Page 329 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

Glossary 303

Finished goods inventory The completed production of a product held to assure supply to a
customer in a make-to-stock supply system. It has three components: stores inventory, buffer
stocks, and safety stocks.
First piece lead time The time it takes to produce the first piece of a batch. A key factor in
quality responsiveness. The objective is to reduce this to a minimum.
Flow The concept that once started a product continues to move with value added work
being performed, during the entire manufacturing process.
Flow line A linear arrangement of processing close coupled equipment, as distinguished
from a U cell, for example.

FMEA Acronym for Failure Mode Effects Analysis, a quality tool designed to sort out quality
problems, preproduction and implement countermeasures.
FSVSM Future state value stream map, a map showing the information and materials flow
for a product depicting some hoped for, future state.
Future state, VSM Value stream map with future conditions designed into it, see Present State
VSM.
Hawthorne Effect The positive effect that is achieved in improved performance when
attention is paid to people.

Heijunka Japanese word for leveling, specifically leveling production which means
stabilizing the rate in a narrow band; no large ups or downs in rate. A heijunka board is a
planning board used to level production and become part of the visual system to evaluate
production status.
Hoshin Kanri planning A strategic planning method developed in Japan, it means policy
deployment and is one of the very few tangible top management tools in the Lean toolbox.
Inventory One of the seven wastes. It includes, finished goods which have not been picked
up by the customer and all the materials in the system which you intend to convert to
finished goods, including raw materials and WIP. All inventory is waste, although some is
necessary considering the present conditions.

Inventory turns A measure of the rate at which inventory turns over each year. Twelve
inventory turns mean that you have 30 days of inventory on hand.
Ishikawa A Japanese quality guru who wrote extensively about quality, the creator of the
Ishikawa diagram or sometimes called a Fishbone or Cause-Effect analysis.
Island production A type of production where the work stations are set up far apart, typically
with lots of inventory in front of and behind the island. Generally an inferior method of
production to the cellular manufacturing.
Jidoka One pillar of the TPS. Jidoka is a method to prevent bad material from advancing in
the production system and to find system weaknesses and fix them.
JIT Just in time, the other pillar of the TPS. The concept is to avoid waste by supplying
exactly the right quantity of materials to exactly the right location at exactly the right time. It
is quantity control.
JUSE Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers.
Just in time See JIT.