Lean Terminology

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|A                                                                                                                                   |
|ABNORMALITY MANAGEMENT — The ability to see and respond to an abnormality (any violation of standard operations) in a timely manner.|
|ANDON — A visual signal. Typically, a light mounted on a machine or line to indicate a potential problem or work stoppage.           |
|AUTONOMATION — English translation of Jidoka. Imparting human intelligence to a machine so that it automatically stops when a       |
|problem arises.                                                                                                                     |
|[pic]                                                                                                                               |
|B                                                                                                                                   |
|BALANCED PLANT — A plant where all available capacity is balanced exactly to market demand.                                         |
|BOTTLENECK — An area or workstation in a manufacturing environment that limits throughput of the entire process.                     |
|[pic]                                                                                                                               |
|C                                                                                                                                   |
|CHAKU-CHAKU LINE — Meaning load-load in Japanese, this describes a work cell where machines off-load parts automatically so that     |
|operators can take a piece directly from one machine to the next without waiting.                                                   |
|CHANGE AGENT — A person whose demonstrated mission is to move from the now state, or batch and queue, to the future ideal state:     |
|lean manufacturing. One who leads cultural change in an organization.... [continues]

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