July 2007 | Page 2 of 5 | Gemba Academy

Kaizen Rules – 5 & 6

By Ron Pereira - July 24th, 2007

Tonight we continue with our multi-part kaizen rules series. For a recap of previous kaizen rules please check out: Rules 1 & 2 Rules 3 & 4 Rule 5: Correct mistakes at once If you are walking through your office, factory, or ev

TPS & the Tao

By Jon Miller - July 23rd, 2007

Some time ago a woman who was studying Taoism and also reading Taiichi Ohno said, “The more I read Taiichi Ohno’s book The Toyota Production System-Beyond Large-Scale Production, the more I believe that his philosophies are

Kaizen Rules – 3 & 4

By Ron Pereira - July 23rd, 2007

Yesterday we discussed the first two rules of kaizen. Tonight we will discuss excuses and perfection. Rule 3: Stop making excuses. Start questioning current practices. When we encounter a defect or failure we should not make excuses

A Kaizen Team’s Secret Ingredient: Negative People

By Jon Miller - July 22nd, 2007

Ron Pereira at the Lean Six Sigma Academy is blogging all week about kaizen. Hooray. He started early, advising us in his July 19th post to “snap out of it” whenever we have a negative mindset that make us say “the pr

Kaizen Rules – 1 & 2

By Ron Pereira - July 22nd, 2007

This week my plan is to blog about all things kaizen. I personally believe kaizen is the key to long term success – both professionally and personally. Often times we associate the word kaizen with “kaizen events” which are short

True Essence of Continuous Improvement

By Ron Pereira - July 22nd, 2007

If you have not visited the shmula blog today please do. Pete’s article on Hansei – What is Really Important? inspired me. I hope it does you as well.

Accenture to Acquire George Group

By Ron Pereira - July 20th, 2007

NEW YORK; July 19, 2007 — Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has agreed to acquire George Group, a privately held consulting firm specializing in helping companies and governments enhance their performance through strategic process improvements,

Kaizen Song: Downstream Pull

By Jon Miller - July 19th, 2007

This kaizen song is dedicated to all of you materials managers and planners out there working to establish pull systems… Downstream Pull (to the melody of “Downtown Train” by Tom Waits) Line side another yellow andon

The problem with that is…

By Ron Pereira - July 19th, 2007

For some reason some folks seem dead against making things better. One of the easiest ways I can tell if I am dealing with a concrete head is by simply listening to the words they use. For example, whenever I hear someone say (after

There is No Honor in Muri

By Jon Miller - July 18th, 2007

Unreasonableness is a six syllable, sixteen letter word. It’s a lot simpler to say muri in Japanese. Certainly less precious breath is wasted without the four extra syllables. Muri arises when you try to fight variability at the

Month: July 2007