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

Make a Mistake… Own up to it

By Ron Pereira - May 22nd, 2008

A lesson I’ve known for a long time was just reinforced for me here at a restaurant in the London Heathrow airport. Here’s what happened. I arrived at the airport early so decided to sit down for a nice English breakfast (

Lessons from the airport

By Ron Pereira - May 18th, 2008

Recently, in the DFW airport, as I was buying a bottle of water I watched an older man chastise two of his younger workers for wearing earrings. Apparently, in this store you aren’t allowed to wear things in your ears. Fair enough. B

Calculating Optimal Crew Size in Mixed Model Cells

By Ron Pereira - May 13th, 2008

I have a question for you. How would you staff a cell that produces multiple products, all with varying cycle times? In this article I will offer my thoughts and am excited to hear your comments as to how you would (or do) approach it

How metrics like OEE often dictate behavior

By Ron Pereira - May 11th, 2008

A reader of the blog asked me the following question via email. I am a production engineer for 3 packaging lines and our overall indicator is overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Our OEE is calculated using the maximum speed that the

Why Do Employees Underperform?

By Ron Pereira - May 9th, 2008

The best free lean magazine I know of, Industry Week, recently discussed an interesting survey done by LifeCare Inc. where they investigated why some employees underperform in their jobs. While I am from the school that says you nee

Is Toyota in Trouble?

By Ron Pereira - May 8th, 2008

When I launched Google News this morning my eyes were immediately drawn to the headline “Toyota Posts First Profit Drop in Three Years.” To summarize the article: Net income fell 28 percent to 316.8 billion yen ($3 billion) in the

Stumped in the Toilet

By Ron Pereira - May 6th, 2008

I’d like to think I am a relatively intelligent person. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA during my undergrad studies and a 3.7 GPA while getting an MBA. But, alas, today I realized I still have much to learn as I attempted to use

The Enemy of Better

By Ron Pereira - May 5th, 2008

Do you aspire to be the best? How about your company… do they want to be the best? If so, I contend this is the deadliest goal you or your organization can have. Allow me to explain. You see if you are indeed the “best” as de

Confused about Time

By Ron Pereira - May 1st, 2008

For those new to continuous improvement the concept of time can be confusing. In this article I hope to clear up some common misunderstandings. Takt Time The word takt comes to us from the German language and literally means pace or rh

Life is like a bowl of oranges

By Ron Pereira - April 29th, 2008

As I mentioned towards the end of our most recent video the demonstration with the oranges, pebbles, sand, and water can be used to explain a far more important life lesson. Before this, please allow me to thank you for your comments a

Tips for Dealing with Conflict

By Ron Pereira - April 21st, 2008

Our ability, as business leaders, to manage conflict can’t be overstated. If you’ve never dealt with conflict in a professional environment…well, you live a blessed life. Most of us, however, have almost certainly facilitated a m

The Crow and the Pitcher

By Ron Pereira - April 20th, 2008

Here’s a neat story credited to Aesop. It’s found in the 2nd century AD Greek fable collection by pseudo-Dositheus. That sets the scene far more eloquently than me explaining how I came across the story in one of my kid’

The Efficiency Conundrum

By Ron Pereira - April 15th, 2008

Ah yes, efficiency. If there was ever a word more abused I’d like to know about it. I don’t think there is. OK, maybe utilization. But efficiency is really butchered. So let’s dig into the efficiency conundrum a bit this evening

The Old Navy from Hell

By Ron Pereira - April 10th, 2008

My blogging goes in spurts. I seem to get on a “theme” and roll with that for a few posts. Well, regular readers of LSS Academy have likely sensed I have been on a “take action/5S” rant as of late. Well,

Well Do Something!

By Ron Pereira - April 9th, 2008

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” -Yogi Berra A True Story Several years ago I was riding in the car with my Grandma and Grandpa. We were driving to the store if I remember correctly. Along the way my Grandpa pulled

Fix the Broken Windows

By Ron Pereira - April 7th, 2008

What do fixing broken windows and continuous improvement have in common? I contend a lot. Read on and let me know if you agree. The so-called broken window theory comes to us by way of the criminology world. Broken Windows The theo

Don’t Step on the Tape!

By Ron Pereira - April 3rd, 2008

I recently worked on an amazing kaizen team. On the first day of the event, I was asked to say a few words. Since one of our main focus areas for the week was 5S, I decided to tell this group about my recent trip to Japan. Specifically

The Moving Constraint

By Ron Pereira - April 1st, 2008

Let me ask you a question. Is a moving constraint/bottleneck a good thing or bad thing? I contend it’s a good thing. No, I contend it’s a great thing. Allow me to explain. Let’s say there are three processes in your widget makin

Hesitate and Die

By Ron Pereira - March 31st, 2008

One of my favorite movies is U-571 starring Matthew McConaughey. In the movie, a German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners seeking to capture its Enigma cipher machine. Now in Charge Once the seasoned skipper di

Dealing with Doubting Thomas

By Ron Pereira - March 30th, 2008

Today, Roman Catholics around the world read about Doubting Thomas. No matter what your personal belief system is, I think there is much to learn from this story, especially for those of us attempting to drive change in our organizati

One Piece Flow Envelope Stuffing Experiment

10 Benefits of One Piece Flow

By Ron Pereira - March 27th, 2008

There are at least ten reasons one piece flow won’t work. But, I prefer to look at things positively. You know, the glass is half full. With this said, here are 10 benefits of implementing one piece flow. Benefit 1: Improves safety R

What is Progress?

By Ron Pereira - March 26th, 2008

I was reading some quotes of G.K. Chesterton tonight and came across this one. “Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.” – Orthodoxy, 19

A Response to the Video Skeptics

By Ron Pereira - March 24th, 2008

It’s safe to say the kinds words, comments, and emails for my one piece flow video have far exceeded my expectations. While most of the comments and feedback have been extremely positive there have been a few skeptics in the crow

LSS Academy Series Review – Six Sigma Edition

By Ron Pereira - March 23rd, 2008

First of all, Happy Easter! My family and I were in Oklahoma the last few days. As is very typical with me during road trips, I began to think about this blog. I am not sure if this is entirely healthy (me always thinking about t

Spring Fever – Fact or Fiction?

By Ron Pereira - March 20th, 2008

“It’s spring fever…. You don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” -Mark Twain Texas Sun Today marks the beginning of spring. Here in Texas, the sun is shi

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