5S

What ? : method to obtain a clean, safe & organized workplace
Why ? : waste & out-of-standard conditions become immediately visible

Kaizen

What ? : philosophy of continuous improvement in small steps involving everyone
Why ? : results in satisfied Customers & Employees and creates more profit

Value stream mapping (VSM)

What ? : map showing flow of processes from Customer order to payment
Why ? : increases added value for the Customers and profit for the company

Pull & (one piece) flow

What ? : Customer-driven smooth flow of materials, products, people, information
Why ? : shorter leadtime; less inventory & space; higher quality

Visual management

What ? : a system for displaying all kinds of information in a very visual way
Why ? : allows quick reaction on abnormalities (deviations from standards)

Kanban

What ? : visual system controlling what & when to produce and/or move
Why ? : less production scheduling; no overproduction; facilitates "just-in-time"

Total productive management (TPM)

What ? : maintenance involving production to maximize equipment uptime
Why ? : increases capacity & equipment life time; decreases maintenance costs

Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)

What ? : technique for reducing change-over & setup times to less than 10 minutes
Why ? : more flexibility to Customer demand changes; higher productivity

Statistical process control (SPC)

What ? : statistical method to monitor and to predict process & product output
Why ? : variation reduction; prevents failure occurance; process improvement

Poka Yoke

What ? : a system for error detection and error prevention
Why ? : to achieve zero defects

5 "Why"

What ? : problem solving tool asking several times the "WHY" question
Why ? : to discover the root cause(s) enabling problem elimination

Fishbone diagram

What ? : problem analysis tool visualizing all possible causes for a problem
Why ? : root cause(s) are revealed enabling problem elimination

... And many more techniques and tools ...