5S is a housekeeping methodology for the shop floor. There are five rules of housekeeping for a lean environment and they help to expose waste and support the discipline needed to implement the Toyota Production System.

Simply means “light” in Japanese. However, in a TPS environment, an andon is any visual indicator signaling that a team member has encountered an abnormal situation which can not be resolved without preventing a stoppage (as defined by takt time). Poor quality, lack of a parts, paperwork, information or tools may cause an abnormal condition. The ke [..]

A visual control device in a work area, typically a lighted overhead display giving the current status (green, yellow, red) of each step in the production system and alerting team leaders and supervisors to existing or emerging production problems.

Employing machines to do the work of people. The steam engine and the automation that it enabled was the backbone of the Industrial Revolution.

Transferring human intelligence to automated or semi-automated machinery so that machines and not people are able to detect production defects and immediately stop themselves. Usually, such a stop is signaled via an andon

In contrast to one-piece-flow (or flow), batch production is a mass-production practice developed by Henry Ford. It is the practice of making large lots of a particular item to gain economic efficiencies of equipment and machine changeover time. TPS teaches that such a practice is inefficient in the long-term because it results in overproducing unw [..]

A major, significant improvement that occurs after many small, incremental improvements (kaizen). Kaikaku should come naturally after completing many (sometimes hundreds) kaizens; it is not something that is forced.

A Japanese word meaning load-load

The time required for a machine to produce a different part (for example, a new stamping, a new color in a paint system, a new mold in an injection molding machine, etc...). Changeover time is measured from the last good part of the previous process to the first good part of the subsequent process.  Reducing changeover time is a key component of im [..]

Flow of products in a manner through the production operation. The ideal situation is one-piece flow at and between the processes. The intent of flow production is to increase the velocity of products and make the production cycle predictable.