May 2010 | Gemba Academy

Fake Lean and the Spotting Thereof

By Jon Miller - May 31st, 2010

If the peddlers of fake lean were as easy to spot as antler salesmen we would have a much easier time staying free of them. I’ve seen some great deals on antlers, and like the emperor’s clothes, the many leaders who have pa

The Fine Print About Lean Transformations

By Jon Miller - May 27th, 2010

Here’s the deal. If you call between now and July 1, 2012 we will guarantee a full 5X return on investment for a lean transformation! Benefit now and pay in 24 easy monthly installments. No capital investment is required. Ready t

The Original Kamishibai

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2010

By pure chance I came across a book on display at the local public library titled Manga Kamishibai: The Art of the Japanese Paper Theater by Eric P Nash. It is a history of the paper theater art form from the 1930s to modern times. The

Review of Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2010

Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream: Rethinking Your Supply Chain and Logistics to Create Maximum Value at Minimum Cost by Robert Martichenko and Kevin von Grabe is the latest publication from the Lean Enterprise Institute. The book gui

Toyota Partnering with Tesla

By Jon Miller - May 22nd, 2010

There’s new hope in Fremont, California with news of the likely resurrection of NUMMI, the recently closed GM-Toyota joint venture automobile factory: Tesla’s announcement Thursday that it was teaming up with Toyota to star

How to Set Span of Control for Leaders

By Jon Miller - May 21st, 2010

Earlier in the week Jamie Flinchbaugh started a great conversatoin when he asked “what is the right span of control for a manager?” Jamie defined span as: “…how broad an individual managers responsibility is def

The Most Important Aspect of Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - May 20th, 2010

I recently facilitated a SMED kaizen event. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to facilitate events all over the world. But this event was different. Very different. You see this kaizen event was in France and short of two tea

The Most Important Muda Walk

By Ron Pereira - May 19th, 2010

We lean advocates often talk about going to gemba, or the place the work is done, in order to see what is actually happening. We also refer to the process of walking in order to seek out waste as going on a muda walk. Muda, for those t

Where Old Dogmas Go to Die

By Jon Miller - May 16th, 2010

The death of dogma is the birth of morality. That’s a bit of winning 18th century philosophy from Immanuel “Never Say” Kant. Morality is the knowing of right from wrong at the level of truth. Dogma is personal opinion

3 Tips for Continuous Improvement Success

By Ron Pereira - May 10th, 2010

I recently wrote about the Long and Winding Road of P90X and Continuous Improvement. In this article I want to share some ideas for how to approach things such as workout programs and continuous improvement as they are surprisingly sim

Month: May 2010