August 2006 | Gemba Academy

One Point Lesson: Operational Availability vs. Rate of Operation

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2006

What is Operational Availability? First, a brief Japanese lesson, if I may. 可動率 is Operational Availability and is pronounced “ka-dou-ritsu”. 稼動率 is Rate of Operation and is pronounced “ka-dou-ritsu”

Ouch! Change Hurts

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2006

There’s an interesting article titled The Neuroscience of Leadership in Strategy+Business magazine. Thanks to Kathleen Fasanella for spotting and writing about it on her Fashion Incubator blog. The article has a tempting tagline

While We’re Promoting Lean Author Interviews on other Blogs…

By Jon Miller - August 29th, 2006

Shmula is a blog with a funny sounding name (who am I to talk?) and the occasional gem of a post about Lean. There is an August 28th interview with Mary Poppendick, author of Lean Software Development and Implementing Lean Software Dev

Lean Blog Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Liker

By Jon Miller - August 28th, 2006

Visit the Lean Blog to hear Mark Graban’s podcast interview of Dr. Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way and Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineerring at the University of Michigan. Find out answers to pressing Lean m

What is Jishuken?

By Jon Miller - August 27th, 2006

For people who have worked at Toyota or companies strongly influenced by Toyota, the term “kaizen” is used more in the general sense, closer to philosophy than activity. The term jishuken is used to describe the intentional

Can I Get an A3 Report with those 2.38 Million Recalls?

By Jon Miller - August 24th, 2006

Toyota has made public apologies this year for both the number of recalls and goofs handling them. A Wall Street Journal article today titled Toyota May Delay New Models To Address Rising Quality Issues speculates that Toyota will slow

E-mail 5S

By Jon Miller - August 23rd, 2006

A Wall Street Journal article today says How You Handle Your E-mail Inbox Says A Lot About You. The article identifies that e-mail is overwhelming people. There is an example of one person who was stressed out by 500 e-mails in their i

That’s What I Call Cosmic Irony

By Jon Miller - August 22nd, 2006

What do you call it when a meeting of the Lean manufacturing leaders from around the globe gets cancelled at the last minute by the senior leadership of the organization, citing “business needs”? I call it cosmic irony. One of our

The Kaizen Turnaround Kings at Danaher

By Jon Miller - August 21st, 2006

If the U.S.A. needed a poster-child for kaizen and Lean manufacturing success, $20 billion industrial holding company Danaher Corporation would be a good candidate. As this Investor’s Business Daily article details, they have bee

The Environment Where Takt Time is Ideal

By Jon Miller - August 17th, 2006

The topic of takt time and specifically “how does it apply to me?” seems to be a popular one, based on comments left by readers at this blog entry. The latest from John asks for advice on the environment where TAKT time is

Month: August 2006