This glossary explains the terms you will see most often in Issues, Ideas, Projects and Work Orders, including savings and time study terms. The modules were renamed in 2026: Tags are now Issues, Suggestions are now Ideas and Kaizen is now Projects. Older screens and reports may still show the old names.
Term | Meaning |
Issue (formerly Tag) | A problem or abnormality spotted on the floor that needs fixing. Issues live in Daily management and can be escalated between tiers. |
Idea (formerly Suggestion) | An improvement proposal from anyone in the plant. Ideas are reviewed, approved and implemented, and earn points. |
Project (formerly Kaizen) | An improvement project run with a methodology such as PDCA, DMAIC or A3. The Projects module still shows the word Kaizen in some screens. |
Work Order (EWO) | A record of a breakdown or emergency repair, with downtime, repair details and root cause. Found under Daily management, Work Orders. |
Action | A task inside a project's action plan, or raised from a failed check. |
Project type | The kind of project, such as Quick Win, Kaizen Event or DMAIC Project. |
Methodology | The problem-solving approach and its phases, such as PDCA or DMAIC. |
Phase | A stage of the methodology, such as Plan or Do. |
Section | A tool or form inside a phase, such as 5W1H, Root Cause Analysis or Action Plan. |
RCA Agent | The AI assistant that proposes root causes and countermeasures. Available in Projects and in Work Orders. |
Focused / Systematic | Focused projects fix one specific problem; systematic projects address several related issues, for example across an area. |
Project lead | The person responsible for the project. |
Sponsor | The manager who supports the project and removes obstacles. |
Member | A team member working on the project. |
Assignee | The person an item or action is assigned to. |
Label | A keyword you add to group or filter projects. Not the same as an Issue. |
Hard savings | Savings that show up directly in the budget, such as less scrap or lower overtime. |
Soft savings | Real benefits that do not directly reduce spending, such as time freed up or avoided cost. |
Saving status | Where savings are in their lifecycle: planned, active, complete or inactive. It feeds the savings glide path. |
Glide path | A chart comparing planned and actual savings over the year. |
Revised due date | A due date that has been changed from the original. |
Slippage / days delayed | How far a project is behind its due date. |
Loss type | The kind of loss the project addresses, such as downtime or quality. Loss types come from Cost Management. |
Pillar | The improvement area the project belongs to, such as Safety, Quality or Maintenance. |
Tools | The lean tools and skills used on a project, linked to the Skill Matrix. |
Expansion | A follow-on project that spreads a solution to other areas. |
MTTR | Mean time to repair: the average time to get equipment running again. Calculated on closed Work Orders. |
VA / SVA / NVA | Value-added, semi-value-added and non-value-added time, used in time studies. |
Note: when an Idea becomes a Project, the Idea keeps its own number and the Project gets a new number in the Projects sequence.