Glossary
Lean & operational excellence, answered
Short, practical answers to the questions operations, improvement, maintenance, quality and safety leaders ask most, from tier meetings and gemba walks to hoshin kanri, CAPA and agentic AI.
Tiered Daily Management
Tier meetings, visual boards and daily management systems.
- What is tiered daily management?Tiered daily management is a lean management system in which short, structured meetings run at each level of an organisation in a fixed daily sequence. Frontline teams meet first, then supervisors, then site leaders, so performance problems are surfaced early, escalated quickly to whoever can solve them, and decisions flow back down the same day.
- What is a tier 1 meeting?A tier 1 meeting is a short, stand-up huddle held by a frontline team and its team leader at the start of each shift, at the team's own visual board. In about five to fifteen minutes the team reviews the previous shift's safety, quality, delivery and cost results, plans the shift ahead and raises problems it cannot solve.
- What is a tier 2 meeting?A tier 2 meeting is a daily stand-up in which team leaders, the area supervisor or manager and support functions such as maintenance, quality and engineering review an area's performance. Held shortly after tier 1, it resolves issues the frontline teams escalated, coordinates resources across teams and passes unresolved issues to tier 3.
- What is a tier 3 meeting?A tier 3 meeting is the site leadership team's regular review of whole-plant performance, led by the site or plant manager with department heads. Held daily after tier 2 or as a weekly review, it covers site-level safety, quality, delivery and cost, decides on issues escalated from tier 2 and allocates resources across departments.
- What is lean daily management?Lean daily management is the set of routines lean organisations use every day to maintain standards, expose problems and improve. It combines leader standard work, visual controls, tiered accountability meetings and disciplined follow-up, so deviations from standard are seen quickly and solved at the lowest possible level rather than left to accumulate.
- What is a daily management system?A daily management system (DMS) is the structured set of measures, meetings, visual boards, roles and follow-up routines an organisation uses to run operations day to day. It connects frontline performance to site and business targets, so deviations are detected within a shift, assigned to an owner and either resolved or escalated.
- What is an SQDC board?An SQDC board is a visual management board that tracks a team's daily performance in four categories: safety, quality, delivery and cost. Used at tier meetings, it shows results against targets, usually with red and green status, so problems stand out. Variants add people (SQDCP) or inventory (SQDIP) as extra categories.
- What is a visual management board?A visual management board is a physical or digital display that shows a team's targets, actual performance, problems and actions at a glance, so anyone can tell within seconds whether work is on track. In lean organisations it is the focal point of tier meetings and the main tool for making abnormalities visible.
Standard Work & Leadership Routines
Gemba walks, leader standard work and layered audits.
- What is a gemba walk?A gemba walk is a structured, scheduled visit by a leader to the place where work is done, to observe the process, ask questions and understand problems first-hand. It is not an inspection or a tour: the purpose is to learn how work really happens, support the team and confirm that standards are being followed.
- What is gemba?Gemba is a Japanese term meaning "the actual place". In lean management it refers to wherever value is created: the production line, the lab bench, the warehouse floor or the hospital ward. The principle behind it is that problems are best understood and solved by going to the gemba and seeing the real situation directly.
- What is leader standard work?Leader standard work is a documented set of routines that each leader performs on a regular rhythm, such as attending tier meetings, walking the floor, checking visual boards and coaching problem solving. It makes the daily management system run reliably by defining what leaders check, when, and what they do when they find a gap.
- What is standard work?Standard work is the current best, safest and most efficient method for performing a task, agreed by the people who do it and documented so everyone follows it the same way. In lean it is defined by three elements: takt time, the work sequence and standard in-process stock. It is the baseline from which improvement is measured.
- What is a layered process audit?A layered process audit (LPA) is a short, frequent audit in which multiple levels of the organisation, from team leaders to plant managers, check that critical process steps and controls are being followed. Each layer audits on a set schedule using a standard checklist, and nonconformances are corrected on the spot or raised as actions.
Strategy Deployment
Hoshin kanri, X-matrix and connecting strategy to daily work.
- What is hoshin kanri?Hoshin kanri is a lean strategic planning method, developed in Japan, that focuses an organisation on a few breakthrough objectives and aligns every level behind them. It uses catchball, a back-and-forth negotiation between management levels, to agree targets and means, and runs on PDCA cycles with regular reviews to keep plans on track.
- What is a hoshin kanri X-matrix?A hoshin kanri X-matrix is a one-page planning tool that shows how long-term breakthrough objectives, annual objectives, top improvement priorities, measures and owners connect. Its four sections surround a central X, and correlation grids in the corners show which items support each other, making gaps and overloads visible at a glance.
