2006 | Page 2 of 21 | Gemba Academy

Making a Business Out of Organizing (Making You Feel on Top of Things)

By Jon Miller - December 12th, 2006

I came across Productivity Cafe, the blog of Susan Sabo of Organizers, Inc. today. She is an author, speaker and consultant who “helps people feel on top of things by training, coaching, and persuading them to be more organized a

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 35: The Monaka System

By Jon Miller - December 10th, 2006

How many Japanese words do we have in the Lean lexicon? Do we really need another? It’s a rhetorical question, but would you rather have “sweet azuki bean jam wafer system”? I thought not. “Replaceable core syst

And Now We Have “Kakushin” (sigh…)

By Jon Miller - December 8th, 2006

In the December 9, 2006 Wall Street Journal article titled As Rivals Catch Up, Toyota CEO Spurs Big Efficiency Drive the Toyota Motor Corporation President Watanabe adds another Japanese word to the Lean lexicon: kakushin. Debates coul

When the Customer Defines Value, But They Define It Poorly What Do You Do?

By Jon Miller - December 6th, 2006

If a customer says “Here’s how I want to do Lean.” and the consultant says “That’s not the right way.” and the customer says “Who’s the customer here?” and the consultant says ̶

How to Put Kaizen into Your Culture

By Jon Miller - December 5th, 2006

These are the two steps for how to put kaizen into your culture. First, communicate with your people until you have a common agreement and 100% alignment on these principles: The reason we can make our living is because we serve our cu

One-Hour Low Tech Lean Introduction

By Jon Miller - December 4th, 2006

Today was a lesson for me in just-in-time delivery of Lean training (or Lean Lean training) and also in the value of being prepared. We arrived half a day late to a distribution center where we were asked to give Lean overview training

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 34: The Pitfall of Cost Calculation

By Jon Miller - December 1st, 2006

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno talks about the pitfalls of using cost calculation to justify new equipment purchases and also decisions to scrap or replace equipment based on depreciation. “Whenever we need to make a decision, we e

Hansei on Hansei

By Jon Miller - November 30th, 2006

As Taiichi Ohno said “Check is hansei” when referring to the third step of PDCA. I am doing hansei on the previous blog post on the topic of hansei. I did not think deeply enough about what “hansei” means and wh

The ROI of an Open Office

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2006

What is the ROI (return on investment) of an open office? That was a question some while back by a reader on this blog about to take the leap and convert their office to an open format. It went unanswered (apologies) and I was recently

Dilbert Rips Six Sigma

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2006

Kent Bradley from Gemba handed me a Dilbert cartoon yesterday poking fun at Six Sigma. Here is the script: [Point-Haired Boss standing next to “SIX SIGMA” slide] Our company has decided to try something new. [Dilbert] New?

Year: 2006