Glossary

Kaizen and Lean glossary for office teams

By KaizenProof · Updated 9 October 2026 · Last reviewed 9 October 2026

In short

This glossary explains the words of Kaizen and Lean as they apply to office work, in two or three sentences each. Every entry gives the plain meaning first and the Lean term beside it, and most link to a free lesson or a reference page that goes deeper.

The terms

Kaizen: Kaizen is the practice of improving work through many small changes, made continuously by the people who do the work. The Japanese word is usually translated as "change for the better". A Kaizen change is small enough to try this week and undo if it fails. Read more: Kaizen in the office.
Lean: Lean is a way of running work that starts from what the customer values and removes everything else, so that work flows without waiting. It grew from the Toyota Production System. Read more: Kaizen vs Lean vs Six Sigma.
Waste (muda): Waste is any activity that takes time or effort and adds nothing the customer of the work needs. Lean names eight kinds; in an office the customer is often the next colleague or team. Read more: The 8 wastes in office work.
The 8 wastes: Also called: TIMWOODS, DOWNTIME. The eight wastes are waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, defects, overproduction, extra-processing and non-utilised talent. In office words: Waiting, Handoffs, Backlog, Searching and switching, Errors and rework, Work nobody uses, Extra steps and Skills not used. Read more: The 8 wastes in office work.
Unevenness (mura): Mura is unevenness in the flow of work: quiet weeks followed by a month-end crush, or requests that arrive in batches. It often causes the other wastes, because teams staff and plan for the peak.
Overburden (muri): Muri is overburden: asking people or systems to do more than they reasonably can. In an office it shows as one person who must approve everything, or a deadline that only works with overtime.
Value-added work: Also called: non-value-added work. A step adds value when the customer of the work would pay for it, if they could: it changes the work in a way they need, and it is done right the first time. Everything else is non-value-added, though some of it is required for now, such as a legal check. Read more: Value-added vs non-value-added work.
Lead time and process time: Lead time is how long a piece of work takes from request to done. Process time is the part of it when someone is actually working on it. The difference is waiting, and in office work it is often most of the lead time. Read more: Lead time vs process time.
Go and see (gemba): Also called: gemba walk. Gemba means the place where the work is done. A gemba walk in an office means following one real item through inboxes, people and tools, and recording what happened rather than what should have happened. Read more: Gemba walk for office work.
Problem statement: A problem statement says what should happen, what happens instead, and the facts that show the gap, without a built-in solution and without blaming a person. Read more: How to write a problem statement.
5 Whys: The 5 Whys is a way to get from a symptom to a cause you can change: ask why the problem happens, then why about that answer, until you reach a process, policy, tool or owner. Five is a guide, not a rule, and a chain that ends at a person has stopped too early. Read more: 5 Whys examples from office work.
The 5 Whys, from symptom to a cause you can changeAsk why about each answer, in its own words, until the answer is something in the process the team can change.
Illustrative example, not real data
Stop when the answer names a gap you can change: a rule, a tool, an owner, or information missing at the start.
If an answer names a person (“the buyer forgets”), ask what in the process lets it happen.
Five is a rule of thumb. Stop sooner when you reach the cause; go on when you have not.
Root cause: A root cause is the cause which, if changed, stops the problem from coming back. In office work it is usually a process, a policy, a tool or a missing owner, rarely a person's effort. Read more: 5 Whys mistakes.
A3: Also called: A3 thinking, A3 report. An A3 tells the whole story of one problem on a single page: background, current state, cause, countermeasure, plan and how the result will be checked. The name comes from the A3 paper size. Read more: A3 problem solving.
An A3: one problem on one pageThe left half is about understanding the problem; the right half is about acting on it. Each part should follow from the one before.
Some teams fold the plan into the countermeasure. What matters is that every change answers a cause on the page.
Countermeasure: A countermeasure is a change aimed at one specific cause, made in the knowledge that it may need to change again. Lean prefers the word to "solution", which suggests the problem is closed for good. Read more: Countermeasure vs solution.
Eliminate before you automate: Before making a step faster or automating it, ask whether it should exist at all. Automating a step that adds no value makes the wrong work faster. Read more: Should this step exist?.
Eliminate before you automateAsk whether the step should exist before you make it faster. Automating a step nobody needs makes the wrong work faster.
“Audit needs it” is often a memory, not a fact. Find the actual rule before you keep a step for it.
Removing a step is a small, reversible trial: agree it with whoever owns the step and whoever receives the work.
ECRS: ECRS stands for eliminate, combine, rearrange, simplify: the order in which to consider changes to a step, from removing it to making it easier. Automation comes after all four. Read more: ECRS.
PDCA: Also called: Plan-Do-Check-Act, Deming cycle. PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) treats each change as an experiment: plan the change with a prediction, do it, check the result against the prediction, then adopt, adjust or abandon it. Read more: PDCA cycle explained.
Plan, Do, Check, ActEvery change is an experiment: one turn of the cycle, then the next.
Plan. State the problem and its cause, choose the change, and write down what you expect to see.
Do. Make the change on a small scale: one team, one form, one kind of request.
Check. Compare what happened with the prediction, in the work itself, at set dates.
Act. Held: make it the standard. Partly: adjust and go again. Reverted: back to the cause.
SDCA: SDCA (Standardise, Do, Check, Act) is the cycle for holding a standard: work to it, check it is followed and still works, and act when it is not. PDCA improves a standard; SDCA keeps it alive. Read more: SDCA vs PDCA.
Standard work: Standard work is the best way the team knows today to do a task, written short enough that a new colleague can follow it, with an owner and a date. It is the baseline the next improvement starts from. Read more: Standard work for office teams.
Visual management: Also called: team board. Visual management means making the state of the work visible at a glance, usually on a board: what is moving, what is stuck, who owns what, what is due. Read more: Visual management board.
A board with a limit on work in progressColumns show the state of each item. A limit on Doing makes the team finish work before starting more.
Illustrative example, not real data
A stuck item is marked in words and shape, not only in colour, so it stands out at a glance.
The board shows state, owner and what is stuck; never scores or rankings of people.
Kaizen event: Also called: kaizen blitz. A Kaizen event gathers a team for a few focused days to redesign one process. Daily Kaizen, by contrast, makes small changes part of normal work every week. Read more: Kaizen event vs daily Kaizen.
Respect for people: Respect for people is the second pillar of the Toyota Way, beside continuous improvement: the people who do the work know it best, problems are blamed on the process rather than on people, and leads coach rather than hand out answers. Read more: Blame the process, not the person.
Mistake-proofing (poka-yoke): Poka-yoke is a design that makes an error hard or impossible to make: a required field, a drop-down instead of free text, a check that blocks a payment to an unknown account.
Toyota Production System: Also called: TPS. The Toyota Production System is the way Toyota organises production, aimed at removing waste completely. Toyota describes it as resting on two pillars, jidoka and just-in-time. Lean is the name outside researchers later gave to it. Read more: History of Kaizen, Lean and the Toyota Production System.
Just-in-time: Also called: JIT. Just-in-time means making only what is needed, when it is needed, in the amount needed. In an office it means doing work when the next person can use it, not in advance and not in batches. Read more: Lead time vs process time.
Stop and fix (jidoka): Also called: autonomation. Jidoka means giving machines and people the ability to notice that something is abnormal and to stop the work at once. In an office it is the right to send incomplete input back with the reason, where the alternative is passing the error on. Read more: Jidoka in the methods reference.
Andon: An andon is a signal, in a Toyota plant a display board, that lights up to show where a problem has stopped the work. An office version is any agreed, visible way to say that an item is stuck and needs help.
Levelling (heijunka): Heijunka is levelling the type and the quantity of work over a fixed period, so each day carries a similar load. It is the answer to mura: a weekly reconciliation where a month-end one caused a crush. Read more: Heijunka in the methods reference.
Kanban: A kanban is a signal that authorises work; the Japanese word means sign or signboard. In knowledge work it usually means a board that shows every item and limits how many are in progress at once. Read more: Kanban in the methods reference.
Takt time: Takt time is the rate at which work must be completed to meet customer demand. If forty requests arrive in an eight-hour day, the takt time is twelve minutes a request.
Value stream mapping: Also called: VSM. Value stream mapping is drawing every step that material and information pass through to bring one product or service from request to delivery. The map of today shows where the work waits; a second map shows the flow you intend to build. Read more: Value stream mapping in the methods reference.
5S: 5S is a routine for keeping a workplace in order: sort, straighten, shine, standardise and sustain. In an office it applies to shared drives, templates and inboxes: one place for each thing and one current version. Read more: 5S in the methods reference.
Six Sigma: Also called: DMAIC. Six Sigma is a data-driven method for reducing defects by reducing variation, run as projects through DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control. Read more: Kaizen vs Lean vs Six Sigma.