- What is strategy deployment?Strategy deployment is the management process that turns an organisation's strategy into aligned goals, projects and daily actions at every level, then tracks progress so leaders can adjust course. It connects the boardroom to the frontline by making sure every team knows which objectives it supports and how its work contributes to them.
Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement
Root cause analysis, A3, PDCA, 5 whys, CAPA and kaizen.
- What is root cause analysis?Root cause analysis (RCA) is a structured method for finding the underlying reason a problem occurred, rather than treating its symptoms. Teams define the problem, gather facts, identify possible causes, verify the true cause with evidence and put countermeasures in place so the problem does not recur. Common RCA tools include the 5 whys and fishbone diagrams.
- What is an A3 report?An A3 report is a one-page problem-solving document, named after the A3 paper size, that tells the full story of a problem from background and current state through root cause, countermeasures and follow-up. Developed at Toyota, it structures thinking around PDCA and makes the reasoning visible so others can review, coach and learn from it.
- What is PDCA?PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is a four-step cycle for improving processes and solving problems through structured experimentation. Teams plan a change based on a hypothesis, do it on a small scale, check the results against what they expected, then act by standardising what worked or adjusting and running the cycle again. It is the foundation of continuous improvement.
- What are the 5 whys?The 5 whys is a root cause analysis technique in which a team asks "why?" repeatedly, typically about five times, to move from a problem's visible symptom to its underlying cause. Each answer becomes the subject of the next question. Popularised by Toyota, it works best for straightforward problems and when answers are checked against facts at the process.
- What is a fishbone diagram?A fishbone diagram, also called an Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagram, is a visual tool that maps all the possible causes of a problem, grouped into categories. The problem sits at the "head" and causes branch off a central "spine" like fish bones. Teams use it to brainstorm broadly before testing which causes are real.
- What is CAPA?CAPA (corrective and preventive action) is a quality management process for investigating problems, eliminating their root causes and preventing similar problems from occurring. Corrective action stops a detected problem from recurring; preventive action removes the cause of a potential problem before it happens. A complete CAPA ends with verifying that the actions were effective.
- What is continuous improvement?Continuous improvement is an ongoing, organisation-wide effort to make processes, products and services better through many small, incremental changes as well as occasional breakthroughs. Rooted in the Japanese concept of kaizen, it relies on frontline involvement, structured problem solving such as PDCA, and standardising each gain so it becomes the new baseline.
Lean & Operational Excellence
The principles behind high-performing operations.
Maintenance & Reliability
TPM and autonomous maintenance.
- What is total productive maintenance (TPM)?Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a lean approach to equipment care in which operators, maintenance technicians and managers share responsibility for keeping machines in top condition. It aims for zero breakdowns, zero defects and zero accidents by eliminating equipment losses, and is usually measured with overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
- What is autonomous maintenance?Autonomous maintenance is the TPM pillar in which machine operators take ownership of basic equipment care: cleaning, inspecting, lubricating and tightening, often called CILT. Operators detect abnormalities early, restore basic conditions and follow simple standards, freeing maintenance technicians to focus on planned work, skilled repairs and improvement.
Safety
Near misses, safety observations and proactive safety.
- What is a near miss?A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness or damage but had the potential to do so. A forklift that narrowly avoids a pedestrian or a dropped tool landing beside a worker are near misses. Reporting and investigating them lets organisations fix hazards before someone is hurt.
- What is a safety observation?A safety observation is a planned check in which a leader or peer watches work being done, notes safe and at-risk behaviours and conditions, and discusses them with the people involved. It is a proactive, leading indicator that helps teams correct risks and reinforce good practice before an incident occurs.
Skills & People
Skills matrices and capability development.
AI & Connected Operations
Agentic AI and connected frontline work in manufacturing.
- What is agentic AI in manufacturing?Agentic AI in manufacturing refers to AI systems that do more than answer questions: they gather information from operational systems, analyse it, propose next steps and carry out defined tasks, either automatically or when a person approves. Typical uses include summarising shift data, spotting repeat problems and drafting corrective actions.
- What is a connected worker platform?A connected worker platform is software that links frontline employees to the information, procedures, colleagues and systems they need while they work, usually through mobile devices. It replaces paper forms, whiteboards and disconnected spreadsheets with digital checklists, issue reporting, instructions and real-time communication between the floor and leadership.
- What is an AI agent for operations?An AI agent for operations is a software assistant, built on a large language model, that performs a defined operational task such as summarising shift performance, finding repeat problems or drafting an action plan. It draws on operational data, follows set instructions and produces output that people review, approve and act on.
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