The AB to ZW of MPS

Best practice

Standards for given activity or process which are subject to continuous improvement and thus never more than provisional. As with countermeasures, an improved version (i.e., a better best practice) is likely to emerge at any moment.

Better

Superior objective to perfect.

Coaching

Management technique aimed at helping another person get best from themselves. Coachee often found to possess valuable experience and insight but mysteriously lacks confidence to deploy them routinely without guidance. Replaces old-fashioned management technique based on shouting and waving of large sticks. See leading.

Countermeasure

A solution waiting to be improved upon. Term does not mean associated red flag event is done and dusted. An even better countermeasure is likely to be along at any moment.

Diversion

A necessary production activity, the cost of which cannot be charged to the customer so must be diverted to overhead. The best diversions tackle the root cause of a problem. But even sticking plasters have their uses.

DLA

Daily Layered Accountability. Rapid, structured information flows achieved via sequence of meetings focused on production performance. Chairs are sometimes provided but never used. Also: technique for simultaneously empowering participants and demonstrating that what they do each day really does matter. See inverting the pyramid.

Engagement

Personal obsession (healthy) with quality of what is done and how. Not to be confused with immediate pre-nuptial state of being affianced or betrothed.

Gemba

Japanese word which means ‘the real place’. Used in Lean terminology to mean ‘the place where value is created’ or ‘where the work is done’.

Green day

Everything is on track, in shape, on time. Green flags on a DLA board of KPIs is good – unless there are too many of them. After all, there’s no such thing as perfect.

Inverting the pyramid

What DLA does. Mechanism by which old-fashioned managers are transported to gemba.

Leader Standard Work

Best practice in leading, using people-based focus on processes rather than results, using techniques such as coaching.

Leading

Respectable management technique historically performed impatiently from the front. Now performed patiently, alongside those being led. Modern form relies heavily on coaching.

Living Pareto

Real-time chart showing real cause of problems. Has reputation for shattering comforting illusions.

MPS

Meggitt Production System. Proof that a person has not, after all, ‘seen it all before.’

Myth

Something previously thought of as ‘a fact’ but now dispelled by Living Pareto.

No-fly zone

Segment of time, not airspace, in which only DLA meetings can take place. Normally found at start of working day. Designed to leave no excuse for absence. People who call non-DLA meetings during no-fly zone can experience intense feelings of loneliness.

No one

The person who is responsible for something when ‘everyone’ is believed responsible for it (© Toyota).

Obsession (healthy)

Simultaneously a consequence and a cause of engagement with what you do and how you do it.

Perfect

Otherwise known as ‘the impossible’. Must not be allowed to get in the way of better.

Processes

What you take care of to ensure that results take care of themselves.

Red flag

Key performance indicator (KPI) off target. Nothing to fear – but room to improve. All red flags point to things that need addressing. But the only ‘bad’ red flags are those without a countermeasure to keep them company.

Results

What you get when you take care of processes.

Solution

Archaic usage. Replaced by countermeasure.

S, the 7th

‘Stuff’ or ‘shovel’. As in: “You can’t do 6S ‘til you’ve shovelled out all the (old) ‘stuff’ first”. © Mark Crompton. NB: usage can be vulgarised.

Vilfredo Pareto

The man who gave us Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) – 80% of effects tend to come from 20% of causes. In 1906 Pareto noted that 20% of people owned 80% of Italian land. Also discovered that one-fifth of all pea pods produce the bulk of all peas. Died 1923. Did not live to see invention of living pareto.

Vital Few

What Vilfredo Pareto has pointed at for more than a century. The few things that cause most problems. Identity of Vital Few changes with time and continuous improvement activity. Concentrating on them is always the best route to biggest gains in shortest time.

Work in progress

Life and all its sub-assemblies (including MPS).