November 2009 | Gemba Academy

Management Improvement Carnival #83

By Jon Miller - November 30th, 2009

We are honored to guest host Management Improvement Carnival #83. John “The Curious Cat” Hunter has collected interesting blog articles in over 80 previous carnivals. If you missed Carnival #82 be sure to visit the choices

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership Series: Justice

By Ron Pereira - November 30th, 2009

The other day my 5 year old daughter said… OK, to be more accurate she whined, “She [referring to her 7 year old sister] got candy… why don’t I?” Ah yes, my children often remind me of how important fairness and justice are.

How to Build the Road Warrior’s Stand Up Desk

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2009

Where there is a will there is a way. I learned that lesson again. Yesterday I was complaining to myself about being unproductive, chalking it up to a 1:40am flight, the weather, and the uncomfortable chair at the desk in my hotel room

Cross Training in a One Piece Flow Cell

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2009

I am working through the backlog of Ask Gemba questions. Bas asked: In a one piece flow cell that is fully loaded with customer demand, how can new people be trained, without creating significant flow problems? Operators are moving wit

How to Stop and Fix in a Stationary Process

By Jon Miller - November 24th, 2009

Graham asked: My background is high volume automotive production like Ford. I am now involved with static build production of HVAC units. How do I best apply stop the line methods with static builds? ie no line to stop. Thanks for the

Looking for Evidence of PDCA

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2009

Lately I’ve been more mindful about looking for evidence of PDCA. The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle is the essence of continuous improvement and about half of what makes a lean management system possible. The other part has somethin

No Excuses, Respect for People and Finishing Strong

By Jon Miller - November 19th, 2009

We often make excuses about why we can’t do something, whether it’s solve a problem, improve our situation or just get things done. My friend Róbert shared an inspiring video of a speech by Nick Vujicic. Nick is a man with

Made Up Lean Enterprise Statistics

By Jon Miller - November 17th, 2009

For a group of people who claim to practice management by fact and question the as-given condition, we in the lean community have a troubling habit of citing and accepting made up lean enterprise statistics. In fact I would say that at

Stand Up Desk To Go

By Ron Pereira - November 17th, 2009

I was on the road last night doing some work in my hotel room. After an hour or so my back started to hurt from the crappy chair I was sitting in so I decided to create my very own “stand up desk to go” in honor of my rec

My New Stand Up Desk

By Ron Pereira - November 15th, 2009

I first witnessed so called “stand up desks” in Japan during my JKE trip. As an aside you can read about this amazing trip here, here, here, here, and here. Anyhow, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the idea. I me

Month: November 2009