Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

Making Meetings Less Terrible

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2020

Studies estimate that we spend an hour or more each day in meetings or preparing for them. On the one hand, it’s good that humans are communicating, making decisions and solving problems together. On the other hand, unproductive

Sustaining Gains with the Continuous Improvement Ratchet

By Jon Miller - January 13th, 2020

The PDCA wheel held in place on a slope by a wedge is a common representation of how standards are essential to sustains continuous improvement. On the one hand, this is intuitive and easy to demonstrate. On the other hand, it’s

The Word of the Year for 2019

By Jon Miller - January 6th, 2020

Looking back on the previous twelve months, there is one word that ties together my lessons learned and aspirations. The word is daily. It’s the humblest of words, suggesting commonplace, regular, routine, of no special note. In

Was the Standard Clear Enough?

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2019

While observing a morning huddle meeting last week, I heard a senior leader ask, “Was the standard clear enough?” several times as they discussed the previous day’s quality, safety and delivery problems. That’s

Go See, Show Respect, Ask “What Do You Need from Me?”

By Jon Miller - December 16th, 2019

Last week we took a day at the Gemba Academy office in Fort Worth to map and improve our content development process. It was a humbling reminder of the importance of going to the gemba, asking the internal customer what they need and m

How to be Tough on Process, Easy on People

By Jon Miller - December 9th, 2019

One of the guiding principles for practicing continuous improvement, or good leadership in general, is to be tough on the process but easy on the people. The idea is to create a blame-free but problem-aware environment. This removes fe

Practicing Gratitude within the Daily Accountability Process

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2019

One of the better ideas I saw this year was during a tour of a lean company. It saw that “Appreciation” was one of the items on the agenda for the tier 2 daily accountability meeting. Each morning the area team leaders and

Which Lean Behavior or Tool Should We Adopt?

By Jon Miller - November 25th, 2019

This week during an interview for a Lean newsletter I was asked a hypothetical question. If I had to choose one Lean behavior or tool for an organization to adopt, what would it be? Easy answers might be “5S because it’s fo

What Does It Mean to Huddle?

By Jon Miller - November 18th, 2019

One of the encouraging trends I’ve seen in the past decade with Lean management is the emerging acceptance of team huddles. While still far from universal, this one simple activity is becoming a core part of the daily practice of

How to Measure the M in SQDCM

By Jon Miller - November 11th, 2019

The giant letters SQDCM are common sights on visual display boards of teams on the gemba. They stand for the key performance indicator categories of safety, quality, delivery, cost and morale. Visualization of key performance indicator

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 Does “No Idea is a Bad Idea” Become a Bad Idea?

By Jon Miller - October 14th, 2019

Brainstorming is a common method for generating ideas from a group to solve 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 of the aims of th

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

Advancing the Self-Revolution

By Jon Miller - August 19th, 2019

A brand-new banner caught my eye during a recent trip to China. If judging by the size, variety and volume of banners alone, one would think that the communist revolution is still in full swing 98 years after the formation of the Party

Why Can’t We See the Financial Impact of Continuous Improvement?

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2019

Last week I had the opportunity to address the question of why it’s sometimes difficult to see the financial impact of successful continuous improvement efforts. If actions are inadequate to deliver results or if they are not sus

The Lean Approach to Strategy

By Jon Miller - August 5th, 2019

A strategy is a plan of action intended to achieve a major objective. Lean transformation aims to make major changes in how we work, to streamline our processes, to upgrade our thinking and skills. Many agree that Lean is a strategy fo

Can We Have Too Much Scientific Thinking?

By Jon Miller - July 29th, 2019

The term scientific thinking has been used with increasing frequency in the Lean management community over the past decade. The idea is not new. There is little doubt as to its importance in continuous improvement, good management and

Moonshots, Rocket Science and Taking Small Steps

By Jon Miller - July 22nd, 2019

This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing by the Apollo 11 mission. After a sleepy half-century in which space exploration has been largely unmanned, interest in sending humans further out in space is growing at l

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