Lean Basics
Lean strives to reduce waste and improve flow to better deliver this.
What is value?
It’s one of the 8 wastes, and it's exactly what you're doing when you're just standing around waiting for feedback.
What is Waiting?
With this visual system, your tasks go from “To Do” to “Done” — and you get to move the sticky notes.
What is a Kanban board?
If Marie Kondo worked in a factory, she’d be a master of this lean method.
What is 5S?
This iterative cycle keeps improvement moving — Plan, Do, Check, and...?
What is Act?
This company pioneered lean manufacturing and inspired practices worldwide.
What is Toyota?
Making more muffins than you can eat in a week is an example of this lean sin.
What is Overproduction?
This fishy-looking diagram helps you hunt down the root of all evil — process evil, that is.
What is a Fishbone Diagram?
This tidy technique kicks off lean with a ruthless decluttering spree.
What is Sort?
“Go see where the work happens” is the motto of this lean practice.
What is Gemba?
This Japanese word means “continuous improvement” — and it’s a favorite of lean teams.
What is Kaizen?
If your office supply closet has enough pens to last until 2042, you've got too much of this.
What is Inventory?
If Sherlock Holmes worked in lean, he’d use this tool to get to the root of every problem.
What is the 5 Whys?
When your shared drive isn’t a digital junk drawer, but a clean map to what you need — thank this Lean principle.
What is Set in Order?
In this kind of system, you don’t make it until someone actually wants it — like tacos, not leftovers.
What is pull system?
Lean defines this as “any activity that consumes resources but creates no value.”
What is Waste?
This type of waste shows up when your team’s best problem-solver is stuck doing data entry.
What is Unused Talent?
This map doesn’t help you find treasure, but it does help you find waste.
What is a Value Stream Map?
This phase in 5S puts your inner janitor to work — and it’s not just about sparkle.
What is Shine?
Labeling your kid’s toy bins so they can clean up on their own? That’s this principle in action.
What is Visual Management?
You can't improve what you don't see — that's why lean always starts with making this visible.
What is the process?
When your process produces a mistake and you fix it twice, you've double-dipped in this waste.
What is Defects or Rework?
This Japanese term means “mistake-proofing,” and it's got your back when humans do human things.
What is Poka-yoke?
Without this final “S,” your 5S dreams might vanish faster than a dry-erase board.
What is Sustain?
In lean, this meeting is short, sweet, and standing up — because nobody wants a status novel.
What is a Stand-up meeting?