2006 | Page 5 of 21 | Gemba Academy

Continuous Improvement Video from Genie Industries

By Jon Miller - October 26th, 2006

Here is a quick follow up to yesterday’s post on 3P. Genie Industries is a local company that makes lifts. They have been doing kaizen for several years with great results. I have toured them and spoken to their continuous improv

How to Use 3P to Work Out Process Design Alternatives

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2006

Apoorva from India asks, “Generally how many alternatives are worked out in 3P?” Production Preparation Process, or 3P as it is known, is the name used to describe the American consulting market’s understanding of the

Kaizen Suggestions at Nokia Factory in India Improve Quality

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2006

There is an article in the Hindu Business Line on October 23, 2006 titled Smart Ideas at Work. The 3,500 workers at the Nokia factory in Chennai, India gave 1,800 kaizen ideas as part of their suggestion system. Many kaizen ideas seem

Educating People is Key to Operational Excellence

By Jon Miller - October 23rd, 2006

TPS is a system of training. These are the words from an article by Toyota on the TPS. The source escapes me at the moment, if anyone knows of it please add a comment. It’s my personal belief that the thing that sets Toyota apart

Lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy

By Jon Miller - October 22nd, 2006

There are some interesting lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy in the minutes from the Third IT Economics Salon of the Economic and Social Research Institute which is part of the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government. The guest

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 32: Operational Availability vs. Rate of Operation

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2006

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno introduces another concept that is mixed up by people. It is the difference between operational availability and rate of operation. I introduced this concept in some depth in a previous post on this blog, a

Things They Say at Toyota: Ask “Why?” Five Times

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2006

One of the ways to judge whether a company is succeeding in their journey towards being an organization that embraces continuous improvement based on the Toyota Production System model is how often people ask “why?” as part

How Wipro Adapted the Toyota Production System to IT Work

By Jon Miller - October 17th, 2006

An article titled How Wipro Took a Leaf Out of Toyota’s Book in DNA – Daily News & Analysis on October 15, 2006 talks of how Wipro has successfully implemented the Toyota Production System in an IT business. Wipro is an Ind

How Do U Spell Quality?

By Jon Miller - October 16th, 2006

I spent four nights recently at Quality Inn, an American hotel chain. It was a pleasant stay, and not without its lesson in kaizen. I came back to the hotel one night to notice the following: I couldn’t resist taking them up on t

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 31: There is a Correct Sequence to Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 15th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno explains in this chapter that there is a correct sequence to kaizen, and it is as follows: 1) Manual work kaizen 2) Equipment kaizen 3) Process kaizen “Manual work kaizen means thinking of better ways of using the ex

Year: 2006