February 2018 | Gemba Academy

Has Anyone Seen My Target Condition?

By Jon Miller - February 26th, 2018

Steve Kane pointed out last week in his excellent blog post how we need to be careful when practicing Toyota kata not to “ambush” each other by demanding to know “What’s the current condition?” or “

Avoid the Ambush

By Steve Kane - February 23rd, 2018

As I’m writing this, I’m attending the Toyota Kata Summit in Atlanta. The early keynotes of the conference touched on several important aspects of Lean leadership. Among them were the general topic of respect for people

GA 203 | How to Apply Lean to Manufacturing Location Decisions with Harry Moser

By Jessica Bush - February 22nd, 2018

This week’s guest is Harry Moser, Founder and President of the Reshoring Initiative. Ron and Harry discussed reshoring, including what it is and how lean plays a role. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here

What is the Most Human Level of Complexity?

By Jon Miller - February 19th, 2018

One of the goals of continuous improvement, or the management of any enterprise, always seems to involve reducing complexity. It is almost an article of faith that simplicity equals beauty and goodness. I’ve always had a vague na

GA 202 | How to Achieve Clarity with Karen Martin

By Jessica Bush - February 15th, 2018

This week’s guest is consultant and speaker Karen Martin. Karen shed some light on the importance of individual and organizational clarity in anticipation of her new book, Clarity First. An MP3 version of this episode is availab

Homo Sapiens Visualis

By Jon Miller - February 12th, 2018

An interesting article suggested that the gap in artistic ability between early modern humans and relative Homo species such as the Neanderthals was due to differences in the way they hunted. The Neanderthals stabbed tamer prey at clos

The Critical Thinking Value of Writing

By Kevin Meyer - February 9th, 2018

Almost three years ago I wrote about the power of writing – by hand. Sure, it’s easy to take notes on an iPad app or on a laptop, but the result is not nearly as beneficial as writing by hand. One of the studies I cited com

GA 201 | How to Apply Lean to the Airline Industry with David Acklin

By Jessica Bush - February 8th, 2018

This week’s guest is David Acklin from Hawaiian Airlines. David explained how they improved their interline baggage process, including how they got other airlines involved. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download

Looking Right at the Essence of TPS

By Jon Miller - February 5th, 2018

My friend Reiko Kano began her career as Taiichi Ohno’s interpreter thirty years ago. She then supported Ohno’s disciples, the Shingijutsu consultants, for decades. She recently wrote a book about her experiences. One of he

Learn, Grow, Share

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2018

I had the strangest dream last night. I don’t normally remember my dreams… but I remember this one. I was speaking to a man about continuous improvement. I’m not sure who the man was… but in my dream I see

Month: February 2018