Kaizen

273 Articles

Quick Way To Time A Process

By John Knotts - December 16th, 2022

Understanding and measuring process time is one of the most important aspects of process improvement. Much of the waste (muda) in a process causes a process to take longer than it should. When a process takes longer, customers are wait

GA 454 | Practicing Lean in a Pandemic with Sabrina McCorvey

By Jessica Bush - December 15th, 2022

This week’s guest is Sabrina McCorvey. Ron and Sabrina discussed what it’s like practicing lean in a pandemic, how she has used Gemba Academy, and more. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. I

GA 451 | Good and “Evil” in Kata with Scott Laundry and Marc Bicknell

By Jessica Bush - November 24th, 2022

This week’s guests are Scott Laundry and Marc Bicknell. Ron, Scott, and Marc discussed all things kata, including being a good coach and how kata can be “evil.” An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for do

GA 449 | Firefighting, Docility, and the Top-Down Approach to Lean with Mike Thelen

By Jessica Bush - November 10th, 2022

This week’s guest is Mike Thelen. Ron and Mike caught up at the recent AME conference in Dallas, where they discussed company culture, the role of docility, and why “firefighters” get promoted instead of leaders.  An

A Simple Plan for Starting Your Lean Journey

By Steve Kane - September 23rd, 2022

There are many ways to lead a continuous improvement journey in an organization. A frequent question we get at Gemba Academy is, “Where do I start?” One strategy is to simply start eliminating pain-points in processes. R

Root Cause to Solution Identification Simplified

By John Knotts - August 19th, 2022

The one thing that differentiates process improvement projects from regular projects and project management is the methodical way a process improvement practitioner arrives at the root cause and then devises solutions or countermeasure

GA 436 | Work Design and Intrinsic Motivation with Thomas Bertels

By Jessica Bush - August 11th, 2022

This week’s guest is Thomas Bertels. Ron and Thomas discussed how Thomas got into work design, how it relates to lean, and why intrinsic motivation is so critical. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download he

Three Most Important Metrics in a Continuous Improvement Culture

By John Knotts - June 17th, 2022

How many things do you measure in order to tell you how you are doing in business?  I have seen organizations that measure everything and anything.  Many times, what is being measured is not something the business can do anything abo

Speed Will Come

By Steve Kane - May 27th, 2022

The US Navy SEALs are credited by many with coining the expression “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” The idea here comes from training people to perform technical tasks correctly in an environment where there is no room

GA 424 | When Things Go Wrong: The Spirit of Kaizen with Adam Lawrence

By Jessica Bush - May 19th, 2022

This week’s guest is Adam Lawrence. Adam told Ron about his trip to French Guiana to see a NASA rocket launch, and everything that went wrong. Adam also explained how he believes having a lean background helped him. An MP3 audio

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