Every Lean Six Sigma and AI term we use — explained in plain language. Built for operations leaders who want to understand before they implement.
A root-cause technique: ask 'why?' repeatedly (about five times) until the underlying cause surfaces.
Workplace organization method: Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain — the foundation of operational discipline.
A structured problem framework: What, Why, Where, When, Who, How, How much.
An AI system that can plan and take multi-step actions toward a goal — Gartner predicts 40% of agentic projects cancelled by 2027.
The degree to which a company's processes, data, systems and people are prepared to adopt AI successfully.
A structured evaluation scoring how prepared an organization is for AI across operational dimensions, before investing.
The slowest step that limits the throughput of the whole process — the constraint to address first.
The structured approach to helping people adopt new processes and tools — the human side that makes AI stick.
SIPOC filled in reverse, starting from the Customer — ensures the process is designed around real customer value, not internal habit.
The time a process step is actively worked on, excluding waiting — a key VSM metric.
How accurate, complete, consistent and timely data is — Gartner attributes 85% of AI project failures to poor data.
Whether data is clean, accessible, labeled and structured enough to train or feed AI reliably.
Reworking processes, culture and technology to deliver value in a digital-first way — not just buying software.
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control — the core Six Sigma project methodology for reducing defects.
Acronym for the 8 Lean wastes: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess processing.
Japanese for 'the real place' — going to where the work actually happens to observe and improve it directly.
AI that creates new content (text, images, code) — MIT found 95% of enterprise GenAI pilots show no P&L impact.
Production leveling — smoothing volume and mix to avoid peaks and troughs that create waste.
Policy deployment — aligning every level of the organization to a few breakthrough strategic goals.
Automation with a human touch — machines stop automatically when a defect occurs so problems are fixed at the source.
Producing only what is needed, when needed, in the amount needed — minimizing inventory waste.
Japanese for continuous improvement — small, incremental changes made constantly by everyone, rather than rare big leaps.
A visual system that signals when to produce or move work, limiting work-in-progress and exposing bottlenecks.
A measurable value showing how effectively a goal is being achieved — used to track transformation progress.
An AI model trained on vast text that generates and understands language — the engine behind tools like ChatGPT.
Total elapsed time from when an order is placed to when it is delivered, including all waiting.
Japanese for waste — any activity that consumes resources but adds no value the customer would pay for.
Japanese for overburden — overloading people or equipment beyond reasonable limits, a cause of breakdowns and errors.
Steps that add no value; NNVA is necessary for now (compliance, control), pure NVA is waste to be eliminated.
A culture where every employee can see value flow and fix problems — the mature end-state Lean aims for.
Plan-Do-Check-Act — the iterative improvement loop for testing changes before scaling them.
Mistake-proofing — designing a process so that errors are impossible or immediately obvious.
Using event logs from IT systems to automatically reconstruct and analyze how processes actually run.
An AI pattern that grounds a language model in your own documents, reducing hallucination and improving accuracy.
The financial return of an initiative relative to its cost — central to justifying AI and Lean projects.
Software 'bots' that automate repetitive, rule-based digital tasks like data entry and re-keying.
A high-level process map listing Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers — a one-page picture of any process used in the Define phase of Lean Six Sigma.
The current best, documented way to perform a task — the baseline that makes improvement and automation possible.
The pace of production needed to match customer demand — total available time divided by customer demand.
A method that improves throughput by finding and systematically removing the single biggest constraint.
A visual map of every step in a process showing value-add time vs waste, used to redesign workflows toward smooth flow.
A process step the customer would willingly pay for because it transforms the product or service toward what they want.
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Social Network Analysis (SNA)
Mapping the informal communication networks in an organization to reveal brokers, bottlenecks and how work really flows.