S

A level of stock that is maintained buffer against stock outages due to counter uncertainties in demand and variation in quality and downtime.

See Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning

In statistics, quality assurance, and surveys, sampling is the selection of a subset of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. In industrial engineering and time analysis, sampling is the periodic observation of every X repetition of a process over days or weeks to gain a representative set of data.

See Scatter Plot

The systematic observation, measurement, experimentation, formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses. A method of pursuit of knowledge and understanding followed in the natural sciences since the 17th century.

A framework used in Agile for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products, in which small teams of ten or fewer people break their work into goals that can be completed within iterations known as sprints into timeboxes of two to four weeks. The Scrum Team track progress in 15-minute time-boxed daily meetings, called daily scrums or huddles. Teams hold sprint reviews to demonstrate the work done, and sprint retrospective to continuously improve their process, at the end of each sprint.

A method to scale Scrum up to large groups. This involves dividing the larger group into teams of five to ten people. Each daily scrum within this sub-team ends by designating one person as the ambassador to participate in a daily meeting with other teams' ambassadors. This daily meeting is called the Scrum of Scrums.

See also Scrum

Japanese for "organizing".

See Sort

Japanese for "sanitary".

See Sanitize

See Autonomous Teams

A master teacher of a specific area of expertise. In the context of Lean and Six Sigma, the sensei is someone who has mastered their field as a result of years of practical experience in transforming organizations. Sensei is the Japanese word for “teacher.”

See Sequential Changeover

A product design approach in which developers evaluate sets of design ideas rather than a single on. This involves a set of practices, including:

1. Using trade-off curves and design guidelines to characterize the known feasible design sets, thereby focusing the search for designs.
2. Identifying and developing multiple alternatives, eliminating alternatives only when proven inferior or infeasible.
3. Starting with design targets, allowing the actual specifications and tolerances to emerge through analysis and testing.
4. Delaying the selection of the final design or establishment of the final specifications until the team knows enough to make a good decision.

The benefits of this approach include organizational learning, as well as reduced time and costs to develop product by avoiding false starts and rework due to committing to an design idea too early.

A material replenishment system used at Toyota assembly factories to deliver the correct set or kits of parts to the point of use at mixed model lines.

See Changeover Time

See Small Group Activity

See Sweep

The creation of flexible manpower lines or processes that can be operated with multiple people or just one person as demand changes. Shojinka is Japanese word for "manpower minimization".

See also Staffing Linearity

The Greek letter s (sigma) refers to the standard deviation of a population.

See also Standard Deviations

Abbreviated as SMED, a system of set-up reduction and quick changeover pioneered and developed by Shigeo Shingo.

A tool used to visualize the Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs and Customers for a series of processes. SIPOCS identify all relevant elements of a process at a high level as well as possible stakeholders. Improvement teams use SIPOC diagrams at the earliest stages of project planning to determine what is in and out of scope.

A framework to support decision-making, problem-solving, creative thinking or other mental efforts by using a combination of thinking styles. The six thinking hats each represent a thinking style and are assigned its own color. The six hats are:

1. Blue, for big picture thinking, thinking about the process
2. White, for rational, fact-based, data-driven thinking
3. WHITE "Facts & Information" Information
4. Red, for feelings, passion and emotional thinking
5. Black, for critical, pessimistic or negative thinking
6. Yellow, for hopeful, optimistic, positive thinking
7. Green, for innovate, open-minded, creative thinking

Each person may have one or more preferred thinking styles. In practice, the Six Thinking Hats approach encourages people to "try on" different colors of hats to see the issue new new ways.

Introduced by Edward de Bono in Six Thinking Hats (1985).

See also Lateral Thinking

Structured problem-solving and improvement activities by team members in the workplace. Small groups learn tools and methods to identify and address root causes of problems they encounter in their work. The Small Group Activity format empowers people to improve their own work, builds ownership of the process, improves communication and builds problem-solving skills.

See Single-Minute Exchange of Dies

See Standard Operating Procedure

A sketch showing the actual movement of people or product through a series of process steps. A process analysis tool used to highlight excessive walking, searching, transportation, and poor workplace layout. The diagram often resembles a tangled plate of spaghetti.

See Statistical Process Control

Process failures or deviations from normal operations that are sudden and significant.

An event in scrum that kicks off a sprint. The purpose of sprint planning is to define what can be delivered in the sprint and how to accomplish the work. The whole scrum team collaborates during sprint planning.

See Set Parts System

The key performance indicators Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost. The order of SQDC is based on the belief that processes that are safe and capable of delivering quality on-time result in low costs. This is in contrast to a over-emphasis on cost cuts that can lead to safety incidents, poor quality, late deliveries.

The people who have a vested interest in the outcome of a process, project or change. Stakeholders include, but are not limited to, the people who are directly involved in the work. Stakeholders may or may not bear the cost of the change, may or may not benefit, and may or may not have influence on the outcome. Stakeholders may be internal or external to the organization, such as team members working in the process, upstream processes,downstream processes, support function staff, the leadership team, internal customers, external customers, vendors and suppliers, shareholders, financiers and creditors, regulatory agencies, local government, community members and so forth.

Also called sigma (σ), this is a measure in statistics of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean of the set. A high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider range. Standard deviations are used as a scaling factor to convert upper and lower specification limits to Z. Therefore, a process with three standard deviations between its mean and a spec limit would have a Z value of 3 and commonly would be referred to as a 3 sigma process. Standard deviations are also used to measure confidence in statistical conclusions drawn from the results of experiments.

See Standard Work in Process

Abbreviated SOP, it is a set of step-by-step instructions to help people carry out their tasks in a consistent, safe, efficient and consistent way.

A time graph detailing the sequence of production steps assigned to a single worker performing Standard Work. This document outlines the best combination of worker and machine times.

A document showing a top-down view of the work area layout, equipment, work sequence, staffing, standard WIP, raw materials and finished goods, and safety and quality checkpoints. Used as a visual management tool.

The minimum work-in-process inventory needed to maintain standard work. Standard WIP includes:

1. items completed in a machine at the end of an automatic cycle
2. items within processes that have cycle times exceeding Takt time
3. items currently being worked on or handled by the operators performing standard work

Abbreviated SWIP. Also called standard in-process stock.

See Standard Work

Expectations, rules, principles or documented requirements that sets a minimum acceptable level of behavior and/or outcomes.

The 2nd of the 5S activities which involves properly arranging all necessary items for easy access. The goal can be expressed as "to have a place for everything, and have everything in its place."

An individual or group exercise to review activities to be stopped, started or continued based on whether they contribute toward an objective.

A system for encouraging workers to identify wastes, safety, and environmental concerns and submit improvement ideas formally. Rewards are given for suggestions resulting in cost savings. These rewards are typically shared among the production line or by the kaizen team.

The supermarket is a tool of the pull system to help signal demand for the product. In a supermarket, a fixed amount of raw material, work in process, or finished product is kept as a buffer to schedule variability or process reliability. A supermarket is typically located at the end of a production line.

An appropriately energetic rate of speed for a team to do its works so that it delivers good value consistently over an extended period of time without burning out.

The activity of creating Swim Lane Maps for the purpose of understanding and improving process flows.

A strategy development tool that puts an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on a two-by-two matrix.

An approach to solving problems or creating innovations which examines the overall system and the complex interactions of its components rather than focusing on the components separately.