September 2006 | Gemba Academy

My Early Kaizen Days

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2006

Thirteen years ago this month I nervously stepped into the lobby of the Sheraton at Hartford, Connecticut airport. It was the first day of my first Shingijutsu kaizen event. I did not know what to expect. I remember the first words out

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 30: Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu Shitsuke

By Jon Miller - September 25th, 2006

“Seiri (Sorting) is throwing out what you don’t need and Seiton (Straighten) is arranging items so that they are ready when you want them. Arranging things neatly is only Seiretsu (lining up in rows) and proper shop floor m

One Sign of a Lean Culture: Kaizen or Get Out

By Jon Miller - September 22nd, 2006

I had lunch yesterday with a local client of ours. He owns a small factory that employs about 30 people. The products they make are fairly simple and the processes are not complex. They have made some big changes in the factory layout

A Workplace that Encourages Movement Gets Good Results

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2006

A classroom that encourages movement gets good grades. One of our team members recently spotted this article during a Northwest Airlines flight in the September 2006 in-flight magazine. According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic with

It’s Not Really “Go See”, It’s “Go Observe”

By Jon Miller - September 18th, 2006

The Toyota Production System principle of genchi gembutsu is often translated in English as “go see”. This rolls off the tongue a lot easier than genchi gembutsu, but it doesn’t quite capture the essence. The word

Healthcare Costs Can Be Cut

By Jon Miller - September 15th, 2006

Healthcare cost can be cut. So says a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article by the same title on September 14, 2006. The examples from Virginia Mason Medical Center do demonstrate that healthcare costs can be cut, but is this enough? The a

How to Learn the Fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 Days

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2006

Anyone can be taught to do kaizen in 30 days. If you’re wondering how to learn the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 days (or how to teach it) you can take a hint from the June 23, 2006 article in Nikkei Joho Str

What Experience Do You Have in My Industry?

By Jon Miller - September 12th, 2006

“What experience do you have in my industry?” I heard this again today for the nth time, with n being a number sufficiently large such that n x $1 would buy a nice lunch for everyone who reads this today. The “industr

Lean by Any Means Necessary

By Jon Miller - September 10th, 2006

We toured a tier 1 automotive supplier recently with a group of our customers on our Japan Kaikaku Experience. Our customers learned many things but there was one main lesson. First, the General Manager who took us on the in-depth gemb

What is Flexibility for Lean Manufacturing?

By Jon Miller - September 8th, 2006

Flexibility is a term that is often used interchangeably with Lean manufacturing. But what does it actually mean, and how does it relate to Lean philosophy? The Lean blog published an insightful post on Thursday, September 7th titled &

Month: September 2006