Comments on: japanese word

Question: japanese word

jaanpehechaanho — Thu, 05 May 2005 15:09:17 -0800

There is a japanese word, used frequently in factories, that means roughly "bucket" or "container" or "processing bin." I think it begins with a "k" although I could be wrong. Does anyone have any idea what it is?

By: cairnish

cairnish — Thu, 05 May 2005 15:32:25 -0800

Kanban.

By: jaanpehechaanho

jaanpehechaanho — Thu, 05 May 2005 15:49:57 -0800

danke

By: adamrice

adamrice — Thu, 05 May 2005 20:46:03 -0800

"Kanban " is the name of the Toyota system that in English is called "just in time" but it doesn't mean "container" in any way. It means sign or card. The most generic word for container in Japanese is "utsuwa/?"

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 05 May 2005 21:08:08 -0800

?? (mizuoke) or just ?(oke)? ?? kibutsu?

WWWJDIC might have it if none of these are right.

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 05 May 2005 21:08:58 -0800

It seems that Japanese characters are not allowed. Drats.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Thu, 05 May 2005 21:15:28 -0800

Did it sound like "hako" or "bako" ('a' pronounced as in "saw") with perhaps something else on the front of the word?

By: dorian

dorian — Thu, 05 May 2005 22:08:15 -0800

second hako.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Thu, 05 May 2005 22:12:43 -0800

This will sound snarky, but I'm serious: cargo containers are called kontennaa (pronounced just like "container" with a Japanese accent, typical of "loan words" from English).

By: mexican

mexican — Fri, 06 May 2005 00:57:48 -0800

Second for コンテナー (container). Very common.

By: cairnish

cairnish — Fri, 06 May 2005 09:39:36 -0800

Within our factory, the 'wrong answer' to this question would still have been an acceptable answer to the question as posed. In the factory in which I worked, there was scant concern for the literal correctness, aptness, or derivation of terminology, etc. Bins were emblematic of the kanban system. The bins were routinely referred to as 'kanban bins.' The bins were sometimes referred to as 'kanbans.' Nobody cared a whit if they were mangling concepts or bastardizing language, as harsh as that may sound. Equally abused: six-sigma quality circle ISO 9001 TQS QMS Deming Juran blah blah blah kanban JIT whatever.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:19:52 -0800

Oh, I don't doubt that kanban probably is the right answer. And it's interesting to me that the word has come to be associated with the container among English-speakers--I don't have a problem with that (you probably know how English is butchered in Japan). But the "word with K meaning container" definitely threw me off-course.