Heijunka
Heijunka is the lean practice of levelling production by volume and product mix over a period, rather than building in large batches to fluctuating orders. Smoothing the workload reduces inventory, overburden and the waste of uneven flow.
Customer demand is lumpy, but reacting to it directly forces feast-and-famine on production and suppliers. Heijunka schedules a steady, mixed sequence — for example, alternating product types in small quantities — so that capacity, labour and material flow remain even. Levelling enables smaller batches, smoother supplier pull and standard work, and it directly counteracts mura (unevenness), which in turn drives muri (overburden) and muda (waste).
Related reading
Related terms
Mura · Muri · Takt Time · Distributed I/O