2010 | Page 11 of 20 | Gemba Academy

Toyota to Reduce Span of Control in Engineering

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2010

The Nikkei reported on June 11, 2010 that Toyota is bringing back front line supervisors, adding a layer of management to staff positions that has been missing since 1989. This is an admission by Toyota, the world’s greatest lean

Your Homework This Week

By Ron Pereira - June 14th, 2010

I just read an excellent post by Jamie Flinchbaugh titled A Call to Action. The basic premise of Jamie’s thoughts are to stop talking about things… instead take action. So, your homework for this week is two-fold. Read Ja

An Up Close Look at a Toyota Assembly Line

By Jon Miller - June 10th, 2010

There is a series of six videos on the Toyota Europe website titled “Your Toyota is My Toyota”. Team members from the Burnaston, UK factory explain their roles in building quality in to Toyota vehicles. Individuals from the

How to Radically Increase Personal Productivity

By Ron Pereira - June 9th, 2010

Think back to the last meeting you attended. How many people were there? How long was the meeting? Let’s assume – for sake of example – that there were 8 people in your meeting. Let’s also assume the meeting lasted 1 hour. This

21 Questions to Ask When Walking the Model Line, Part 2

By Jon Miller - June 9th, 2010

Continuing our walk on the model line, here are questions 11 through 21 to ask when performing a lean maturity audit: 11. What methods are used to smooth out the variation in workload due to changes in product mix or work volume? What

21 Questions to Ask When Walking the Model Line, Part 1

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2010

The model line is a value stream or a section of a value stream used as a pilot to demonstrate an organization’s capability to deploy lean systems and behaviors. The model line approach is used early in an organizations lean jour

Leaders Who Think Across Silos

By Jon Miller - June 5th, 2010

A Newsweek article titled ‘Know What You Don’t Know’ interviews Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and plumbs his insights into the futre of leadership. One passage caught my eye in paticular: You came out of law school

Jim Joyce and Accountability

By Ron Pereira - June 4th, 2010

As those that follow Major League Baseball know, umpire Jim Joyce cost pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game earlier this week. For those that don’t know the story, Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga needed one more out in or

Good Fortune Deceives, but Bad Fortune Enlightens

By Jon Miller - June 3rd, 2010

Previously we made an analogy between King Pyrrhus and Toyota’s cost of victory in the battle for sales volume. I recommend the Classics once again as a source of wisdom for leaders. In the most challenging of times they could be

Enhancing Total Management Commitment

By Jon Miller - June 2nd, 2010

In an e-mail, Junaid asked: How we will enhance top management commitment and involvement for implementation of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)? This is a great general question to ask for any effort to establish excellence, maintai

Year: 2010