June 2007 | Page 5 of 6 | Gemba Academy

Putting the Zen Back in Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2007

The “zen” in the word “kaizen” has nothing to do with Zen Buddhism. This is a mistake we often see in books or presentations. Kaizen means continuous improvement, or literally “to change and make good̶

Kaizen Song: Hey, Juneka

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2007

Inspired by Ron Pereira’s multi-part blogging about heijunka this week, at the Lean Six Sigma Academy, including heijunka in the front office, here is a new kaizen song. Hey, Juneka (heijuneka) (to the music of The Beatles’

Why Heijunka – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - June 7th, 2007

Last night we discussed why we would use heijunka in a manufacturing environment in response to a readers question. Tonight I want to focus in on why we would want to use heijunka, or leveling, in an office environment. This

Why Heijunka – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - June 6th, 2007

B.D. asked, “You’re talking about HOW to do heijunka, but I’m not seeing WHY.” Great comment B.D. I will attempt to answer the why here this evening. Let’s dig into the manufacturing side of things in this articl

How to Reduce the Distance Between Management and Gemba

By Jon Miller - June 5th, 2007

This issue, and how it is addressed, is one of the main factors separating successful and sustained lean transformations from those that are not. Let’s say the distance between management and the gemba is value D and the quality,

Fun with HTML

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2007

I apologize if anyone had issues with my blog this evening. I had jacked up some HTML real good. Luckily I saved it all before hacking it up into pieces. All should be fine now… and you may notice the nice little eBay auct

Heijunka in the Front Office

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2007

In the house of Toyota heijunka belongs in the foundation. Sadly many people dismiss this critical lean concept explaining how it isn’t relevant for their business. Heijunka which is properly pronounced (hey-june-kah) and n

Is Laying People off Really Anti-Lean?

By Ron Pereira - June 2nd, 2007

Update: June 3 @ 7:33 PM CST Over the weekend, this post has had some good action (via comments and emails I have received). I am modifying the original post ever so slightly to make the “assumptions” a bit more clear.

6 Ways to Use Lean & Six Sigma at Home

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

Here are some ways to use Lean and Six Sigma methods away from the office. Sort clothes according to color and place them into different bins eliminating the need to sort. When the bin is full wash those clothes. Don’t wait

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