November 2007 | Gemba Academy

Sensei and Sensibility

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2007

Please excuse the pun. I’m increasingly convinced that awareness and sensibility outweigh knowledge and capability when it comes to being a Lean leader or teacher of kaizen. Taiichi Ohno called for a “revolution of awarenes

I am Addicted to Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - November 29th, 2007

Hi, my name is Ron and I am addicted to kaizen. I was first introduced to kaizen years ago and while I did like it I didn’t go overboard. I worked on a few point kaizen events but never really accomplished more than some nice

Muri, Hubris and the Laws of Proportion

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2007

One reason that the Toyota Production System is so effective is that it is built around many fundamental principles which apply universally. One of these pieces of timeless wisdom is that muri is bad and should be avoided. Muri is the

Five Questions to Ask When You Hear "We're too busy for Lean"

By Jon Miller - November 26th, 2007

How many times have you heard “We’re too busy for Lean” from managers and professionals in your organization? How do you respond? How do you know whether they are in fact too busy? When it is true, what do you do to g

What I Learned About TPS from Ratatouille

By Jon Miller - November 22nd, 2007

Our family watched the Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille last night. It is a story about an intelligent rat and a kitchen full of cooks at a haute cuisine restaurant in Paris. About half way through the film a cook named Colette i

Jim Womack Interview in IndustryWeek – Nation Full fo Kaizen Consultants

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2007

There is a very long and insightful interview with Jim Womack available at the IndustryWeek online magazine titled Thought Leaders — Lean On Me (Full Transcript). At over 7,000 words the discussion ranges from a history Womack an

The Three Habits Required for Built-In Quality (Jidoka)

By Jon Miller - November 19th, 2007

As one of the pillars of the classic TPS house, jidoka represents two distinct but important ideas. The first part of jidoka or “automation with a human touch” involves the harmonization of people and machines. Humans shoul

Back from the Big House

By Ron Pereira - November 18th, 2007

Let me just say this past weekend rocked! As regular readers of the blog know I attended the Ohio State versus Michigan football game this past Saturday. Well my Buckeyes handled Michigan with ease and won the Big Ten championship.

Four Things to Do Before Letting the Lean Consultants in the Door

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

We are often asked, “What can we do in the mean time?” when shaking hands on an agreement to begin a Lean consultation with a new client. For most companies that are new to Lean, and even some that have been at it for a whi

Diverse people discussing problem solving

A3 Problem Solving as a People Development Process