Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

Management by Kaizen Events

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2008

Mark Graban made the point today in the Lean Blog that kaizen events are not enough. He agrees with another lean healthcare article that by themselves, the rapid improvement events of 3 to 5 days in duration are not sufficient to achie

101 Kaizen Templates: Takt Time Calculator

By Jon Miller - February 4th, 2008

A reader pointed out that the takt time for posting the 101 kaizen template has exceeded. It is true that we have not been hitting a consistent 1 template per 3.5 days. To meet our goal for 101 of these by the end of 2008 we will need

Exploring the “Respect for People” Principle of the Toyota Way

By Jon Miller - February 3rd, 2008

Author, Professor and lean thinker Bob Emiliani has made another important contribution with his new book Practical Lean Leadership. I had the pleasure of reviewing and giving editorial input on this fine book and would recommend it fo

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 6

By Jon Miller - January 31st, 2008

Tomorrow is Creative Idea Suggestion Submission Day What happens after a term employee at Toyota becomes a regular employee? Is this the happy ending when the assembly line workers finally feel the warm embrace of President Watanabe? D

Breaking Down Barriers to Continuous Flow

By Jon Miller - January 28th, 2008

One way to look at lean is that it’s all about enabling the continuous flow of actions, information, materials, services and cash in such a way that these things generate of goodness, however you may define that. The theory is th

Sustainability, the New Buzzword. But Is It Sustainable?

By Jon Miller - January 26th, 2008

Thanks to polar ice melts, $100 per barrel oil prices, and an inevitable generational shift to people who have grown up hearing about environmental destruction arriving in positions to influence opinion, consumption and policy, sustain

101 Kaizen Templates: ECRS Worksheet

By Jon Miller - January 25th, 2008

We often talk about lean management being the elimination of all waste and non-value added. We may call it the pursuit of perfection, of a waste-free process. But what if we can’t eliminate a certain waste from a process? What to

What Can We Learn from Boeing's Lean Supply Chain Stumbles?

By Jon Miller - January 23rd, 2008

Not much more than a decade ago, Boeing went through a hiring binge to ramp up production, fell flat on deliveries and shed many jobs as a result. Gemba’s office is quite near Boeing’s Everett, Washington factory and the fu

16 More Ways to See Motion Waste when Standing in the Circle

By Jon Miller - January 21st, 2008

The stand in the circle activity is a great way to train your eyes to see waste on your gemba. Finding 30 small kaizen ideas in 30 minutes, and rapidly implementing at least one of those ideas is a practical and scalable way of teachin

101 Kaizen Templates: Minor Motion Analysis

By Jon Miller - January 19th, 2008

We’re big fans of making significant organization-wide change by involving everyone in small improvement activities every day. This is especially important for sustainability as you progress on your lean journey. As you progress

Lay First the Foundation of Humility

By Jon Miller - January 17th, 2008

I came across this great quote by St. Augustine. Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. These words work on many levels. When corporate board rooms

The Pros and Cons of Model Lines for Lean Implementation

By Jon Miller - January 16th, 2008

In continuous improvement terminology a “model line” is a closely connected series of processes that are the target of focused implementation of lean principles. It derives from the selecting a production line and convertin

101 Kaizen Templates: Safety Calendar

By Jon Miller - January 13th, 2008

Early in the year is a good time to refresh our commitment to health, safety and sustainability of our various enterprises. Despite our best intentions, habits being what they are, these resolutions are too often not so resolute. Unlik

101 Kaizen Templates: Stand in the Circle

By Jon Miller - January 9th, 2008

The 60-minute kaizen exercise we call “stand in the circle” originates in the teaching method Taiichi Ohno used. This involved a piece of chalk, a circle drawn on the concrete floor, and a manager left to stand in it for ho

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 5

By Jon Miller - January 7th, 2008

Do you live with the fear that your job may be gone tomorrow? Toyota group company workers do, according to an article titled Growing Reliance on Temps Holds Back Japan’s Rebound in the Wall Street Journal on January 7, 2008. The

101 Kaizen Templates: The Checklist

By Jon Miller - January 6th, 2008

This is the first post in the 101 kaizen templates series. Only 100 more kaizen templates to go. Takt time is 3.5 days per template. I considered planning out and structuring this series but for now we’ll just go with the flow an

The Cadence of Kaizen

By Jon Miller - January 4th, 2008

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning “to change and make good,” embodying both the philosophy an the practice of continuous improvement in business as well as personal life. We are often asked about the “right” way

How to Sustain Kaizen? Follow Up with the Tenacity of the Terminator

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2008

Yesterday Mike Wroblewski asked How do we Sustain Kaizen Results? on his blog Got Boondoggle? This is a great topic and one that fits in with the theme of sustainability that is on the minds of lean thinkers like Toyota President Watan

Comments on Toyota President Watanabe's New Year's Greeting

By Jon Miller - January 1st, 2008

Toyota entered the popular consciousness in 2007 by overtaking General Motors as the number one automobile manufacturer in the world by vehicles sold. Those of us who study lean manufacturing know that Toyota with its production system

101 Kaizen Templates

By Jon Miller - December 26th, 2007

January 2008 will mark 10 years Gemba Research has been in business. This blog has been active for just over four years now. We are reflecting on the past 10 years in an effort to renew our purpose and focus our energies. We will do th

Tap Your Breaks Early and Often to Keep Work Flowing

By Jon Miller - December 20th, 2007

Here’s another counterintuitive truth to Lean: the more often you stop, the more smoothly things will move along. The caveat is that these stops should be small stops, as early and as far away from the actual problem point as pos

Lean Management Means Shifting from PPT to PPS

By Jon Miller - December 18th, 2007

One of the fundamental behavior changes required by organizations today in order to successfully practice lean management is to shift from communicating via PPT to communicating via PPS. By PPT we mean Microsoft PowerPoint and by PPS w

Lean Enterprise Rules of Three

By Jon Miller - December 17th, 2007

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” That’s from an eu

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 4

By Jon Miller - December 13th, 2007

Somehow, I Will Get through This Week I have been reluctant to post Episode 4 in the Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees because the continuing story of the Tahara plant worker Maruo is so bleak. Last week Kevin Meyer at the Evolving

Start Simple, Go Back to Basics, Repeat

By Jon Miller - December 12th, 2007

This is an image of the assembly line at Toyota’s Honsha plantin Koromo City, over 60 years ago. We may think we have come a long way from this, but in fact nearly every month I see a 21st century factory that looks not too diffe

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