What is ‘Obeyaka’?
Obeyaka means ‘Big room for cooperation’
The term Obeyaka is (also) used to describe the method of getting affected people to work together cooperatively to solve problems.
What is ‘Obeya’?
Obeya literally means “Big Room”.
Obeya Room
An ‘Obeya Room’ therefore is more or less the same word twice, however (maybe because it sounds like “Obey You”) it is used for a (dedicated) room where the higher management of a lean-company is performing the top-level PDCA cycle of the company. If the company progresses aggressively on their lean journey, it is also referred to as ‘the war room’.
Working in one room
‘Working in One Room’ is maybe a better interpretation of the word: meaning a multidisciplinary team works together in one physical environment on a specific task or project, instead of each person being located in his or her separated office.
In this way, the communication is much faster and effective, especially if the process is supported with visual aids and all relevant data, plans, drawings and graphics are attached to the walls in the room around them.