Lean Silver Certification key terms

Any activity or feature for which a customer is willing to pay, defined from the customer's perspective and expressed as a change in form, fit, function, or information the customer actually needs.

Work that transforms a product or service in a way the customer cares about, is done correctly the first time, and could not be eliminated without losing what the customer pays for.

Any use of resources such as time, people, material, or space that does not add value for the customer; classically grouped into seven or eight categories in production and office settings.

Work that the customer would not pay for yet is currently necessary because of regulation, technology, or process design; it is a near-term target for elimination or reduction rather than immediate removal.

Unevenness or variation in workload, demand, or output that forces buffers, overtime, and firefighting; smoothing it is a precondition for stable flow and for reducing overburden and waste.

Overburden placed on people, equipment, or processes beyond their reasonable capacity, causing errors, breakdowns, and safety risk; often the hidden cause behind visible waste.

Continuous, incremental improvement made by the people who do the work, usually through small low-cost changes to a defined standard rather than large capital projects or periodic redesigns.

A disciplined improvement loop of Plan, Do, Check, and Act in which hypotheses are tested on a small scale, results are compared with expectations, and what is learned is standardized or the plan is revised.

A structured one-page method that captures background, current condition, target condition, root-cause analysis, countermeasures, and follow-up on a single sheet, forcing clear thinking and shared understanding.

A systematic investigation that moves past symptoms to the underlying process or system conditions that, if changed, would prevent a problem from recurring.

A questioning technique that repeatedly asks why a problem occurs, typically about five times, until the answer points to a controllable process cause rather than a person or an event.

A cause-and-effect chart that organizes possible causes of a problem into branches such as method, machine, material, people, measurement, and environment, helping a team broaden its hypotheses before testing them.

A specific change implemented to address an identified root cause and move the process toward a target condition; it is distinguished from a temporary fix that only suppresses the symptom.

A documented, currently best-known sequence of tasks with defined takt time, work sequence, and standard in-process inventory, used as the baseline from which improvement is measured.

The available production or service time divided by customer demand, giving the pace at which one unit must be completed to meet demand; it is a target rate, not a measure of actual cycle time.

The actual time a process or resource takes to complete one unit of work from start to finish, including waiting within the step; compared with takt time to reveal capacity gaps.

The total elapsed time from when a customer requests a product or service until it is delivered, including all waiting and processing; the primary measure of speed in value stream analysis.

All the activities, people, information flows, and systems required to move a product or service from customer request through delivery, including both value-adding and non-value-adding steps.

A visual mapping technique that draws material and information flow for a product family, records process data and inventory, and calculates total lead time versus value-added time to expose improvement opportunities.

A factual snapshot of how a value stream operates today, built from direct observation and data collection rather than from procedures or assumptions, serving as the starting point for improvement.

A drawing of how a value stream should operate after planned improvements, with target lead times, flow, pull, and leveled schedules, used to sequence the improvement work.

A time-phased action plan derived from the gap between current and future state maps, assigning owners, dates, and measurable loop objectives to specific improvement efforts.

The uninterrupted movement of a product, service, or information through process steps with minimal waiting, batching, or rework, so that work progresses close to takt time.

Processing items one at a time through consecutive steps instead of in batches, which shortens lead time, reduces work in process, and surfaces quality problems quickly.

A method in which downstream consumption signals and triggers upstream replenishment, so work is released only when capacity or demand requires it rather than pushed on a forecast.

A visual signal, such as a card, bin, or electronic flag, that authorizes production or replenishment of a defined quantity and makes work-in-process limits explicit and visible.

A controlled inventory point holding a defined range and quantity of items that downstream processes withdraw from, enabling pull while decoupling steps that cannot yet be linked in continuous flow.

Material or work items that have been started but not completed, representing tied-up capital and hidden lead time; reducing it exposes process problems that inventory was covering.

A relationship stating that average lead time equals average work in process divided by average throughput, useful for predicting how lead time changes when inventory or completion rate changes.

Shrinking the quantity processed or moved at one time to shorten waiting and lead time, lower inventory, and reveal defects sooner, often supported by setup time reduction.

Single-Minute Exchange of Die: a method for converting changeover work into external tasks done while equipment runs and streamlining remaining internal tasks to cut setup time dramatically.

Leveling the type and volume of work over time so that peaks and troughs are smoothed, protecting flow and reducing overburden while still meeting total customer demand.

The actual place where value is created, such as the shop floor or service counter; going there to observe directly is the basis for factual problem solving and leader coaching.

A structured leader visit to the work area with a clear purpose, observation questions, and follow-up, used to understand conditions, reinforce standards, and coach rather than to audit or inspect.

Documented daily and weekly routines, such as tiered meetings and process checks, that make leaders' coaching and improvement behaviors visible, repeatable, and subject to continuous improvement.

A core principle holding that those doing the work are best placed to improve it, so they are engaged, developed, and challenged rather than blamed, and problems are treated as system issues.

The deliberate horizontal spread of a proven improvement or lesson from one area to comparable areas, with adaptation to local conditions rather than simple copying.

Strategy deployment that translates a few breakthrough objectives into measurable targets and cascaded actions, reviewed in regular catchball cycles so priorities align across levels.

The iterative give-and-take dialogue through which objectives, targets, and resources are negotiated between management levels, building ownership and realistic plans before execution begins.

A focused improvement workshop, typically several days long, in which a cross-functional team analyzes a defined process and implements changes immediately within a scoped area.