August 2009 | Gemba Academy

Complexity and Love Songs

By Ron Pereira - August 31st, 2009

My family and I recently took a much needed vacation. One of our stops was in Chicago where my wife and daughters attended my sister-in-law’s wedding shower. One of the party favors for the ladies that attended the wedding shower was

Important Lessons in Kaizen from A Different Kind of Map

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2009

Can you guess what the small squares on this map indicate? This is an image that has been distributed on science news websites during the past week. The picture has been cropped to hide some information. This map and the tiny squares o

Energy Treasure Hunt at the Grocery Store

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

The energy treasure hunt at the grocery store is almost too easy. The bright lights, cooling or refrigeration of a large stock of items year-round, heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, the places we go to buy our f

Bad News from MIT for the PDCA Cycle?

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

According to research reported from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Picower Institute for Learning and Memory we don’t learn from our mistakes. Oh-ho. If this is true the whole scientific basis for kaizen is in tr

The Lean Energy Treasure Hunt

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2009

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding lean manufacturing improvement activities is the energy treasure hunt. The booty we claim on these energy treasure hunts include savings by shutting off motors or machines left running, replacing

Agnosia: Losing the Ability to See the Obvious

By Jon Miller - August 24th, 2009

In order to succeed at leading anything that involves people, one needs to know a lot about people. This is especially true when it comes to lean manufacturing, lean retail, lean distribution, lean healthcare or whatever you prefer to

Lean Thinker Interview with Former Toyota Quality Manager

By Ron Pereira - August 24th, 2009

We’ve recently added a new series of videos over at Gemba Academy called the “Lean Thinker Interviews.” During these interviews we’ll be talking to senior lean practitioners about their experiences and life less

The Versatile Leader – Part 3

By Ron Pereira - August 23rd, 2009

So far in this series we’ve discussed the directing and coaching leadership styles. In this article we’re going to move onto the last two leadership styles – encouraging and empowerment. The Encouraging Leadership Style The encou

The Versatile Leader – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - August 20th, 2009

“That’s what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that’s great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.” -Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University In part 1 of

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Come Closer. No, stay Away!

By Jon Miller - August 20th, 2009

Peter Köves shared an amusing example of this ambiguous or perhaps downright dangerous visual control. When hiking in the countryside of South Limburg near the Dutch city of Maastricht, I stumbled upon this sign on the side of the pat

Month: August 2009