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 Thinking for Solving Systemic Problems

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2020

People are marching worldwide in protest of police violence. They are demanding wide-ranging changes to law enforcement and criminal justice. This is bringing the systemic problem of institutional racism into mainstream consciousness.

Containment at the Source

By Jon Miller - June 1st, 2020

The past few months have required us to rethink some long-held norms. What jobs are essential? How can we learn, work and play without meeting face to face? What’s the true cost of global supply chains? How tightly do we need to

Why Do We Disrespect the 4th S of 5S?

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2020

The 5S method is widely recognized as a fundamental and foundational part of Lean management. Without the basic discipline to remove clutter and distractions, put things back where they belong, and plug our leaks and sources of cutter,

Akio Toyoda Articulates Toyota Way Principle #15

By Jon Miller - May 18th, 2020

Imagine the head of your organization admitting, in the middle of a global crisis, that it’s become necessary to loosen strict adherence to some of your fundamental business practices. These practices are ones rooted in deeply he

The Point of Pointing and Calling

By Jon Miller - May 11th, 2020

A colleague pointed out and called attention to a question about the practice of shisa kanko so I thought it worth a few words. This is the safety practice of “pointing and calling”. Its roots are obscure, but it has been s

Applying Lean Thinking to Demand and Supply

By Jon Miller - May 4th, 2020

Lean management is mainly associated with making operations more productive, improving safety, quality, speed and thereby lowering cost. Lean management originated from innovations in the supply chain. More recently, lean thinking has

Condition-Based Management, in Times Like These

By Jon Miller - April 27th, 2020

The format of the 2020 NFL draft was different due to social distancing requirements. Instead of players and announcers on stage, spectators in the audience, and live interviews, we tuned into the home offices of coaches, personnel man

Extremely Long-Cycle Standard Work

By Jon Miller - April 20th, 2020

The benefit of standard work, and good standards in general, is that it frees us to from having to figure out or to remember how to do things correctly. Good standards help us quickly distinguish between normal conditions and abnormal

Vaccination, Knowledge Reuse and Organizational Learning

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2020

Animals and other organisms that are capable of learning acquire problem solving ability in several ways. They may do so through trial-and-error, via observation and social learning, or even from the sudden appearance of insight on how

Reflections on Four Weeks of Sheltering in Place

By Jon Miller - April 6th, 2020

Washington State has been officially sheltering in place since March 23rd. It feels like six week ago. Perhaps this is because we eased into social distancing a couple of weeks earlier, seeing the writing on the wall. The governor exte

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