2010 | Page 5 of 20 | Gemba Academy

Lean Thinking and The Little Prince

By Jon Miller - September 28th, 2010

Sometimes life feels as hard as passing an elephant through a boa constrictor. French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 – 1944) left us with a charming novella, The Little Prince. Perhaps opening this book again w

Cross Training, the Johari Window and Kaizen

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2010

Within a lean work system the practice of job rotation serves the purpose of cross training and increased flexibility. This can be deliberate and time-based for repetitive manual work, such that people switch from one task to another e

I Want to Be Like Benny

By Ron Pereira - September 27th, 2010

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” ~Mother Teresa As I mentioned last week, my Dad is now recovering in a superbly run stroke rehab hospital. This particular hospital has many wonderful attributes. It’s cle

Is Too Much Money Worse than Too Little?

By Jon Miller - September 24th, 2010

An old friend of mine who has run a small construction company for decades reflected back on his career as he nears retirement, “If I’d been rich I think I would have done many bad things.” He was probably talking abo

We Have a Long Way to Go

By Ron Pereira - September 24th, 2010

My Dad recently suffered a devastating stroke… as such I traveled to see him this week. When I first arrived he was in a major hospital within a major city within a major country. Yes, I’m being vague so the political jun

Stealing the 7 Secrets of Toyota’s Business Success

By Jon Miller - September 22nd, 2010

Taizo Ishida (1888-1979) took over the role of President of Toyota from the inventor and founder Kiichiro Toyoda in the midst of labor unrest, layoffs and the threat of bankruptcy. Ishida is considered the “restorer of ToyotaR

Possibly the Worst Ever Use of a Suggestion Box

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2010

A September 20, 2010 New York Times article title Haitians Cry in Letters describes what happened when suggestions boxes were set up recently at the 1,300 camps for refugees of the earthquake in Haiti. The letters in the boxes are not

10,000 Subscribers – THANK YOU!

By Ron Pereira - September 17th, 2010

I am not a big blog stats guy… I used to be. I’d check how many people visited the blog every other hour of the day! Eventually I realized how much time I wasted doing this! But one stat I do follow since, at least to m

A Different Way to Learn

By Ron Pereira - September 17th, 2010

A big hat tip over to Kevin Meyer or Evolving Excellence for sharing this video with me. It’s a fascinating story of how some children are learning more than anyone could ever imagine possible. I’m definitely interested

Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap

By Jon Miller - September 16th, 2010

One common theme from the lean tours we led here in Japan this week was that all of the organizations we visited have successfully bridged what is called the knowing-doing gap. Popularized by Stanford University professor Robert Sutto

Year: 2010