Lean manufacturing · Kaizen
The PDCA cycle: the order behind Kaizen
Plan, do, check, act. Where each step of the cycle sits in an improvement record.
13 October 2026 · 1 min
Yamazumi and line balancing: making workload visible
A chart that stacks operator workloads against takt time. The simplest way to find the bottleneck and redistribute work.
4 October 2026 · 1 min read
Yamazumi means “stacking up” in Japanese. Each operator's or station's work steps are stacked by duration, and takt time is drawn as a horizontal line.
What does the chart say?
- A station above the takt line: the bottleneck setting the line's pace.
- A station far below the line: waiting and unused capacity.
- Colours: value-adding, necessary and waste steps are shown separately.
In line balancing the aim is to reduce waste steps and spread the remaining work across stations close to takt time.
In the product
Steps measured in a time study flow into the Yamazumi chart automatically. Move a step to another station and the chart is redrawn; the change can be documented with a Kaizen record.
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