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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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751 Articles

GA 005 | Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation with Karen Martin

By Ron Pereira - May 8th, 2014

In this episode, I’m joined by one of the most passionate lean thinkers I’ve ever met – Karen Martin. During this podcast, Karen and I explore the topic of Value Stream Mapping. Specifically, Karen and I have an excel

GA 004 | Leveraging the Toyota Kata Approach to Learning & Coaching with Michael Lombard

By Ron Pereira - May 8th, 2014

During this podcast Michael Lombard and I explore the Toyota Kata topic. Michael, a long time lean thinker, is the Director of Operational Excellence at a major hospital here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Specifically, during this sho

Lean Thinker Challenge #5

By Ron Pereira - May 5th, 2014

Welcome to another edition of the Lean Thinker Challenge! The Situation Your company has been on the lean journey for a little over a year… things have gone well and while there’s been some resistance to change most associ

GA 003 | Learn What Joyfulness and Lean Thinking Have in Common with Richard Sheridan

By Ron Pereira - May 1st, 2014

How much joy and happiness do you, and your colleagues, feel each and every day?  Are you excited to come to work or do you dread it?   No matter your answer… if you’re interested in learning how to create a more exciting

GA 002 | Learning, Focus, and Innovation with Matthew May

By Ron Pereira - April 30th, 2014

Welcome to Episode 2 of the Gemba Academy podcast! In this episode, I’m joined by Matt May.  Matt is an incredible lean thinker who specializes in helping companies innovate. Originally, Matt and I were planning to talk about an

GA 001 | Welcome to the Gemba Academy Podcast!

By Ron Pereira - April 30th, 2014

Welcome to the first episode of the Gemba Academy podcast! We’re extremely excited for this podcast and hope to reach as many people as possible with the good news that is lean and six sigma! During this first episode we share

My Final LSS Academy Post

By Ron Pereira - April 25th, 2014

I remember it like it was yesterday… it was January 2007 and I was sitting on my couch surfing the web while watching TV. I had just read a lean related blog article by my friend, Jon Miller, and wondered how hard it would be to

Is Home Depot’s Expedited Checkout Lean?

By Ron Pereira - March 31st, 2014

It’s warming up here in North Texas… as such businesses like Home Depot are EXTREMELY BUSY places. Yesterday I joined the crowd to buy some tomatoes and other vegetables to plant in our garden.  And, yes, the checkout line

My Newest Stand Up Desk!

By Ron Pereira - January 23rd, 2014

Friends, I have a confession to make. In November of 2009 I wrote about my new stand up desk. I was quite proud of how I’d managed to prop an old desk up on some crates… I guess you could say I definitely used my wits over my w

Lean Thinker Challenge #4

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2014

Welcome to the first Lean Thinker Challenge of 2014! The Situation You’re the owner of a very successful manufacturing company. Your company began its lean journey 10 years ago and has realized tremendous benefits. In fact, lean thin

What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

By Ron Pereira - November 15th, 2013

The most frequently asked question we receive at Gemba Academy goes something like this, “What videos should we watch first?” A close second is, “”What lean tools or philosophies should we focus on first?” How to Respond Of c

Does Jim Womack Regret Calling it “Lean”?

By Ron Pereira - November 13th, 2013

If they had to do it over again… would Jim Womack & Dan Jones still support calling it lean?  And what did John Shook originally think about the book title “Learning to See?”  Finally, what is the “Great Stagn

AME Toronto, Lean Accounting, and BMW X5 Seat Manufacturing!

By Ron Pereira - November 6th, 2013

We’ve been EXTREMELY busy over at Gemba Academy! Here’s a short list of what we’ve been up to: We talked all things lean with John Shook, Jim Womack, and Dan Jones at the recent AME conference in Toronto.  This 70 mi

Lean Thinker Challenge #3

By Ron Pereira - October 15th, 2013

Welcome to this week’s Lean Thinker Challenge! The Situation Your cousin, Shane, works for the NCAA and has been tasked with improving a critical aspect of the college football experience. Specifically, Shane has been asked to find a

Lean Thinker Challenge #2

By Ron Pereira - October 2nd, 2013

Well, it’s safe to say our first Lean Thinker Challenge was a hit… as of a few minutes ago there were 56 comments. Thank you to all of you who joined the conversation! Now, let’s get to this week’s Lean Thinker Challenge! The S

Lean Thinker Challenge #1

By Ron Pereira - September 12th, 2013

OK, so I thought I’d start a new, hopefully fun, series of articles called the Lean Thinker Challenge.  This is the first edition! The Situation You’ve just been hired as the VP of Operations for a 200 person manufacturing

Was Steve Jobs a Lean Thinker?

By Ron Pereira - July 29th, 2013

Can Continuous Improvement methodologies such as Lean & Six Sigma help companies innovate? Or, as some argue, does practicing continuous improvement actually stifle innovation? I’d argue authentic continuous improvement can most

Learn How I’ve Leveraged Both Lean & Six Sigma Throughout my Career

By Ron Pereira - July 23rd, 2013

I was recently interviewed by Mark Graban over at LeanBlog.org. The theme of the interview is how I’ve successfully leveraged both lean and six sigma throughout my career.  Specifically Mark and I explored: What my views are on

10 Characteristics of Great Coaches & Learners

By Ron Pereira - July 15th, 2013

Throughout my professional career I’ve been fortunate enough to learn – and teach others – about leadership, lean, and six sigma. As I reflect back, I believe I’ve uncovered some characteristics of what makes a good coa

Keep Calm & Improve On – Free Desktop Wallpaper

By Ron Pereira - June 26th, 2013

Our design team just created some pretty cool desktop wallpaper with the words: Keep Calm & Improve On! If you like it, and want to use it as a friendly reminder to “improve on,” please feel free to download the images

5 Powerful Techniques for Dealing with Setbacks or Total Failure

By Ron Pereira - June 11th, 2013

Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. -Henry Ford It’s 9:25 PM on a Friday night and I’m currently sitting in the Seattle Tacoma airport due to my flight being delayed. Latest estimates have me arriving home in Dall

How Do You Document Your Processes?

By Ron Pereira - May 13th, 2013

At Gemba Academy we’re constantly doing our best to “practice what we teach.” Now, to be honest, we’re far from perfect (who is?) but we’re always trying to find better ways to take care of our customers and develop better pr

Going to Gemba vs. Statistical Analysis

By Ron Pereira - May 6th, 2013

Early in my professional career I worked as a Process Engineer at Nokia (in their mobile phone division). I had many responsibilities but, ultimately, my most important job centered on ensuring all of the equipment was producing cell p

Knee Jerk Statistics

By Ron Pereira - April 29th, 2013

The folks over at Minitab recently wrote an excellent article about how a Six Sigma practitioner leveraged binary logistic regression analysis in order to better understand why associates at a manufacturing plant were quitting. What th

The Problem with A3 Reports

By Ron Pereira - April 22nd, 2013

The A3 report may be one of the most misunderstood lean thinking tools of our time. Why do I say this? Simple. It’s Just a Piece of Paper The A3 report, in and of itself, is nothing more than a piece of paper. But, for some reaso

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