Terms of lean manufacturing

andon - a system of flashing lights used to indicate production status in one or more work centers; the number of lights and their possible colors can vary, even by work center within a plant; however, the traditional colors and their meanings are:
green - no problems

yellow - situation requires attention

red - production stopped; attention urgently needed

baka-yoke – In the past, Japanese called the mistake-proofing as baka-yoke, it meant fool-proofing. Baka is meaning foolish, however, somebody felt the term is not respect to people and changed it to poka-yoke.

heijunka - A production scheduling/leveling tool, essentially to distribute kanban cards in an efficient manner.

jidoka - a Japanese word which translates as autonomation; a form of automation in which machinery automatically inspects each item after producing it, ceasing production and notifying humans if a defect is detected; Toyota expands the meaning of jidoka to include the responsibility of all workers to function similarly, i.e. to check every item produced and to make no more if a defect is detected, until the cause of the defect has been identified and corrected.
jishu kanri - self-management, or voluntary participation.

jutsu - to talk, or ‘the art of’ (i.e., 'leanjutsu: the art of lean production').

kaikaku - A rapid and radical change process, sometimes used as a precursor to kaizen activities.

kaizen - the philosophy of continual improvement, that every process can and should be continually evaluated and improved in terms of time required, resources used, resultant quality, and other aspects relevant to the process.

kanban - a card or sheet used to authorize production or movement of an item.

karoshi - death from overwork.

mizusumashi - the classic 'water spider', who performs a wide range of tasks which allow workers to perform 'value-added' tasks.

mokeru - the Japanese term for the industrial engineering, more properly translated as ‘profit-making I.E.’.

muda (waste) - activities and results to be eliminated; within manufacturing, categories of waste, according to Shigeo Shingo.

mura - inconsistency

muri - unreasonable

nagara - smooth production flow, ideally one piece at a time, characterized by synchronization [balancing] of production processes and maximum utilization of available time, including overlapping of operations where practical.

ninjutsu - the art of invisibility (applies to management)

poka-yoke - a means of providing a visual or other signal as to the location or condition of a part characteristic. Often referred to as 'error-proofing', poke-yoke is actually the first step in truly error-proofing a system (see baka-yoke).

5S - refers to the five words seiri, seiton, seison, seiketsu, shitsuke. These words are shorthand expressions for principles of maintaining an effective, efficient workplace
seiri - eliminating everything not required for the work being performed
seiton - efficient placement and arrangement of equipment and material
seison - tidiness and cleanliness
seiketsu - ongoing, standardized, continually improving seiri, seiton, seison
shitsuke - discipline with leadership

seiban - Seiban is the name of a Japanese management practice taken from the Japanese words "sei", which means manufacturing, and "ban", which means number. A Seiban number is assigned to all parts, materials, and purchase orders associated with a particular customer job, or with a project, or anything else. This enables a manufacturer to track everything related with a particular product, project, or customer. It also facilitates setting aside inventory for specific projects or priorities. That makes it great for project and build-to-order manufacturing.

sensei - one who provides information; a teacher, instructor, or rabbi.

shojinka - continually optimizing the number of workers in a work center to meet the type and volume of demand imposed on the work center; shojinka requires workers trained in multiple disciplines; work center layout, such as U-shaped or circular, that supports a variable number of workers performing the tasks in the layout; the capability to vary the manufacturing process as appropriate to fit the demand profile.

teian - a proposal, proposition, or suggestion. A teian system can be likened to a system which allows and encourages workers to actively propose process and product improvements.