May 2007 | Page 5 of 6 | Gemba Academy

Will the Real TPS Sensei Please Stand Up?

By Jon Miller - May 9th, 2007

Tetsuo Hoshino is the Chairman of Gifu Auto Body Industry, a Toyota Group company. He was a student of Taiichi Ohno. Since 1990 he has taught the Toyota Production System to 20,000 senior officials in large Korean companies. Hoshino re

Repetitions versus Replications

By Ron - May 8th, 2007

Many Lean & Six Sigma practitioners struggle to differentiate between a repetition and replication. Normally this confusion arises when dealing with Design of Experiments (DOE). Let’s use an example to explain the difference. Pai

Seven Ideas Towards a Healing Workplace

By Jon Miller - May 8th, 2007

The entry last week on Standards, Abnormality and the Ideal seems to have struck a chord with folks. I’ve been thinking further about the idea of negative accidents or negative safety incidents and it is quite sound in theory and

Could Work Kill You?

By Ron - May 8th, 2007

I am a frequent flier and thus read lots of airplane magazines. One of the better mags of the sky is American Way from American Airlines. The May issue is about all things Asia. There are several good articles but the one that really c

First Impression of Workplace Management

By Ron - May 7th, 2007

I have now read Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management which was recently translated by Gemba Press. I have already started reading it a second time as I know I will gain an enormous amount reading it again (and maybe a third time). I w

Hangin’ with Taiichi – Update

By Ron - May 6th, 2007

As I explained a few nights ago I received my copy of “Workplace Management” by Taiichi Ohno. When I first looked at the book I was a bit surprised at how small the book looked. Normally when I see a 100 something page book

Five Lean Ideas to Reduce Hotel Energy Waste

By Jon Miller - May 6th, 2007

Five small things this European hotel chain is doing to reduce energy waste: 1. The lights, television, etc. turn off when you take key card and leave the room 2. The lights in the elevator turn on only when the doors open and you walk

Outsourcing versus Offshoring

By Ron - May 6th, 2007

It seems like every time I turn around there is a new survey. One says Lean rocks, one says almost everyone that tries Lean fails, and one says Dilbert ruined Six Sigma. OK, this last one is stretching it a bit. Maybe. Well just today

Saudi Arabia meets Six Sigma

By Ron - May 5th, 2007

A series of ‘Six Sigma Foundation Courses’ are going to take place during May 2007 in different cities of Saudi Arabia. Link to article.

100% Dissatisfaction is Our Goal

By Jon Miller - May 4th, 2007

A May 4, 2007 USA Today article titled Toyota’s success pleases proponents of ‘lean’ looks at the story of Toyota surpassing GM by volume of cars sold and from the angle that the Lean consulting industry benefits. The

Month: May 2007