Kanban (##) (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in- time manufacturing (JIT).
Poka-yoke (####, [poka yoke]) is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "inadvertent error prevention". A poka-yoke is any mechanism in any process that helps an equipment operator avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.
Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen (##) is the Sino-Japanese word for
"improvement". Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logis-tics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain.
Muda (##, on'yomi reading) is a Japanese word meaning "futility; uselessness; wastefulness", and is a key concept in lean process thinking, like the Toyota Production System (TPS) as one of the three types of deviation from optimal allocation of resources (the others being mura and muri). Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability.