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

Schofield Media Group Announces Acquisition of iSixSigma

By Ron Pereira - February 6th, 2008

Big news yesterday from Michael Cyger, owner of the extremely popular iSixSigma brand. I am pleased and excited to announce that CTQ Media, owner of the publishing brands including iSixSigma, Real Innovation, BPM Enterprise and Sourcin

The Never Ending Pursuit of Wisdom

By Ron Pereira - February 5th, 2008

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise (1 Cor 3:18). Wisdom is a mysterious thing and something, I contend, worth our full attention. You see, I

Just Do It

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2008

“Talk doesn’t cook rice.” -Chinese Proverb While planning, checking, and acting/adjusting are of course crucial elements of the PDCA cycle I sometimes feel as though the “do” element is under-utilized. In a similar way,

JIT and Jidoka are Useless…

By Ron Pereira - January 30th, 2008

Yes, the two pillars of the Toyota Production System – JIT and Jidoka – are absolutely worthless… if you don’t respect people. You see, in my opinion, anyone who tries hard enough and gets support from more ex

Rope Suppliers

By Ron Pereira - January 28th, 2008

J Thatcher recently asked: Here’s a question: If the student becomes the initiation point for “pull” learning, how does the instructor continue to “push” students beyond what they believed themselves capable? (And yes, I’m

Inspired at NASA

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2008

This past weekend my family and I went to Houston to visit some relatives. On Saturday we went to NASA. If you have never been there you need to carve out some time to make this visit. I took quite a few pictures and will try to

Should we Push or Pull in Schools?

By Ron Pereira - January 24th, 2008

My good friend, and excellent blogger, Mark Graban posted an interesting article related to how a school is using continuous improvement methods to, well, improve things. For those who don’t know, Mark and I live in the same town an

Excellence is a Habit

By Ron Pereira - January 23rd, 2008

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but habit.” -Aristotle I am doing my best to teach my kiddos about lean and six sigma. Since they are ages 5, 3, and 1 my instructional tactics need to be crea

Textron CEO on State of Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - January 22nd, 2008

USA Today recently interviewed Lewis Campbell, Textron’s CEO. The questions were mainly centered on Textron’s enterprise wide deployment of Six Sigma. They asked several questions, some of them quite tough. All were answered with,

Has Lean or Six Sigma Changed your Life?

By Ron Pereira - January 21st, 2008

Mark Graban just posted an article about LEI’s newest book. Looks to be sort of like the Lean Lexicon but with blog-like quotes. Mark shared one of the excerpts from the book. “Lean should not have ‘changed’

Learning to Learn

By Ron Pereira - January 17th, 2008

Lean Enterprise Institute has a book called Learning to See. It’s about how to use value stream maps to “see waste” in a new way. It’s a great book and even better book title. Go to Amazon and check it out. But I think an even

Shadows or Reality?

By Ron Pereira - January 14th, 2008

One of my passions in life is to learn. As such, I have begun the year by ditching books about leadership, lean, and six sigma (for now). In their place I have decided to study philosophy which may make you want to yawn… but I woul

Japan Here I Come!

By Ron Pereira - January 11th, 2008

I am excited to announce that I am headed to see lean manufacturing at its best as I join Gemba Research on their upcoming Japan Kaikaku Experience. We arrive in Japan March 9 and the plans are to visit the following companies during t

Building a Lean Supply Stream

By Ron Pereira - January 10th, 2008

If you happen to live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area or will be in town you may consider attending this conference. I plan to attend so let me know if you will be there so we can say hi! Apologize for sending this out late… bu

The Highest Form of Human Excellence

By Ron Pereira - January 8th, 2008

“I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.” -Socrates When someone asks me a question I typically respond with an immediate answer. There are many issues

That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2008

As a young boy growing up in Ohio I learned to love Ohio State. I was watching them play football before I even knew what football was. It’s hard to explain to most how much I love them. And it’s hard to express how s

Walk Slowly

By Ron Pereira - January 6th, 2008

Do you aspire to be a better leader in 2008? If so, you may consider walking slower through your office or shop talking to folks more than you do today. In lean speak we often use the phrase genchi genbutsu which basically means to go

Management Improvement Carnival #27 (Best of 2007)

By Ron Pereira - January 3rd, 2008

John Hunter asked me to write the latest Management Carnival. Normally, bloggers look at the previous month and share some links of their favorite posts. Since we are at the start of a new year I thought I would change things up a

Lloyd Carr’s Final Message

By Ron Pereira - January 2nd, 2008

As even semi-regular readers of the blog know I am a huge Ohio State fan. But since it is bowl season I am all about the Big Ten and was actually, yeah I am choking a bit as I say this, cheering loudly for the Michigan Wolverines yes

One Year of Blogging!

By Ron Pereira - December 30th, 2007

Close to one year ago I started this little blog with the post Lean or Six Sigma?. Truth be told I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing (and am still learning) but knew I loved to write. I also knew I loved teaching people about lean a

OEE – Not Just for TPM Programs!

By Ron Pereira - December 20th, 2007

If someone were to force me into a corner and only allow me to use one metric in my plant I would have to choose Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The reason I would pick it is simple… it is really 3 metrics in one! Here is a qu

The Lion and the Gnat

By Ron Pereira - December 18th, 2007

One of my kiddos picked The Aesop for Children for their bedtime book. It is chalk full of short fables with some sort of theme associated with them. One of the fables I read called “The Lion and the Gnat” was an excel

Reader Question: Project Handoffs

By Ron Pereira - December 12th, 2007

A reader of the blog recently sent me the following question. Ron, I have a question. Here at my “office” we’ve been doing LSS for about two years now. After a successful Green/Black belt project completion we “

Are Suggestion “Boxes” the Best Way to Go?

By Ron Pereira - December 11th, 2007

A recent article by my friend Jon Miller got me thinking about suggestion boxes. For those unaware many companies ask their employees to submit improvement ideas into a box. Management then looks at the ideas and in some cases acts on

Be Like Tony – Smile More!

By Ron Pereira - December 10th, 2007

OK, I admit it. I have jumped on the Dallas Cowboy’s bandwagon. For those who don’t follow American football the Dallas Cowboys are having their best season ever. They have won 12 games and only lost 1. Their one loss was to a team

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