Work

 Many folks use the terms efficiency and productivity interchangeably.

 They are not interchangeable. They are not equivalent.

 Heck, they’re not even synonyms – even though Thesaurus.com thinks so.

Technically, productivity is a ratio of (good) outputs to inputs and efficiency is the ratio of actual output to standard output. Lean practitioners are typically and more appropriately concerned about productivity. As the famous Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold, said, “Productivity = Wealth.”  

The operator balance chart, also known as a percent load chart, operator loading diagram, cycle time/takt time bar chart, or line balance analysis graph, provides the lean practitioner with insight into how equalized operation time is among the workers within a given process, line or cell. The line balance rate (LBR), and the related line balance loss rate (which is simply 100% minus the LBR), quantifies how well or poorly the line is balanced.