muda

Any activity that consumes resources without creating value for the customer. Within this general category, it is useful to distinguish between type one muda, consisting of activities that cannot be eliminated immediately, and type two muda, which are activities that can be eliminated quickly through kaizen.

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Muda, Mura, Muri

Three terms often used together in the Toyota Production System (known as "the three Ms") that collectively describe wasteful practices to be eliminated.

See: Heijunka.

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Mura

Unevenness in an operation, such as ups and downs in the schedule caused not by end-customer demand but by the production system, or an uneven work pace in an operation, causing operators to hurry and then wait.

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Muri

Overburdening equipment or operators by requiring them to run at a higher or harder pace, with more force or effort, for a longer period of time than they can withstand.

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O

2 terms

Ohno, Taiichi (1912-1990)

Toyota executive considered the chief architect of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and author of several important books on TPS.

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Overproduction

Producing more, sooner, or faster than is required by the next process. Ohno considered overproduction the most serious form of waste because it generates and hides other wastes, such as inventory, defects, and excess transportation.

See: Batch and Queue, Ohno, Seven Wastes.

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P

1 term

Perfection

When a process delivers pure value, as defined by the customer, without any kind of waste. See : PDCA.

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S

2 terms

Seven Wastes

Taiichi Ohno's categorization of the seven major wastes commonly found in mass production: overproduction, waiting, transportation, processing, inventory, motion and correction.

See: Changeover, Setup Reduction.

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Shingo, Shigeo (1909-1990)

An engineer and consultant whose books and teachings were key contributions to the dissemination of the Toyota Production System.

See: Setup Reduction, Single-Minute Exchange of Die - SMED.

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T

4 terms

Three Ms

See: Muda, Mura, Muri.

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Toyoda, Kiichiro (1894-1952)

The son of Sakichi Toyoda, founder of the Toyota group, he led the company's effort to enter the automotive industry in the 1930s. Kiichiro believed it was possible to sustain the entire production process with just the needed stock of products if the preceding process simply responded to the exact needs of the next downstream process. He called this system Just-in-Time, which became one of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System.

See : Toyoda, Sakichi; Toyota Production System.

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Toyoda, Sakichi (1867-1930)

Founder of the Toyota group, he invented a self-monitoring device for the looms in his factory in the early 20th century that stopped the machines if a thread broke. This innovation allowed one operator to run several machines and led to the concept of Jidoka, which means "automation with human intelligence." It is one of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System.

See : Toyoda, Kiichiro; Toyota Production System.

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Toyota Production System (TPS)

A production system developed by Toyota Motor Corporation to provide the best quality, the lowest cost and the shortest lead time through the elimination of waste. TPS is built on two pillars, Just-in-Time and Jidoka, and is usually illustrated by the "house" shown below. TPS is maintained and improved through iterations of standardized work and kaizen, following PDCA, or the scientific method.

See : Jidoka; Just-in-Time Production; Lean Production; Ohno, Taiichi.

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V

1 term

Value

Inherent content of a product or service, as judged by the customer, reflected in its selling price and market demand. The value in a typical product is created by the producer through a combination of actions, some of which produce value as perceived by the customer, while others are merely necessary because of the current configuration of the design and production process. The goal of Lean Thinking is to eliminate unnecessary activities and to preserve and enhance those that create value for the customer.

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W

1 term

Waste

Any activity that consumes resources but creates no value for the customer. Most activities are waste (muda). There are two types of waste: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 muda creates no value but is unavoidable in a given situation. An example would be inspecting welds to ensure quality.

See : Muda, Seven Wastes.

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Frequently asked questions about the Lean Glossary

It is a glossary of terms and concepts used in lean management. It helps you understand lean terminology by aligning definitions and examples for study, reading and day-to-day application.

Use the search box to look for a specific term, browse by letter or filter by theme. Click the item to see a summary and open the full definition.

Some terms may have translations in other languages. When a translation is not available, the site may show the Portuguese version as a reference.

Yes. New terms may be added and definitions may be revised to keep the content clear, consistent and evolving over time.

Ao longo do Vocabulário, você encontrará links para conceitos relacionados e conteúdos do Lean Institute Brasil, como artigos, materiais da Central do Conhecimento, livros e capacitações.

A academia lean do Lean Institute Brasil oferece trilhas de capacitação EaD e presenciais, incluindo o Programa Prático de Formação Lean (PPFL), que ensina a utilizar frameworks consolidados e a aplicá-los resolvendo problemas de negócio reais.