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What’s This Thing Called Lean?

By Steve Kane - July 17th, 2015

By Steve Kane My introduction to lean occurred many years ago while working in the motorcycle business. I went to work for a BMW Motorcycles dealer in California as a parts and accessories specialist. My job was to sell cool motor

Last Week in Bad Problem Solving, 2016 POTUS Candidate Edition

By Jon Miller - July 13th, 2015

When one spends as much time as I do thinking about the ins and outs of the problem solving process, it soon becomes painfully obvious that the U.S. political system demands very little from our elected leaders in that regard. Last

You’re Good When You Think You’re Bad

By Kevin Meyer - July 10th, 2015

By Kevin Meyer Well over a decade ago I created my first lean enterprise assessment, just as a tool to help me understand gaps in my organization. I’m generally loathe to use such tools as they are often misinterpreted, gamed,

You Had One Job, Fireplace Poker

By Jon Miller - July 6th, 2015

A fireplace poker has one job: to take the place of the unprotected hand in tending a fire. Normally a rigid metal rod with a curved bit at the end, a poker is used to move firewood, hot coals or whatever else one happens to be bur

Fun with Tennis Balls

By Ron Pereira - July 3rd, 2015

If you’re American and are reading this on July 4… Happy Independence Day! I recently delivered a live workshop to a group of printing professionals. The talk was a combination of Practical Problem Solving and Quick Cha

The High Cost of Ignoring Standard Work

By Jon Miller - June 29th, 2015

This June marked the 200th anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon by Wellington at Waterloo, which effectively ended his career as a military and political leader. Reading Andrew Roberts’ excellent book Napoleon: A Life, it became app

Lean Beginnings: My Journey So Far

By Jessica Bush - June 26th, 2015

By Jessica Bush I’ll admit, when I applied for the Marketing Specialist position at Gemba Academy, I didn’t know much about lean. I was less than a year out of college and all I had to go off of were snippets of information from on

The Most Dangerous Idea in the World

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2015

This week I learned about a new book, Kaizen Forever: Teaching of Chihiro Nakao by Bob Emiliani, Rudy Go and Katsusaburo Yoshino. Mr. Nakao was the first Shingijutsu consultant I met and worked with in 1993. Even just one week spent

How Do You Fight A Fire With A Garden Hose?

By Steve Kane - June 19th, 2015

By Steve Kane Many years ago, I was visiting a friend’s house in Southern California. It was a 1950’s ranch style house with a straight walkway from the street to the door. There was a tall palm tree where the walkway met the s

Own-Process Completion as the Basis of Lean Quality

By Jon Miller - June 15th, 2015

JKK sounds like something that the young people of today might say. Perhaps a text in reaction to hurting another’s feelings, as in “Just kidding, OK?” In fact, it’s one of the lesser known Toyota concepts that

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