Manufacturing glossary of terms

Risk Priority Number is used in the FMEA process and is determined by RAG rating three factors:

1. Severity - how severe is this effect or problem?

2. Occurrence - how frequently is it occuring, or how high is the probability of occurrence?

3. Detection - is this failure detectable prior to failure?

When these three factors are multiplied together, they create the RPN.

The highest RPN gets the highest priority.

(See FMEA - Rag Rating)

Everett Rogers (1931–2004) was an eminent American communication theorist and sociologist who originated the diffusion of innovations theory and introduced the term ‘early adopter’. 

The Rogers Adoption Curve (also called the Diffusion Process) was introduced in 1957 and described how new innovations and ideas are accepted and adopted by groups and cultures.  It was originally applied to agriculture and home economics but later applied to new ideas and technologies by Everett Rogers in his book, Diffusion of Innovations. 

The bell curve highlights the acceptance of new ideas or change by society through five stages: 

• 2.5% Innovators: these people are risk taking, usually highly educated, prosperous people. 

• 13.5% Early adopters: these individuals are also risk-takers and highly educated but more leadership-orientated than innovators. Think of these people as community organisers, informed, risk-takers and less prosperous. 

• 34% Early majority: these people are less risk taking, tending to be more conventional with a willingness to accept new ideas. They will follow the early adopters. 

• 34% Late majority: these individuals are usually traditional and less educated and socially active, as well as, generally, older. They need to be convinced. 

• 16% Laggards: this is the oldest and most traditionalist of the groups. This group will fight against change and will be the last to accept it.

*My experience is that if you are setting up a large change or transformation, ask for volunteers and you will get the innovators and early adopters (~16% of the workforce will volunteer) volunteering to be part of the transformation team.

Root Cause Analysis is the process of using techniques to analyse all possible variables to determine the root of the problem. We use the five whys and cause-and-effect to determine the root cause of most problems. 

(See 5 Whys - Cause & Effect)

Robert Rosenthal was a German-born American and distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California.

The Pygmalion, or Rosenthal, Effect was discovered by Robert Rosenthal in his 1964 study and was named after the mythological Greek sculpture Pygmalion. 

According to Greek mythology, the sculpturer fell in love with the ivory statue of a woman he made, with the Gods bringing her to life for him to marry. His expectations helped bring the statue to life, which fits in with the Pygmalion effect. Our expectations have the power to change reality. 

According to Rosenthal, the Pygmalion effect works as a self-fulfilling prophecy. This can be seen to work in a circular fashion:

1. People’s beliefs and expectations affect their actions towards others.

2. Those actions impact on the beliefs and expectations that other people hold true about themselves.

3. Those beliefs then impact on the performance of others.

4. The initial belief and expectations of others are verified. 

The Pygmalion effect is where an individual’s performance is influenced by others’ expectations. In other words, higher expectations lead to higher performance. However, the Pygmalion effect specifically refers to how our expectations of others affect our behaviour towards them. In turn, this can contribute to higher performance, in many ways, like Stephen Covey’s See-Do-Get model. 

(See Covey’s See-Do-Get Model)

Run Plot Charts, or run diagrams, are a simple line graph of data plotted over a period of time or sequence.

The x-axis (horizontal) is data in chronological or sequential order and the y-axis (vertical) is the measure (counts, %).

Runners, Repeaters and Strangers (RRS) is an approach used for identifying where to concentrate efforts. It could also be used for evaluation of activities, such as products, problems, processes or projects, to support decision-making and sequencing of activities. 

• Runners are generally considered to be a product or product family having sufficient volume to justify dedicated facilities or manufacturing cells. 

• Repeaters are product or product families having intermediate volume, where dedicated facilities are not required. 

• Strangers are products or product families having low or intermittent volume. Strangers should be scheduled around regular repeater slots as they have lowest priority.

SIPOC is a high-level system map that summarises the suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs and customers for a complex process or functional organisation. 

SIPOC maps are usually one-page documents that can be used for various situations, including:

1. Training.

2. Process mapping.

3. Kaizen events.

4. Standard operating procedures (SOP).

A SWOT Analysis is a decision-making technique used to help understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. When used in the context of an organisation, this analysis tool allows us to take in the bigger picture to guide strategic decision-making by understanding and exploiting opportunities and eliminating threats 

(See PESTLE Analysis)

Scatter Plot Diagrams are used to identify the possible relationships observed between two different sets of variables. 

(See 7 Quality Tools)

Friedmann Schulz von Thun was a German professor of psychology and an expert in interpersonal communication and intrapersonal communication. 

Schulz von Thun’s Four Side Model, also known as the communication square or four-ears model, has the basic concept that there are three main elements: 

The sender: the person sending the message (saying or writing something). 

The receiver: the person receiving the message (listening or reading). 

