Toyota Production System

Kanban ( meaning signboard) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing (also called just-in-time manufacturing, abbreviated JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency. The system takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. Kanban is also known as the Toyota nameplate system in the automotive industry.

Japanese businessman and engineer (1912–1990)

is any mechanism in a process that helps an equipment operator avoid mistakes and defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. It is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "error prevention", and is also sometimes referred to as a forcing function or a behavior-shaping constraint.

iterative interrogative technique

Japanese engineer (1909–1990)

integrated socio-technical system developed by Toyota

software development methodology

lean production method for rapid and efficient changeover from making one product to the next product

problem alert system in manufacturing

type of waste (of time or resources) in lean manufacturing caused by work that does not create value from the customer's point of view

is a Japanese term used in business for the location where value is created, such as a factory floor, construction site, or sales floor.

Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to effect the principle of used in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and lean manufacturing. It may be described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with a human touch". This type of automation implements some supervisory functions rather than production functions. At Toyota, this usually means that if an abnormal situation arises, the machine stops and the worker will stop the production line. It is a quality control process that applies the following four principles:Autonomation aims to:

set of managerial and production principles

is a central idea in Japanese culture, meaning to acknowledge one's own mistake and to pledge improvement. This is similar to the proverb "self insight is the first step to bettering" ().

type of waste (of time or resources) where unreasonable expectations or overburdening of a system results in substandard work; avoidable by standardizing work

Kaikaku (改革), is the Japanese term for "radical change". In business, kaikaku is concerned with making fundamental and radical changes to a production system, unlike kaizen which is focused on incremental changes.

business management / quality assurance strategy

non-fiction work by Mike Rother

prerequisite to allow 'flow' in the factory

type of waste (of time or resources) in lean manufacturing caused by unevenness or irregularities affecting manufacturing efficiency

Obeya (from Japanese Ōbeya 大部屋 "large room") is a team spirit improvement tool at an administrative level, originating from a long history of learning & improving. It is considered a component of lean manufacturing. Obeya objectives are rapid decision-making, reduction in rework and reconsiderations, and reduction in unnecessary discussions. The Obeya Association enumerates 11 Obeya Principles that define Obeya and guide its improvement.