2007 | Page 2 of 17 | Gemba Academy

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

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

Too many organizations today have no effective, simple, and formalized method of developing front-line leaders. The typical new supervisor or manager is lucky to be given instruction in how their job is done properly, and why. Most oft

Management by FACTS!!

By Jon Miller - November 12th, 2007

These are the words staring at me each day while standing or sitting at my desk: FACTS! Please feel free to hit Print and place this visual reminder for all to see. Sadly my personal MTBFTFTBF performance (mean time between failures to

What is the Standard?

By Jon Miller - November 6th, 2007

A problem was brought to my attention today. Some of our consultants are not submitting expense reports on time, causing us to be unable to bill clients on time. Simply put, some people are keeping other people from doing their job. Th

Free Videos on Lean Healthcare, Toyota Production System

By Jon Miller - November 5th, 2007

Here are a pair of free videos on YouTube. The first is titled A Quick Introduction to Lean Thinking and it is brought to you by the NHS group Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Some of the graphics and examples of Lean in healt

Three of the Lessons Learned from Gemba’s 2007 Hoshin Kanri

By Jon Miller - November 4th, 2007

We are in our pre-planning phase for our 2008 hoshin kanri (policy deployment) here at Gemba. That means we start by reflecting on 2007 and the progress made so far. Without airing too much dirty laundry, here are three of the lessons

Why a Kaizen Newspaper is Called a Kaizen Newspaper

By Jon Miller - November 1st, 2007

The kaizen newspaper is tool used to perform visual management on the process of continuous improvement itself. Many people who have not been introduced to the kaizen newspaper through kaizen events or as part of a program of team-base

Thank You, Thank You, Sam-I-Am

By Jon Miller - October 30th, 2007

One of my favorite philosophers is Theodor Geisel, a man whose illustrated stories continue to entertain and speaks to children and adults alike. Anyone continuous improvement professional who has read his “Green Eggs and HamR

Stumbling on the Lesser Category of Obstacles

By Jon Miller - October 29th, 2007

The important and influential ideas of W. Edwards Deming include a System of Profound Knowledge, 14 Points for Management, and the 7 Deadly Diseases. While Deming was not an innovator of practical tools to implement Lean manufacturing,

Do You Understand the System of Profound Knowledge?

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2007

W. Edwards Deming said “without theory there is no learning” while Taiichi Ohno said “understanding means doing.” Deming left a great legacy with his Theory of Profound Knowledge which if followed allows the way

Two Types of Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - October 28th, 2007

The word kaizen is fast becoming a buzz word galore. You will hear about how people are “doing kaizen” or running a big “kaizen event” next week. Many times folks are in fact executing kaizen’s in an att

Seeing Problems for What they Are, Or Lean Insights from G.K. Chesterton

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2007

G.K. Chesterton was an extremely clever early 20th century writer who used many twists of phrase to make his points. His style of thinking and the points he makes at times makes me wonder if members of the Toyoda family read and were i

Alignment of People, Process and Purpose

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2007

A few years ago during a visit to the gemba of high volume manufacturing client, I found a good case study in a disjointed Lean implementation. There was a lack of alignment between how management was leading the Lean effort (providing

Steelcase to Bring Lean Office to China?

By Jon Miller - October 22nd, 2007

An article in the October 23, 2007 in the English version of the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily hints at a future for the Lean office in China. Titled Furniture firm builds presence, it is largely corporate PR announcing the ex

Top 10 Lean Education Mistakes (and a Few Recommendations)

By Jon Miller - October 21st, 2007

Here is a mixed bag of thoughts on common Lean education mistakes and a few recommendations on how to avoid them: #1: Teaching things rather than teaching thinking If one thing can be said about the Lean tools, it is that they work. Ye

Lean Specialists, Lean Generalists and the Benefit of Half-Persons

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2007

Things seem to come in threes. Or perhaps we become satisfied and stop counting at three when in fact the particular phenomena we are counting in fact persists. This week three separate organizations asked us on three separate occasion

The Right Inventory is an Asset!

By Ron Pereira - October 19th, 2007

Most lean practitioners, myself included, spend lots of time talking about how calling inventory an asset is hog wash. We use analogies like how lowering inventory is the same as lowering water in a river… eventually all those

The Open Office Comes to Silicon Valley

By Jon Miller - October 16th, 2007

An October 15, 2007 Wall Street Journal article titled Why Silicon Valley Is Rethinking The Cubicle Office explains how companies such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Autodesk, and Hewlett-Packard are either testing or planning tests with the

The First Step to Kaizen the Environment: Problem Awareness

By Jon Miller - October 15th, 2007

The last few days have been ones of closer observation and increased awareness of what goes on around me, in preparation for today, Blog Action Day, when fifteen thousand bloggers are writing about the cause of protecting our environme

Highlights from Lean Manufacturing Journey to the West

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2007

On this trip to China I found a lot of openness to learning about new things, and Lean manufacturing in particular. People in China are certainly proud of their 4,000 years of history, but they are eager to learn and progress. We could

Guidelines for Continuous Moving Lines

By Jon Miller - October 11th, 2007

This article is in response to a question posted by a reader about guidelines for continuous moving lines as part of a Lean manufacturing implementation. This is not a comprehensive list of all things to consider when designing and man

Things to Leave Behind When Jumping Out of Airplanes

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2007

Flying west on Sichuan Airlines today I saw the most bizarre in-flight safety video. The cartoon character flight attendant was the star of the show, with a video bubble of a real person explaining in sign language, while passable Engl

The Challenge of Lean Human Resource Development, and A Modest Proposal

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2007

Good question from Alberto about how Chinese companies who are pursuing Lean manufacturing are managing to invest in their people. There is a lot of truth to the stereotype of the Chinese factory worker doing very simple tasks, in a ba

Questions About Lean Manufacturing in China

By Jon Miller - October 7th, 2007

I will be in China this week seeing some factories and talking to people about Lean manufacturing. Adapting and applying time-tested methods and approaches to new environments and new challenges is always a treat. I go with many questi

Year: 2007