Muri (Japanese term)

Muri (無理) is a Japanese word meaning "unreasonableness; impossible; beyond one's power; too difficult; by force; perforce; forcibly; compulsorily; excessiveness; immoderation", and is a key concept in the Toyota Production System (TPS) as one of the three types of waste (muda, mura, muri).

A direct example of Muri is asking workers to stay focused for a period exceeding 8 hours a day or expecting a machine to produce more than it can in a given time.

Some of the most common reasons why production systems experience overburdening:

• Unmeasured system capacity, despite assigning production expectations in set numbers
• A suboptimal technical condition of used machines, or untrained staff
• Poor communication across the team and manager