At Rockwell Collins, we have a comprehensive set of Lean improvement tools that are applicable in both our factories and our offices. Many of these terms are derived from the "lean production" approach pioneered by Toyota.

To help you learn more about Lean terminology, here's a list of commonly-used Lean terms:

Lean - a philosophy, with corresponding practices, that focuses on eliminating waste to make processes run more efficiently and to deliver more customer value.

Lean Principles - There are five Lean guiding principles. They are:

1. Value - How much a product or service is worth to someone. It is always determined by the customer.
2. Value Stream - The set of activities required to deliver a product or service to the customer. A Value Stream Map is a graphical representation of the value stream and is used to identify improvement opportunities.
3. Flow - Created by a continuous sequence of value-added tasks along the value stream with minimal waits/queues and no backflows.
4. Pull - A system in which nothing is produced by suppliers until the customer or downstream process signals a need.
5. Perfection - Occurs when a value stream provides pure value, as defined by the customer, with no waste.

Cost of Non-Conformance (CoNC) - The cost of waste, which can be caused by excess and obsolete material, defect rework, engineering change orders, non-standard modifications, warranty repair and other things.

Jidoka - Providing machines and operators the ability to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and immediately stop work. This enables departments to build in quality at each process and to separate operators and machines for more efficient work.

Five Ss - A method of creating a clean and orderly workplace that exposes waste and errors.

1. Sort - Separate what's needed from what's not needed.
2. Simplify - Create a place for everything and make sure it's ready to use.
3. Sweep - Clean for inspection.
4. Standardize - Develop common methods for consistency.
5. Sustain - Hold gains and continually improve.

Five Whys - The practice of asking why repeatedly whenever a problem is encountered in order to get beyond the obvious symptoms to discover the root cause.

Kaizen or Radical Process Improvement (RPI) - A methodology that accelerates the continuous process improvement philosophy and generates dramatic results. A Kaizen workshop is an activity where a team identifies and implements a significant improvement in a process.

Life Cycle Value Stream Management (LCVSM) - A business model using customer-focused value streams with clear accountability and integrated support structures to maximize customer and shareowner value. It incorporates a process for increasing the ratio of value to non-value in the overall life cycle of customer deliverable products, systems, or services, and for ensuring the value stream meets or exceeds customer requirements.

Error Proofing (Poka-Yoke) - Methods that either prevent a mistake from being made or make the mistake obvious at a glance.

Rapid Flow Cell - The overarching term that describes production methods which implement Lean Principles to shorten product throughput time. These are alternatives to batch and push methods.

Standard Work - A documented process that establishes the most efficient way to perform a task that is observable and repeatable according to the takt time, work sequence, and standard work in process of the product. Standard work yields certain measurable performance factors that are a base line for future reference.

Standard Work in Process (WIP) - The minimum number of parts in a process that are required to keep the process running smoothly.

Takt Time - The available production time divided by customer demand. Takt time sets the pace of production to match the rate of customer demand, and becomes the drumbeat of any Lean system. Takt time is calculated as follows: (Available production time in a day) / (Required production units in a day)

Waste - Any activity that takes time, resources, or space, but does not add value to a product or service. Taichi Ohno, whose Toyota Production System (TPS) is the model for Lean techniques, helped define the seven forms of waste that are typical in a work environment. They are:

1. Over Production - Producing more information or product than the customer requires. It can lead to too much inventory, slowing down the Value Stream, or tying up resources.
2. Waiting - Time spent waiting on items required to complete a task (information, materials, people, etc.). The best way to find this waste is to walk the process and watch the material or information flow.
3. Moving Items - Transporting or moving materials and information.
4. Over Processing - Effort and time spent processing information or material that is not adding value. Examples of this may be multiple approvals, inspection steps or testing.
5. Inventory - Material or information that is waiting for processing. The costs add up: material, storage, moving, insuring.
6. Unnecessary Motion - Any motion, by people, that does not add value to the product or service.
7. Defects - Repair, rework or scrapping of material or information. The customer will only pay once.

Work Sequence - The order in which a task or process must be completed from start to finish.

Employees are encouraged to view the Lean Glossary, available from the Reference page of the Lean Electronics community of Rockwell Collins Online, for additional Lean terms.