lean - Concepts

Explore concepts tagged with "lean"

Total concepts: 24

Concepts

Just-in-Time Process - Develop processes only when they are actually needed, avoiding premature optimization and ensuring relevance to current context.
Build-Measure-Learn - The core feedback loop of the Lean Startup methodology where ideas are quickly built into experiments, measured against hypotheses, and used to learn what works.
Pull System - A workflow method where new work is started only when there is downstream capacity, rather than being pushed based on forecasts or schedules.
Fail Fast - A strategy of quickly testing ideas to discover failures early when correction is cheap.
Lead Time - The total elapsed time from when a request or order is placed until it is fulfilled, serving as a key metric in lean, agile, and supply chain management.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - The simplest version of a product that can be released to test a hypothesis with real users.
Value Stream - The complete sequence of activities required to deliver a product or service from initial concept or customer request through to delivery of value.
Cycle Time - The elapsed time from when work actively begins on an item until it is completed, serving as a key flow metric in Lean and Kanban.
Weighted Shortest Job First - A prioritization framework that ranks work items by their cost of delay divided by job duration, optimizing for maximum economic value delivery.
Visual Management - Using visual displays to communicate status, progress, and standards at a glance.
Rapid Experimentation - Running quick, low-cost experiments to test ideas and learn before major investments.
Hansei - The Japanese practice of critical self-reflection to acknowledge mistakes, understand root causes, and commit to improvement.
Gemba Walk - The practice of going to where work actually happens to observe processes firsthand and identify improvement opportunities.
Kaikaku - The Japanese concept of radical, transformative change applied in large leaps rather than the incremental steps of kaizen.
Cumulative Flow Diagram - A stacked area chart that visualizes workflow states over time, revealing bottlenecks, WIP trends, and flow efficiency in Kanban and Lean systems.
Coaching Kata - A structured pattern of questions for developing scientific thinking and problem-solving skills in others.
Hypothesis-Driven Development - An approach to product development where features are framed as testable hypotheses with clear success criteria, shifting from output to outcomes.
Muda - The Japanese term for waste - any activity that consumes resources without creating value for the customer.
Just-in-Time - A production and workflow philosophy of delivering work or materials at the exact moment they are needed, minimizing inventory, waste, and waiting.
Value Stream Mapping - A lean technique for visualizing and analyzing the complete flow of materials and information needed to deliver a product or service.
Improvement Kata - A scientific pattern for achieving challenging goals through iterative experimentation and learning.
Throughput - The number of work items completed per unit of time, measuring a system's delivery rate in Lean, Kanban, and operations management.
Flow Efficiency - The ratio of active work time to total lead time, revealing how much time work items spend waiting versus being actively worked on.
Little's Law - A mathematical theorem stating that the average number of items in a system equals the average arrival rate multiplied by the average time each item spends in the system.

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