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Ron Pereira

Ron Pereira is a co-founder and the Managing Director of Gemba Academy and has more than 30 years of experience helping organizations improve performance through Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement. Prior to starting Gemba Academy, Ron served in a variety of manufacturing, supply chain, and leadership roles, including process engineer, engineering manager, Master Black Belt, and director of manufacturing and continuous improvement. Today, Ron works with leaders around the world to develop problem-solving capabilities, strengthen leadership, and build cultures where continuous improvement thrives. Through his writing, podcast interviews, and educational programs, he shares practical insights that help organizations achieve lasting operational excellence.

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756 Articles

The Goal: A 2 Second Improvement Each Day

By Ron Pereira - March 4th, 2010

Another hat tip to Jon Miller for first posting this video of Paul Akers and the FastCap team practicing lean thinking. What you think of this process? Do you do something similar at your place of work?

Lean in Hospitals: Running Free vs. Coordinated Efforts

By Ron Pereira - March 3rd, 2010

Guest Post by Alicia C. Simmer of KHC There’s a choice to be made in how hospital leaders approach implementing lean: either let lean run free or force lean efforts to be coordinated. Running Free In the ‘running free’ approach,

The Lean US Senator Preaches the Gospel that is Lean on Fox News!

By Ron Pereira - February 26th, 2010

Hat tip to Jon Miller for first posting this video of Paul Akers preaching lean on Fox News.  Yes, preaching lean on the most watched news station in the free world – Fox News. Check it out for yourself!!!

3 Life Lessons P90X Has Taught Me

By Ron Pereira - February 25th, 2010

I awake to the sound of my iPhone alarm clock ringing. It’s 5:15 AM. Are you kidding me? I lay there for about a minute. Then, my dog Lexi, who is 15 years old and losing her mind, comes to my side of the bed and begins her ritualist

5 Questions to Ask Before You Attempt to Implement Kanban

By Ron Pereira - February 18th, 2010

My first manufacturing experiences were with two different multi-billion dollar manufacturing companies who happened to run massive ERP systems meaning we had massive MRP systems running the shop floor.  Sound familiar? Anyhow, as a y

The Ultimate Sacrifice: Serving Others

By Ron Pereira - February 16th, 2010

Note from Ron: This might be the most significant article I have ever written on this blog. Please read it all the way through as I need your help. Someone close to me and my family has recently re-deployed to Afghanistan… for the fi

Subsidiarity: A (Medieval) Lean Principle

By Ron Pereira - February 14th, 2010

Guest Post by Mark R. Hamel of Gemba Tales OK, there probably weren’t many lean practitioners in the Middle Ages, but Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century theologian, philosopher and all around brainiac did play a significant role in dev

Gemba Tales: Lean stories, lessons and reflections

By Ron Pereira - February 9th, 2010

Over the last year several new lean and six sigma related blogs have appeared.  I follow most of them.   Some I like more than others… which is to be expected I guess. Anyhow, one of the newer blogs that has definitely caught

5 Ways to Achieve Drew Brees Like Flow

By Ron Pereira - February 8th, 2010

As I watched the Super Bowl last night – where, I must admit, I was cheering for the Colts – I couldn’t help but marvel at how well Drew Brees was playing. To be sure, he was in the zone from the 2nd quarter through the end of th

5 Ways To Become a More Productive, Healthy, and Happy Person

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2010

No matter what you do for a living one thing is certain – personal productivity matters. A lot. My wife stays home raising our 4 kids. She does her very best to be productive. I run a company, among other things. I do my very best to

Don’t Let the Door Hit You in the Ass

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2010

Man, oh man.  The lean and business blogosphere feels as if it’s about to explode. Ever since everyone’s “model” of how to run a business (a.k.a. Toyota) has run into serious trouble people seem to be jumping off the TPS bandw

What Are Your Thoughts About Toyota’s Situation?

By Ron Pereira - January 31st, 2010

As regular readers of this blog know, I am not a big “news” reporting guy. In other words, I rarely read a news story and then bang out an article around it since, honestly, this type of writing bores me beyond words. But, unless y

Live Strategy Deployment Video Workshop

By Ron Pereira - January 28th, 2010

I recently facilitated two different Hoshin Kanri (aka Policy Deployment) workshops.  Both have been extremely successful and the teams I worked with were able to reflect, align, and energize all at the same time. I plan to write more

Going Analog

By Ron Pereira - January 18th, 2010

Technology is great, no doubt about it. After all… it’s because of the Internet and computers you’re reading these words.  Not so long ago this wouldn’t have been possible. So, let me be clear, I am not a techn

Introducing the 5 Why “So What” Test

By Ron Pereira - January 10th, 2010

We, over at Gemba Academy, are busy finishing up our 8 Step Practical Problem Solving course which is modeled after the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) methodology. In one of the modules we’re exploring 5 Why Analysis in more detail s

2 Ways to Handle Varying Inventory Levels When Creating Value Stream Maps

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2010

Shaunak, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question via email. By the way, if you have ever have questions related to continuous improvement (lean and/or six sigma) feel free to email me.  I will do my very best

Kanji and Humility

By Ron Pereira - January 6th, 2010

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” – Rabindranath Tagore My friend, and fellow Texas lean blogger / Big Ten college football fanatic, Mark Graban wrote an article earlier this week summarizing ten t

3 Ways to Stop Failing at New Years Resolutions

By Ron Pereira - January 4th, 2010

As we start off the new year one thing is for certain… there will be lots of resolutions stated. Everything from weight loss to improving the way money is managed will be focused in on for, at the very least, 7 to 10 days. Yep. 

The 18 Most Active LSS Academy Articles in 2009

By Ron Pereira - December 21st, 2009

I recently wrote about the most read LSS Academy articles in 2009. Now, in this post, I’d like to share with you the LSS Academy articles that garnered the most comments in 2009. As you’ll see some of these posts are quite

Top 10 LSS Academy Articles in 2009 (Pageviews)

By Ron Pereira - December 17th, 2009

According to Google Analytics readers from 177 different countries and/or territories visited LSS Academy in 2009. That is beyond humbling. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I imagine such as thing would be possible when I sat down a fe

What deux yeux have teux deux?

By Ron Pereira - December 14th, 2009

I recently came across an elegant and minimalist online “to do” tracking tool called Teux Deux. Now, to be sure, I am a fan of the hand written to do list… but since I travel a lot I also like to maintain an online li

Free Practical Problem Solving Overview Video

By Ron Pereira - December 9th, 2009

Gemba Academy has recently released the first three modules of our latest course – Practical Problem Solving.  Here is the first overview module of this course. Please note that if you are reading this article via email or your

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership Series: Justice

By Ron Pereira - November 30th, 2009

The other day my 5 year old daughter said… OK, to be more accurate she whined, “She [referring to her 7 year old sister] got candy… why don’t I?” Ah yes, my children often remind me of how important fairness and justice are.

Stand Up Desk To Go

By Ron Pereira - November 17th, 2009

I was on the road last night doing some work  in my hotel room. After an hour or so my back started to hurt from the crappy chair I was sitting in so I decided to create my very own “stand up desk to go” in honor of my rec

My New Stand Up Desk

By Ron Pereira - November 15th, 2009

I first witnessed so called “stand up desks” in Japan during my JKE trip. As an aside you can read about this amazing trip here, here, here, here, and here. Anyhow, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the idea.  I me

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