2010 | Page 3 of 8 | Gemba Academy

How to Sustain a Lean Culture after 10 Years

By Jon Miller - September 15th, 2010

This week I am in Japan helping to lead one of our lean manufacturing benchmarking trips. What I took away from the debriefing from yesterday’s lean benchmarking visit was a series of lessons on how to sustain a lean culture afte

Still Learning the Meaning of Cleaning

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2010

Just when you thought you knew all you needed to know about cleaning the workplace as part of lean manufacturing, the universe sends you a day like yesterday. We visited a small, privately held company in rural Japan. This company was

There’s Nothing Fantastic About Being Good

By Ron Pereira - September 14th, 2010

I was recently flipping through one of my favorite lean books of all time, Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management. I often grab this book, open it up, and randomly read a page much like I do with the Bible. You see, for me, as with the

Energy Savings Kaizen: Switch on to Use

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2010

This week we are leading a big group on a lean manufacturing study mission in Japan. We call it the Japan Kaikaku Experience because we learn from companies that have gone through or are still going through kaikaku , a lean business tr

Lean Manufacturing and the Brain

By Jon Miller - September 11th, 2010

This week I learned that within the three pounds of spongy flesh that is the human brain there are 1.1 trillion cells, 100 billion neurons and 10 x 10 to the millionth power of possible neuron connections. This number makes my brain hu

Here It Comes, the Lean Burrito!

By Jon Miller - September 9th, 2010

LeanAmerica.org

Preparing Coffee

By Ron Pereira - September 9th, 2010

Last night, before I went to bed, I set my coffee maker up to start brewing at 5:45 AM. I also placed my coffee mug and a spoon next to the coffee maker so I wouldn’t have to fumble about in the morning. This morning, around 6

Why Salmon Would Fail at Hoshin Kanri

By Jon Miller - September 8th, 2010

While cleaning out my pockets after a long summer of travel I found “hoshin is like salmon” on a bit of improvised note-taking paper, in my handwriting. If it was important enough to write down, the meaning of this scrawl s

A Day that Changed My Life Forever

By Ron Pereira - September 7th, 2010

It was early evening – around 7:00 PM. I was leaving the plant I was visiting that week and noticed a second shift operator preparing to start his day. I went over to say hi to the young man. He was a nice fellow… he had one of

Leaders Pull

By Jon Miller - September 6th, 2010

Leaders lead. Or do they? There is not always a cause and effect relationship between leadership actions and follower behavior. Not all leaders succeed at pulling people along in the same direction. If a leader needs to drive people in

The Don’t Quit Poem

By Ron Pereira - September 3rd, 2010

I absolutely love this. Enjoy. Oh, and if you’re reading this on an iPhone or via RSS reader/email you’ll likely need to click through to the site.

Who’s Winning?

By Ron Pereira - September 2nd, 2010

I recently had the pleasure of having lunch with Rick Foreman. Rick frequently comments on this blog and many others. Rick is also extremely passionate about lean… he’s the sort of fellow that gets you all pumped up and ready to ma

8 Reasons to Love Kaizen Events

By Jon Miller - September 1st, 2010

Some people disparage the 5-day kaizen event as a driver for continuous improvement. When the kaizen even it the only way of putting creative ideas and lean systems into practice this can be a sign of fake lean. Roadmaps, tools and met

A Major Announcement That You’ve Made Possible

By Ron Pereira - August 30th, 2010

My life changed – more than I could have ever imagined – Sunday evening, January 14, 2007. You see it was on this day that I wrote my first blog article. I remember wondering if anyone would read it? I actually just re-read

5 Ways the Obeya (Big Room) Increases Profit

By Jon Miller - August 28th, 2010

Walls. If you live in the modern world or work within a secondary or tertiary industry, look up and you will see a wall. Ahead, behind or to the side of you the wall is there. We walk along, past and through them every day but think no

How I Sustain a Clean PC Desktop

By Ron Pereira - August 27th, 2010

Have you ever heard the stories of how the air conditioning repair man often has air conditioning problems at home? Or how the plumber’s wife is constantly after him to fix the leak under the sink? Well, I can relate. You see, if

Are People Your Greatest Asset?

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2010

Scott contributed a comment to a recent article on how to motivate front line workers: I never liked the expression that “people are your greatest asset”. People should never be looked upon as an asset. An asset is defined

Lean Blogging – There’s an app for that!

By Ron Pereira - August 24th, 2010

If you are an iPhone user you’re going to want to download the 100% free Lean Daily app. It’s extremely cool as it consolidates the latest posts from your favorite lean blogs into one convenient app. Here is a summary of th

How to Design a Lean Operation at a One Day Takt

By Jon Miller - August 23rd, 2010

Steve C asked: I have just moved from a role where the takt was 55 seconds into a new role where the customer requirement is one part every day. Does anyone have experience running to this kind of timescale? This is a fairly common cha

What’s Next for Lean?

By Jon Miller - August 21st, 2010

Whether I am speaking about lean to an audience of one or one hundred if the conversation goes on long enough the question inevitably arises; what’s next for lean? I always manage an answer, typically tying it to the theme of the

Whom shall we serve?

By Ron Pereira - August 18th, 2010

Lot, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent the following question in. “We are actually starting lean six sigma in our bank and I am in charge of the central processing unit of the HO. I am getting a bit confused as to who I shou

The Pros and Cons of Paced Conveyor Lines

By Jon Miller - August 16th, 2010

Steve asked in an e-mail: What are the productivity advantages, specifically in terms of operator efficiency, with respect to a moving, paced conveyor line and a non-moving, non-paced line? We’re looking at three scenarios: 1) No

Toyota Production System and the Three Dharma Seals

By Jon Miller - August 15th, 2010

According to the Buddha there are three characteristics of existence: Impermanence Dissatisfaction Non-self Becoming deeply aware of these “Three Dharma Seals” (三法印) is said to bring about wisdom and an end to the cyc

Seven Success Secrets of Small Teams

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2010

Photo credit: Anoopkn, Wikimedia Commons American football coaching legend Vince Lombardi said: Build for your team a sense of oneness, of dependence on another and of strength derived from unity. United we stand. Divided we fall. Or s

Management Improvement Carnival #106

By Jon Miller - August 10th, 2010

The Management Improvement Carnival is a roundup of recent articles of interest on that subject. John Hunter has invited me to host Carnival #106. Read all past episodes here at the Curious Cat blog. I’ve not been able to enjoy c

Year: 2010