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| kai-aku |
The opposite of kaizen. Change for the worse. Bad change. |
| Kaikaku |
Radical improvements or reform that affect the future value stream. Often these are changes in business practices of business systems, usually applied only once within a value stream. [Same as Flow Kaizen] |
| Kaizen |
Taken from the Japanese words kai and zen, where kai means change and zen means good. The popular meaning is continual improvement of all areas of a company not just quality. A business philosophy of continuous cost reduction, reduce quality problems, and delivery time reduction through rapid, team-based improvement activity. |
| kaizen event |
The application of kaizen techniques in an accelerated manner that focuses on a specific improvement area and is tracked as an event, rather than an ongoing process. (syn: kaizen blitz) |
| kaizen newspaper |
A tool for visually managing continuous improvement suggestions. Based on the PDCA cycle and designed to manage input by the workforce in an organized way. |
| kalman filter |
A filtering algorithm for a time series of imprecise linear or non-linear data that incorporates a statistical model in analyzing error. |
| kanban |
A Just-in-Time technique developed in Japan at the Toyota Corporation in which a work center or department uses a visible card, token or other signal (kanban) to pull material from a feeder work center or supply location. It often uses a standard container with a card attached that is pulled when the container is moved by the using work center; after removal the card is used by the feeder work center as authorization for more production. A basic premise is that no production takes place until authorized by the using department. A two card system uses both a production card, which authorizes the manufacture of a standard container, and a move card which authorizes the transfer of a container from one work center to the next. |
| key event |
syn: milestone. |
| key performance indicator (KPI) |
Indicators used to provide measurements of the defined priority and key success factors of a project or system. |
| kitting |
The process of pulling a set of component items from stock to group them for production or for movement to another area. Kitting is usually done for a specific production or sales order. |
| knowledge base |
The defined accumulation of an organization's internal set of best practices, past issues or problems and their resolution, product and process data, and other any other information that can be used as a basis for analysis and training. It is organized into meaningful categories and provides access methods to query and report the elements of the knowledge base. |
| knowledge management |
A system or framework for managing the organizational processes that create, store and distribute knowledge, as defined by its collective data, information and body of experience. |
| knowledge worker |
Someone whose primary job focus is innovation, ideas, and the accumulation, processing or analysis of data and information. Coined by Peter F. Drucker in The Effective Executive. |
| kurtosis |
A quality measure of a data distribution. |
