May 2007 | Page 3 of 6 | Gemba Academy

Does Toyota need Six Sigma?

By Ron Pereira - May 23rd, 2007

I bet the title of this post caught some of my Lean friends off guard. Fear not I am not going to talk about how Lean is about eliminating waste and Six Sigma is about reducing variation. I have said this before and regret it. T

Toyota Number One in the World… in Recalls?

By Jon Miller - May 22nd, 2007

Not two days after imploring everyone to do kaizen like Toyota, we’re reminded that no matter how good you are at lean manufacturing, kaizen, and continuous improvement, if you focus too much on eliminating muda (waste) while ign

Free Six Sigma Tools

By Ron Pereira - May 22nd, 2007

If you would like free access to some MS Excel based Six Sigma tools you may want to check this site out. This company goes by Open Source Six Sigma. I glanced at a few of the tools and chuckled since some of them (i.e. G R&R)

Boeing starts assembly of 787 Dreamliner

By Ron Pereira - May 22nd, 2007

I read today that Boeing started production of the much anticipated 787 Dreamliner. Many of my fellow blogging friends have previously commented on the method by which Boeing is manufacturing this monster of an airplane. With this s

Winning Rocks!

By Ron Pereira - May 21st, 2007

I learned tonight that I, yes little old me, am a winner. I don’t mean a winner like the way your mom always says, “Oh son, you are always a winner to me.” No, I mean a winner in the truest sense of the word. Check ou

Lean and Tissue Donation

By Ron Pereira - May 21st, 2007

I came across an interesting article from the Dayton Daily News where they discussed how leaders of the Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services teamed up with Lean practitioners from Sinclair Community College. The article e

Do Kaizen Like Toyota

By Jon Miller - May 20th, 2007

How do we do kaizen like Toyota? Just the fact that we’re hearing this question more often is a good sign that either a) there is a growing awareness about there being a right way to do kaizen, or b) Toyota’s PR machine is

Announcing the 5S Challenge Winners!

By Jon Miller - May 18th, 2007

Thank you Konrad, Ron, Robert, Nancy, Chris, Eric, Jason, Rajdeep and Dee for your thoughtful answers to the question “which of the 5S is hardest and why?” There was a lot of emphasis in on keeping it going, the 5th S known

Fire at Will!

By Ron Pereira - May 18th, 2007

(I came across this link over at Evolving Excellence and just had to comment) Move over Dilbert. KT Cat, eat your heart out. Check out this piece of work from a Six Sigma basher extraordinaire! I always say to be nice to KT Cat a

Finance 101 by Taiichi