Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

Jon Miller

Jon has dedicated his 25+ year career to the field of kaizen, continuous improvement, and lean management. Jon spent the first eighteen years of his life in Japan, then graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s in linguistics.

1485 Articles

Lean Management for the Day After Tomorrow

By Jon Miller - November 4th, 2019

One of the criticisms of lean management is that it doesn’t address innovation. Lean practices build systems for delivering high quality services on-time to customers at lower costs. This is achieved through robust processes, dai

10 Behaviors to Practice Respect for People

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2019

Last week I had the pleasure of facilitating a study mission for a group of leaders from a global manufacturer. We visited several companies. Each was two decades into their lean journey. The host companies were generous in sharing the

Lean Thinking and the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

By Jon Miller - October 21st, 2019

A few years ago, I read and blogged about the book Poor Economics and the key lessons it offered for change efforts such as Lean transformations. Congratulations are in order to the co-authors who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic S

When is “No Idea is a Bad Idea” a Bad Idea?

By Jon Miller - October 14th, 2019

Brainstorming is an often-used method to generate ideas from a group of people for solving problems. One of the cardinal rules is not to criticize ideas as people raise them. We are reminded, “No idea is a bad idea.” One o

How to Get the Most Out of Your NFL Franchise with TPM

By Jon Miller - October 7th, 2019

The American football season is full swing. The NFL is celebrating 100 years of this game of athletic and mental matchups. As an organization, the NFL is concerned with increasing its income by providing an entertainment product. To th

More Gems from Gemba-focused Executive VP Kawai

By Jon Miller - September 30th, 2019

In a blog post last year, we described how gemba-focused Toyota Executive VP Kawai spends a typical day at work. In a series of interviews in IT Media, a Japanese online business magazine he continues to drop gems. He was asked about

Applying Lean Principles to a Business Planning Meeting

By Jon Miller - September 23rd, 2019

This past week my business partners Kevin Meyer, Ron Pereira and I met face to face over a span of two days. The purpose was long-term business planning, near-term goal-setting and prioritization of supporting projects. The three of us

How to Be an Effective Change Leader

By Jon Miller - September 16th, 2019

A Knowledge @ Wharton article titled How to be an Effective Organizational Maverick is worthwhile reading continuous improvement leaders, lean managers, change agents or anyone refusing to accept the status quo as the best or only way

The Best Indicator of Success with Lean

By Jon Miller - September 9th, 2019

This past week I had the opportunity to walk the gemba of several companies. They ranged from large to small, public to private, across manufacturing and service. Each has been committed to Lean management for more than twenty years. T

Three Answers to “How do We Sustain the Results of Improvement?”

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2019

Rumors have it that the vast majority of Lean transformations fail. Some even quote success rates as being below 10%. There are many problems with this. How we define success. When (too soon) we measure and conclude failure. What exact

<< Prev
1
…
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
…
149
Next >>

Jon Miller

Find Jon Elsewhere

Start your Lean & Six Sigma training today.