Phrase

Definition

Lean

A never ending, systemic approach for continuously improving the performance of an organization by identifying and effectively providing value though eliminating waste and motivating and engaging the workforce thereby changing workplace culture.

Huddle

A short, structured meeting focused on unit/group communication and alignment. Often the communication platform to support the practice of ADE.

Active Daily Engagement (ADE)

Structured system that aligns unit goals with organizational goals, enables daily problem solving on a specific task/process which will lead to improvements in the unit goals.

Vis Board

A visual to help track improvement projects, often used in Huddles during ADE to help provide structure.

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Adjust)

A key approach to drive continuous improvement, the thinking behind A3 creation. Also referred to as PDSA for Plan-Do-Study Act

A3

Used as a communication tool to document one’s own thinking and engage others in the problem solving thinking process.

• Background

Information needed to understand the importance and extent of the problem.

• Current Conditions/ Current State

Overview of the problem involving unbiased, fact-based evidence.

• Goal/Target Conditions

 Describes specific conditions required to support goal.

• Root Cause and Gap Analysis

Analysis of gap between current and future state, to break down problem to its root causes for the gap.

• Experiments

List of countermeasures to address root cause problems.

• Action Plan

Specific activities to implement experiments, including what, who, how much and by when. Sometimes called a high-level project work plan.

• Next Steps and PDCA

A3 creation process step built in for reflection: did your experiment work? If not, why not. If it did, what made it successful? A place to document new and emergent thinking and steps to plan next cycle of improvements until problem is eliminated or goal is achieved.

LEAN TOOLS

• Force field

A tool used to understand contributing and restraining forces that support or oppose an idea or goal.

• Fishbone

Also referred to as Ishikawa Diagram. A tool to analyze for root cause by breaking down a problem or goal into sets or categories of root causes.

• 5 Whys

A method of root-cause analysis by asking “why” at least five times or until the root cause is established.

• Pain Points

Problems that don’t align with customer values

• Customer Value mapping/ Value-Stream Map

A visual representation a sequence of activities, materials, information and people required to design and provide a service along which information and worth flows. It includes everything which is used to create and deliver value (including necessary and unnecessary wastes)

• Gemba

Where work or problems occur. Going to the Gemba refers to going to observe what is happening in a process to understand the problem and current state.