B2B

See business to business.

backflush

a technique, usually computer-based, whereby individually purchased parts, subassemblies, assemblies, and major modules, are not transacted in the inventory control system until the finished product or major assembly stage is completed. At this completion point, all applicable inventory/labor adjustments are made at the same time.

baka-yoke

a Japanese term that literally means fool-proofing. Abandoned by Shigeo Shingo in favor of the term poka-yoke, or innocent mistake-proofing, to avoid the personal criticism implied by the term baka-yoke. See mistake-proofing.

balanced scorecard

a measurement system that enables a company to clarify its vision and strategy and translate them into action. The scorecard balances identified metrics against the intent of the current plan and gives weight to those that are more important. It helps a company weigh financial and nonfinancial impacts and establish lean performance measurables. Key areas often assessed in the balanced scorecard are customer relations, financial management, internal business processes, employee performance, and organizational learning and innovation.

Baldrige award

See Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

bar code

the sequence of vertical bars and spaces that can be read by a light sensitive laser beam and translated into digital data used by a computer. The bar code can represent numbers and/or other symbols and is affixed to an item to identify it by product number, cost, location, etc.

Manufacturers use bar codes to track the movement of parts through manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping. There are several different systems currently in use in...