Aiki (martial arts principle) Aiki (martial arts principle) Aiki from a Japanese budo term, at its most basic is a principle that allows a conditioned practitioner to negate or redirect an opponent's power. When applied, the aiki practitioner controls the actions of the attacker with minimal effort and with a distinct absence of muscular tension usually associated with physical effort. In Japanese "Aiki" is formed from two kanji: The kanji for "ai" is made of three radicals, "join", "one" and "mouth". Hence, "ai" symbolizes things coming together, merging. Aiki should not be confused with "wa" which refers to harmony. The kanji for "ki" represents
Muda (Japanese term) Muda (Japanese term) From an end-customer's point of view, value-added work is any activity that produces goods or provides a service for which a customer is willing to pay; "muda" is any constraint or impediment that causes waste to occur. There are two types of muda: One of the key steps in lean process and TPS is to identify which activities add value and which do not, then to progressively work to improve or eliminate them. Taiichi Ohno, "father" of the Toyota Production System, originally identified seven forms of "muda" or waste: Later, an eighth waste, unused skills, was added.