Where to read more than a definition

A glossary entry says what a word means. Four reference pages go further, each with the sources for its dates and names.

Lean methods and tools: for thirteen methods, when to use each, when not to, and how it applies to office work.
History of Kaizen, Lean and the Toyota Production System: a dated timeline, the people, and the origin stories that are disputed.
Kaizen and Lean questions: the common factual questions answered in a few sentences each.
Lean and Kaizen books: a reading list grouped by what you want to learn.

Worksheets for these terms

Six of these terms have a free worksheet to download, blank, with a filled-in example on its page. No account is needed.

8 wastes checklist: the eight wastes with two signs and a test for each, a tally and a log.
5 Whys template: one why-chain with the evidence for each answer, and a page for two branches.
A3 problem solving template: one problem on one page, from the facts to the checks.
Countermeasure plan template: the cause, the change, its owner and a check-in log.
PDCA template: the plan, a prediction written before the change, and the checks after it.
Standard work template: purpose, steps with key points, exceptions, owner and review date.

Sources

Each numbered source was opened and compared with the text of this page on 9 October 2026. A number in square brackets after a statement points to the source it rests on.

Try it on your own work

Pick one task that wastes your team's time every week. Describe it in a sentence; KaizenProof names the waste, asks why until you reach the cause, and writes the fix. No account is needed to start.

Try it with one friction Free course: Kaizen for office work