The message: what is being said, the actual spoken or written words. According to the model, each message has four facets or sides:

Factual information: objective, matter of fact information, data or facts. Appeal: desire, advice, instructions, commands that the sender is seeking. 

Relationship: information on the relationship between the sender and receiver, how they get along, what they think of each other. 

Self-revelation: implicit information (conscious or intended) about the sender - motives, emotions, likes/dislikes. 

(See Mehrabian’s Communications Theory - Shannon and Weaver’s Communications Theory)

This is the time required to set up the equipment or machines to start production. 

(See Change-over Time - SMED)

As part of the Manufacturers Network, our 8Ds and PDCA (See 8Ds and PDCA) ensure that when we have made changes, we update and record our new standards. 

Some examples are below:

1. Training information guides.

2. Risk assessments.

3. One-point lessons.

4. Visual standards.

5. ISO forms and documents.

(See 8Ds - PDCA - TIGs - RAs - OPL

The Shannon and Weaver Model is a linear model of communication that provides a framework for analysing how messages are sent and received. The model was adapted to include a feedback loop, making a two-way communications process.

Sender: the information source (person, object or thing) starts the process by choosing a message to send, someone to send the message to, and a channel through which to send the message.

Encoder: the encoder is the machine (or person) that converts the idea into signals that can be sent from the sender to the receiver, such as telephone and computers, which encode our words using codes like binary digits or radio waves. 

Channel: the channel (medium) of communication is the infrastructure that gets information from the sender and transmitter through to the decoder and receiver. 

Noise: noise (internal or external) interrupts a message while it is on the way from the sender to the receiver. 

Decoder: these are the opposite to the encoders when used, i.e. telephones, computers, videos, that decode the message. 

Receiver: the receiver is the end point of the technical communication process - this is the step where the person finally gets the message, or what’s left of it after accounting for noise. 

Feedback: the feedback loop was an add-on to the original model as it was previously seen as a linear (one-way) process. 

(See Mehrabian’s Communications Theory - Schulz von Thun’s Four Side Communications Theory)

SharePoint is a Microsoft Office application that is used as a repository or document library.

Walter A. Shewhart (1891–1967) introduced the Hawthorne factory to statistical process control (SPC) control charts in 1924. This distinguished between what he named assignable cause and chance cause. He also developed the Shewhart learning and improvement cycle and mentored W. Edwards Deming. When questioned about what he was doing, he stated that he was “developing a tool that would make managers make better decisions”. 

(See Deming - PDCA - Statistical Process Control - 3 Standard Deviations - 68-95-99.7 Rule)

Shegio Shingo (1909–1990) was a management consultant and trainer and was considered one of the world’s leading experts on   entrepreneur Norman Bodek that Shingo’s work was translated into English. This enlightened the western world with the study of the Toyota production system and improvement tools translation. In recognition of his contributions, the Utah University John M Huntsman School of Business introduced the Shingo Prize for organisational excellence in 1988. 

(See Toyota Production System - Ohno (Taiichi) - Shingo Institute - Shingo Prize)

The Shingo Institute is a non-profit organisation housed at Utah State University and is named after the world renowned Japanese industrial engineer Shegio Shingo. It is also home of the Shingo Prize and the Shingo model. The Institute’s mission is: to improve the process of improvement by conducting cutting-edge research, providing relevant education, performing insightful organisational assessments and recognising organisations committed to achieving sustainable world class results. 

(See Shegio Shingo - Shingo Prize - Organisational Excellence - Deming Prize - Baldrige National Quality Award - EFQM Stephen Covey)

The Shingo Model was introduced in 2008 and is not an additional programme or initiative but rather a business model that focuses on the cause-and-effect relationships between guiding principles, systems, tools, results and culture (people). 

(See Shingo Institute - Shingo Prize - Organisational Excellence - Deming Prize - Baldrige National Quality Award - EFQM - Stephen Covey)

The Shingo Prize is named after Shegio Shingo, the Japanese engineer and consultant whose books were translated into English and opened the eyes of the west to what we now call Lean manufacturing. It is an award given to organisations (globally) and has three levels: 

Shingo Prize: is the world’s highest standard for organisational excellence and is awarded to organisations that can demonstrate the successful establishment of a culture anchored on principles of continuous improvement. 

Shingo Silver Medallion: is awarded to organisations that are maturing on the journey to excellence with, primarily, a tool and system focus. 

Shingo Bronze Medallion: is awarded to organisations at the earlier stages of cultural transformation with, primarily, a tools focus. 

(See Shegio Shingo - Shingo Institute - Shingo Model - Organisational Excellence - Deming Prize - Baldrige National Quality Award - EFQM)

Simon Sinek, the British-American business consultant, author and inspirational speaker, wrote five books, including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last and The Infinite Game. He is a modern-day leadership guru with substantial material on YouTube and LinkedIn.