Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

What is Kaizen? The Little Gear

By Jon Miller - September 3rd, 2009

What is kaizen? A reader reminded me that a lot of terms used in articles on this blog go unexplained. Although it’s one of our favorite topics, kaizen is one such term that is often used but seldom explained in enough detail for

Important Lessons in Kaizen from A Different Kind of Map

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2009

Can you guess what the small squares on this map indicate? This is an image that has been distributed on science news websites during the past week. The picture has been cropped to hide some information. This map and the tiny squares o

Energy Treasure Hunt at the Grocery Store

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

The energy treasure hunt at the grocery store is almost too easy. The bright lights, cooling or refrigeration of a large stock of items year-round, heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, the places we go to buy our f

Bad News from MIT for the PDCA Cycle?

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

According to research reported from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Picower Institute for Learning and Memory we don’t learn from our mistakes. Oh-ho. If this is true the whole scientific basis for kaizen is in tr

The Lean Energy Treasure Hunt

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2009

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding lean manufacturing improvement activities is the energy treasure hunt. The booty we claim on these energy treasure hunts include savings by shutting off motors or machines left running, replacing

Agnosia: Losing the Ability to See the Obvious

By Jon Miller - August 24th, 2009

In order to succeed at leading anything that involves people, one needs to know a lot about people. This is especially true when it comes to lean manufacturing, lean retail, lean distribution, lean healthcare or whatever you prefer to

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Come Closer. No, stay Away!

By Jon Miller - August 20th, 2009

Peter Köves shared an amusing example of this ambiguous or perhaps downright dangerous visual control. When hiking in the countryside of South Limburg near the Dutch city of Maastricht, I stumbled upon this sign on the side of the pat

Lean Thinker Interview with Chris Schrandt

By Jon Miller - August 19th, 2009

It is our pleasure to bring you the Lean Thinker Interview series from Gemba Academy. Over the following months we will feature people with interesting insights and stories to share about their experience learning and applying lean. In

Review of Toyota Supply Chain Management by Iyer, Seshadri and Vasher

By Jon Miller - August 18th, 2009

Toyota Supply Chain Management by Ananth Iyer, Sridhar Seshadri and Roy Vasher is a valuable book that will be of interest to the students and practitioners of supply chain management or the Toyota Production System. This book takes ma

Why Should I Mark My Cupboards!?

By Jon Miller - August 17th, 2009

Ronak has been successful with 5S in the factory but is facing challenges with 5S in the office. He said in a follow-up to the post on 5S guidelines for the office: “Only problem is in personalized cabins, where there are lots of

Ambiguous Visual Controls… this one’s pretty clear actually

By Jon Miller - August 13th, 2009

I waited and waited but didn’t catch sight of any humped zebras making a run for it. I bet their crossing frequency plots out as a histograms with a bimodal distribution.

5S Guidelines for the Office

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2009

Jonathan asked: “Hi Jon, Recently, I was tasked to head a 5S project here in our department (Purchasing) but I have limited knowledge on what is applicable and what should be implemented. I was thinking that some guidelines could

One Point Lesson: Takt Image

By Jon Miller - August 10th, 2009

John asked: What is the difference between Takt Time and Takt Image? Takt time is the calculated pace of production based on the average speed at which the customer is buying a product or service. The formula is net available time to p

Management Improvement Carnival #72

By Jon Miller - August 8th, 2009

John Hunter over at Curious Cat Management Improvement blog has asked me to guest host an episode of the Management Improvement Carnival. Kudos to John for having done 71 of these over the past several years. Here are my choice of arti

What Can Lean Do for the Healthcare Business Office?

By Jon Miller - August 6th, 2009

Daisy asked, What can lean do for the Healthcare business office? The billers, the insurance follow up staff? Lean can do a great things for the healthcare business office. I have asked Chris Schrandt to answer this one. Chris has been

The Harmony of Discipline and Creativity

By Jon Miller - August 5th, 2009

“Creativity and discipline go hand in hand.” So said best-selling author and business guru Jim Collins during an interview in the April 2009 issue of Inc. magazine. These words resonate and bounce around in the back of my h

The Lean Buzz at Starbucks

By Jon Miller - August 4th, 2009

In the past when the training venue was not close to gemba, I have used a trip to the Starbucks as a teaching tool for value stream mapping, waste observation, even drawing spaghetti diagrams. Based on the news in the Wall Street Journ

Value Stream Management: Evidence on the Parking Lot

By Jon Miller - August 3rd, 2009

Today I was able to drop in on a customer on the return leg of a business trip. I was looking forward to visiting old friends whom I hadn’t seen a few years, the new building they had moved into in early 2009 and also their progr

Ask Gemba: Volume and Variability in Demand Segmentation

By Jon Miller - July 31st, 2009

Joe asked an interesting question: I am doing some research on demand segmentation and found some rather conflicting information from two credible resources. According to The Toyota Way Fieldbook when leveling production you produce Hi

Queuing Kaizen at Southwest Airlines

By Jon Miller - July 29th, 2009

I can count the times I’ve flow on Southwest airlines, which is to say not often. Their no-frills approach and unique profitability as an airlines has earned them praise and the designation as “lean” by some. My impre

I’ll Take My Lean with Water, On the Rocks

By Jon Miller - July 27th, 2009

As an archaeology and ancient history buff it’s always exciting when someone discovers the ruins of a lost city. More so when the lost city is found off the coast and under a few meters of water. There is a great deal of history

Kaizen Song: Hold On ‘Til You See (the Downstream Pull)

By Jon Miller - July 26th, 2009

Late last night after dropping a couple of friends off at the airport, “Hold On Loosely” by 38 Special came on the radio. It’s simple but lovely song that holds on loosely to a timeless truth. Those wild-eyed southern

Agile Kanban Journal Day 30: Show the Flow!

By Jon Miller - July 22nd, 2009

When agile kanban meets kaizen, only good things can happen. Yesterday was day 30 of my agile kanban board usage. Having been on the road much of the last month I haven’t had a lot of time to think about appropriate metrics, targ

Three Hoshin Habits for Effective Execution

By Jon Miller - July 20th, 2009

One of the people I most respect as a business leader often repeats the phrase “go slow to go fast”. There is a nearly identical Toyota way principle which states that slow and deliberate planning will speed up execution of

Value Added Percentage Question

By Jon Miller - July 16th, 2009

Yesterday I came across an example of a value stream whose numbers left me puzzled. The value-added percentage was greater than 100. This seemed impossible at first but I now understand how it can happen. The process, the numbers, and

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