2006 | Page 6 of 21 | Gemba Academy

The View from the Other Side: Stop the Kaizen!

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2006

The Job Schmob blogger gives us (kaizen people) a view from the other side in his (her?) October 2, 2006 post The Business of Change Management and Corporate Propaganda: Part 1. The Job Schmob blog person takes issue with a quote by ma

Learning English the Toyota Production System Way!

By Jon Miller - October 12th, 2006

You know Toyota Production System has hit the big time in Japan when there’s an English language learning book out based on TPS. It’s titled “Mastering the Toyota Production System through English Speech Practice̶

Free Turnaround Advice to All Struggling Airlines

By Jon Miller - October 11th, 2006

It started out as a routine one hour flight delay and missed connection. Snowstorms in the winter, thunderstorms in the summer. When you are traveling by air through the Midwest, plans that don’t go according to plan are almost a

Scottish Local Authority Wins Award for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2006

Congratulations to the Aberdeenshire Council on winning the top Performance Improvement Award from UDITE – The Association of European Local Authority Chief Executives for their kaizen efforts. Kaizen in the public sector, how sweet

Operational Excellence Requires Kaizen and Respect for People

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2006

Kaizen is easy. Respect for people is hard. I don’t know why. I just don’t see a lot of companies talking about and doing the latter. Talking about only, perhaps. What does respect for people really mean, anyway? At Toyota

Toyota Production System as a Learning System

By Jon Miller - October 8th, 2006

There is a new working paper by Michael Balle, author of The Gold Mine, that explores how the Toyota Production System (TPS) is a learning system. The paper takes a hospital in France as a case study and highlights the importance of st

Not Trying to Coin A New Buzzword, But…

By Jon Miller - October 6th, 2006

I’m thinking of phrases to replace the one we are avoiding this month… Contiunously Improving Operation, Rational Manufacturing, Intelligent Operations, Smart Production, Holistic Production, Adaptive Manufacturing, Non-loc

Copy + Kaizen = Yokoten

By Jon Miller - October 5th, 2006

Here’s my understanding of one of the winning behaviors of Toyota, namely copying and improving on kaizen ideas that work. We’ll call this yokoten since it’s more precise than “copy” or “horizontal d

Applying the 80-20 Rule to Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 3rd, 2006

I’m fond of the 80-20 principle. Any time an understanding of statistics, laws of physics or human biology can make day to day decision making easier, it’s a welcome thing. The same is true in applying the 80-20 rule to kai

Things They Say at Toyota: Protect Your Own Castle

By Jon Miller - October 2nd, 2006

One of the expressions I’ve come across working with and reading the writings of Toyota people is “Protect your own castle” 「自分の城は自分で守れ」. You could also say “You are responsible for prote

Year: 2006