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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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755 Articles

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

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

How to Not Become Handcuffed by Lean & Six Sigma Tools

By Ron Pereira - April 15th, 2013

I’ve been coaching a Gemba Academy customer through the use of some specific tools. This individual works in a MRO environment meaning he deals with very high mix and low volume. This person is struggling to understand how to cre

Lean Office Tip: Learn How to Dramatically Improve Document Creation Efficiency

By Ron Pereira - April 2nd, 2013

At Gemba Academy we’re constantly trying to practice what we teach by improving the way we do our daily work. Our Customer Service team, which is lead by Elaine Cressionnie, receives and sends hundreds of emails each week. Many of th

Introducing the Gemba Academy School of Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - January 30th, 2013

For the past 6 months I, along with my Gemba Academy colleagues, have been extremely busy developing what we now call the Gemba Academy School of Six Sigma. I’m obviously extremely biased… but I have to confess… I’m quite happy

How would you explain what Lean is to a 7-year-old?

By Ron Pereira - November 5th, 2012

Yesterday afternoon while driving home from a soccer game (and before I smashed into a Ford truck and obliterated the right side of my little Toyota… but that’s another story) my 7-year-old daughter (the swimmer and stud soccer pla

5 Critical Control Chart Characteristics You May Not Be Aware Of

By Ron Pereira - September 25th, 2012

No matter if you call yourself a “lean practitioner” or “six sigma practitioner” or some combination of the two… one “tool” you should have a deep understanding of is the control chart. I’ve written about control charts

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