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

Will the Smart City be a Lean City?

By Jon Miller - March 5th, 2018

Today we live in an era in which our phones, watches, household appliances and our homes themselves are getting smart. At the moment, all “smart” means is “internet connected”. This is a bit ironic as when humans connect to tod

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 “

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

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

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

The Seven Losses of High IQ Leadership

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2018

Given a choice between a leader who is dumb and a leader who is smart, most of us would choose the smart one. A smart leader will be able to draw on more knowledge, make better decisions, and find solutions to the group’s more di

Taoism, Lean Thinking and Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2018

I’ve written before on the parallels between Taoism and TPS a.k.a. lean thinking. It is not surprising that we find influences from so-called Eastern philosophies, as Taiichi Ohno and the others framers the Toyota Way were were f

The Value of Muda

By Jon Miller - January 15th, 2018

I found some wisdom in a surprising place, on the theme of lean thinking, learning, value, and muda. Ichiro Suzuki is a very successful professional baseball player who at age 44 has played the game for 25 years and intends to play int

How to Win at New Year’s Resolutions

By Jon Miller - January 8th, 2018

It’s that time of year when we reflect back on the prior 12 months, look ahead to the next 12 and set personal priorities. I’ve heard that by February, 80% of New Year’s resolutions are on their way to failure. This h

We Have the Highest Quality Standards

By Jon Miller - December 18th, 2017

My career in the field of lean thinking got started twenty-four years ago while helping Japanese consultants communicate with their American clients. There were occasions when it was as much an education in cultural differences and com

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