2008 | Page 8 of 27 | Gemba Academy

The Right Way to Calculate Optimal Crew Size

By Ron Pereira - September 17th, 2008

Here’s the situation… the cycle time to produce one unit in our widget making factory is 300 seconds and the takt time for this product is 50 seconds per piece. In other words, in order to satisfy customer demand we need to produce

Real Life SMED

By Ron Pereira - September 15th, 2008

One of the best ways I’ve found to explain various lean and six sigma topics to others is to use examples from real life. After all, not everyone makes cars or the mirrors that go on cars… so many of the examples we read about in t

The PIT Factor in Change Management

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2008

Forwarded from our mail server to my e-mail inbox tonight was a quote from science fiction author Frank Herbert: “The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.” It se

Do You Want to Go Far or Go Fast on Your Lean Journey?

By Jon Miller - September 12th, 2008

There is a proverb from the continent of Africa, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.” I was reminded of it this week. Companies eager to implement lean manufacturing quickly will put th

I am, therefore I think

By Ron Pereira - September 10th, 2008

I believe René Descartes may have gotten it backward when he said, in Latin, “Cogito, ergo sum.” When translated this famous saying means: “I think, therefore I am.” I contend he should have said, “I am, therefore I think.�

5 Things I am Still Learning about Lean Manufacturing

By Jon Miller - September 9th, 2008

Fifteen years to the week since stepping into the stormy presence of Nakao sensei, one of Taiichi Ohno’s students who know goes by the curiously alcoholic moniker of FOM – Father of Moonshine – I am still learning abo

Are You Ready For Lean?

By Ron Pereira - September 8th, 2008

I just skimmed through a short white paper that attempted to provide a checklist to help an organization decide if they were ready for lean. It was written by a person who works for a “human capital management solutions” company. Y

How to Measure Knowledge Worker Productivity, Part 3

By Jon Miller - September 6th, 2008

How do we measure the productivity of knowledge workers? One can feel the creative juices ebbing away just thinking about this question. So we’ll skip Part 2 and go directly to Part 3. Why not measure knowledge worker productivit

Lean Tutorial: Production Capacity Template

By Ron Pereira - September 4th, 2008

To view a larger version of this video click here. Here is a free copy of the production capacity template I use in the video. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. Finally, if you like th

Lean Manufacturing in One Word

By Jon Miller - September 4th, 2008

Some of the most popular so-called lean manufacturing tools (some of which are actually systems, others which are disciplines, yet others which are in fact policies) can be reduced to one word: respect. This is staggering when you thin

Year: 2008