Ron Pereira, Author at Gemba Academy

Ron Pereira

Ron has more than 20 years of experience in various manufacturing, supply chain, and senior leadership roles. Ron has held the titles of process engineer, engineering manager, master black belt, and director of manufacturing & continuous improvement. In 2002 Ron was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality award in Helsinki, Finland. Ron holds a bachelor's degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.

759 Articles

Free 7 Deadly Wastes Overview Video (Spanish Subtitles)

By Ron Pereira - August 11th, 2009

We’ve been unbelievably busy over at Gemba Academy the last few months. We continue to develop new content (we’re now up to 44 videos, 28 interactive quizzes, 28 PDF summary documents, and much more) and most recently our t

If Lean Is So Great, Why Is Toyota Struggling?

By Ron Pereira - August 9th, 2009

Balaji, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question/comment via email: Toyota, GM, and Ford are experts in state of the art assembly technology and in implementing Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methods and

Do You Read Much Russian?

By Ron Pereira - August 4th, 2009

The LSS Academy Guide to Lean has been translated to Hungarian and most recently to Russian. If you’d like to download the Russian version please visit this site (free registration required). If you’d like to download the H

Oh Snap! We Sent Bad Product to Our Customer: Fun with the Hypergeometric Distribution

By Ron Pereira - August 3rd, 2009

If you enjoy statistics this is the perfect article for you! But even if hearing the words hypergeometric distribution makes you want to yack all over the floor at least give this article a quick skim as it could prove useful for you s

Lean Hackathons – Are You Using Them?

By Ron Pereira - July 27th, 2009

Are you on Facebook? I am but that’s not the point of this article. No, the point of this article is that I just watched a short video about how the Facebook development team uses what they refer to as “Hackathons” to quickly bri

It’s Always Day 1

By Ron Pereira - July 23rd, 2009

I just got done watching this video of Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, where he announced that Amazon has snatched up Zappos. I first saw this over on John Hunter’s blog. And while this is big news for sure… the thing that I loved a

Dream Big… Start Small

By Ron Pereira - July 19th, 2009

My youngest daughter, who turns 1 this coming weekend, recently took her first steps and is a much happier little girl as a result. My wife and I think she just wanted to go, go, go as she watched her older brother and sisters run arou

5 Practical Ways to Climb out of Any Slump

By Ron Pereira - July 14th, 2009

Are you, or have you ever been, in a slump? Do you ever find yourself feeling unmotivated, uninspired, and just flat out crappy? Or maybe you feel a little overwhelmed as there is so much to do and you’re not sure where to start? Sou

Inexpensive (But Powerful) Visual Controls

By Ron Pereira - July 5th, 2009

I love simple visual controls. And I love them even more when they don’t cost a lot of money! Thus the smile that came across my face when watching the “Lean Leadership” interview we recently did with a cell leader from a Washing

Your Valuable “Lean Feedback” Is Requested

By Ron Pereira - June 29th, 2009

I am helping some fellow lean thinkers out with a short lean related survey. This survey appeals to me for a few reasons. First, it’s all about lean and second this survey is SHORT! You’ll be done in a few minutes. Th

How clean is clean enough?

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2009

Here’s a question for you. When practicing the 3rd step of 5S – often referred to as shine or sweep – how clean is clean enough? Should the area you’re working in shine as bright as the Texas sun? Should the floor be clean enou

45 Inches and Sizers

By Ron Pereira - June 18th, 2009

I recently got an email from American Airlines titled, “Important Reminders About Carry-On Baggage.” Normally I delete these kinds of emails but for some reason I decided to give this one a quick read. Click the image thumbnail to

Is Economic Lot Size Dead?

By Ron Pereira - June 16th, 2009

On page 19 of Shigeo Shingo’s masterpiece A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System he writes an extremely strong statement: “In fact, there is an important blind spot in the concept of economic lot size: the assumptio

Parenting and Lean Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2009

I am the father of 4 wonderfully perfect children. I love them more than words can describe and couldn’t imagine my life without them. And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and

How Do You Make Decisions?

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2009

One of things I’ve come to realize about myself is I can make decisions quickly. I don’t need to think about things for days on end… and when in a crisis mode, or a situation that requires an immediate action, I have no problem s

Old-School Vertical Hierarchies

By Ron Pereira - May 31st, 2009

By: Michael Lombard As the saying goes, I wasn’t born in Texas, but I ran here as fast as I could. When I arrived, I found that the Lone Star State produces some fine beer, specifically, Shiner beer… While I could go on all

The Critical Difference Between Defects and Defectives

By Ron Pereira - May 27th, 2009

Today I submit a quick, but extremely important post if you produce a product of any kind. There are two different ways your product can be “bad.” It’s defective First, said product can be defective. This is to say something is w

Knowledge and Thinking

By Ron Pereira - May 25th, 2009

“Knowledge is what keeps the momentum going between dreams and reality.” -Author Unknown I am a firm believer that the “thinking” that occurs while practicing lean manufacturing and six sigma is extremely important. I was remin

Bill Waddell on American Manufacturing

By Ron Pereira - May 21st, 2009

I don’t pretend to be an “economic guru” by any means… honestly it all makes my head hurt a bit. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy reading Bill Waddell’s thoughts on the state of manufacturing in America &#

Toyota Stock Watch: Edition 1

By Ron Pereira - May 17th, 2009

John Hunter recently commented that he owns some Toyota stock. And since I value John’s wisdom I decided to take a look at the TM chart to see what it looked like. Now, before I go any further, let me be crystal clear… I am not off

I am sorry

By Ron Pereira - May 14th, 2009

I am sorry. These three words have been ringing about in my mind for the past week or so. No, I didn’t do anything terrible… in other words I am not personally sorry for anything. The reason these words have been stuck in mind is b

Leadership & Standard Work

By Ron Pereira - May 11th, 2009

By Jeff Hajek A while back, Ron asked a question about how standard work is applied to leadership. Think of it like this. You wouldn’t create standard work for ‘manufacturing.’ You’d create it for the assembly of the WidgetMax3

Line Balancing at McDonald’s

By Ron Pereira - May 5th, 2009

I was recently going through the drive through at McDonald’s and saw something very peculiar. The line was quite long but I decided to stick it out. As I sat waiting to get to the board where you speak your order I noticed a Mc

Visual Controls at DFW Airport

By Ron Pereira - May 4th, 2009

Allow me to set the scene. It’s been a long week on the road… your flight home was delayed 2 hours and you miss your significant other and children more than words can explain. Finally, after what feels like an eternity y

Simplicity

By Ron Pereira - April 28th, 2009

“Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimal means.” – Dr. Koichi Kawana If I was only able to use one word to describe what lean and authentic continuous improvement meant to me I’d choose, without hesi

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