“Lean” as a way to think and design processes comes with its own set of Japanese vocabulary. Here’s a little Cheat Sheet with the most commonly used terms and their translations.
Are you a budding Product Owner? Check out our compilation "Skills for Successful Product Owners"
Content of 1-pager:
Japanese Terms in Lean
Lean Manifacturing aka “The Toyota Production System” is a Japanese invention and enriches our vocabulary
- Muda – Wasteful Activity
- Mura – Imbalance
- Muri – Overburden
- Kaizen – Incremental Change
Kanban strives for this kind of small, continuous improvement. - Kaikaku – Radical Change
Introducing Scrum is one example for a sudden, disruptive improvement initiative. - Genba – Actual Place
Best known in the phrase “Gemba Walk”, which means to go where the work is done and observe. This is not just a management activity. - Genchi Genbutsu – Actual Place, Actual ThingOften translated as “go and see”. It means to gather facts and consensus for goal achievement at best speed (not necessarily the fastest).
- Poka Yoke – Mistakeproof
Japanese Variant of KISS - Hansei – Self Reflection
Contains 2 parts: Recognizing the mistake yourself & pledge improvement
Sources: