Ask Gemba Archives | Gemba Academy

Batch Answers to Reader Questions

By Jon Miller - November 23rd, 2011

The readers of Gemba Academy have expressed some questions and concerns regarding certain content in the blog articles. I’ll address some of the top concerns. Balancing Non-Value-Added Activities and Overprocessing in Know

Cross Training in a One Piece Flow Cell

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2009

I am working through the backlog of Ask Gemba questions. Bas asked: In a one piece flow cell that is fully loaded with customer demand, how can new people be trained, without creating significant flow problems? Operators are moving wit

How to Stop and Fix in a Stationary Process

By Jon Miller - November 24th, 2009

Graham asked: My background is high volume automotive production like Ford. I am now involved with static build production of HVAC units. How do I best apply stop the line methods with static builds? ie no line to stop. Thanks for the

Why Should I Mark My Cupboards!?

By Jon Miller - August 17th, 2009

Ronak has been successful with 5S in the factory but is facing challenges with 5S in the office. He said in a follow-up to the post on 5S guidelines for the office: “Only problem is in personalized cabins, where there are lots of

One Point Lesson: Takt Image

By Jon Miller - August 10th, 2009

John asked: What is the difference between Takt Time and Takt Image? Takt time is the calculated pace of production based on the average speed at which the customer is buying a product or service. The formula is net available time to p

What Can Lean Do for the Healthcare Business Office?

By Jon Miller - August 6th, 2009

Daisy asked, What can lean do for the Healthcare business office? The billers, the insurance follow up staff? Lean can do a great things for the healthcare business office. I have asked Chris Schrandt to answer this one. Chris has been

One Point Lesson: Kamishibai

By Jon Miller - July 6th, 2009

Prof. Jeffrey Liker uploaded a slideshow from 2005 titled The Toyota Way: A Sociotechnical Learning Organization in Action. The image above is from this presentation in which Liker touches briefly on the kamishibai board and its use. W

Seeking: Checklist for a Sense of Urgency

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2009

“The most important factors for success are patience, a focus on long term rather than short-term results, reinvestment in people, product, and plant, and an unforgiving commitment to quality.” This is a quote from R

How to Engage People in Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 9th, 2009

As always, thank you for your questions, comments and improvement suggestions. Today one of our readers shared via email a challenge with getting people engaged in kaizen. Whether it is an improvement suggestion system, a software syst

Ask Gemba: Nuts and Bolts of the Andon System

By Jon Miller - April 12th, 2009

Bas Timmerman asked: We are in the process of designing a synchronised flow process with an intermittent transportation system for a new assembly line. We have no buffer positions in the line, so it is critical that we organise support

How Do Lean Processes Prevent Human Error?

By Jon Miller - March 24th, 2009

Scott asked an important question on how lean processes can be used to prevent human errors. The good news is that lean processes not only support quality but they lean cannot function without a strong quality culture and organizationa

Ask Gemba: Do We Need the 4th and 5th S?

By Jon Miller - March 20th, 2009

Personally I don’t care a great deal for the 4th and 5th S. The team activity of throwing things out, rearranging and cleaning things up can be a blast. Once that’s done and the excitement wears off, the daily maintenance a

Accountability for Continuous Improvement

By Jon Miller - March 16th, 2009

Last week a reader by the handle of CILean asked Gemba: I have trouble with staff who appear generally supportive of improvement projects and agree with Senior Management on proposed actions but then fail to implement agreed changes an

What’s All the Fuss About A3 Thinking?

By Jon Miller - March 3rd, 2009

Jim had a good point in his comment: I don’t understand the excitement about this so-called A3 thinking. Root cause analysis has been around for decades, so has five whys (at least since the very early 1980s.) As for hypothesis t

TBP: Toyota Business Practice

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2009

Are you interested in practical problem-solving and continuous improvement methodologies? In this blog post, we explore the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) and its relationship with PDCA and A3 thinking. We also take a closer look at th

A Question About Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2009

Here is a question for you about kaizen: You have two continuous improvement systems; one which invests in 10 brilliant people each solving one $250,000 problem per year or another system which invests in 1,000 average people solving o

Where Did Value Stream Mapping Come From?

By Jon Miller - February 10th, 2009

Harish Jose asked about value stream mapping: Is this “tool” used and abused by lean manufacturing practitioners? Why is this tool not explained in Ohno, Monden or Shingo’s books? Shingo does talk about the process an

The Top 10 Titans of TPS

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2009

Sean asked an interesting question: Who would you consider to be the titans of the TPS? Certainly, there was Ohno and Shingo, but is there anyone else that should be on the list? I like to connect the history to people because it shows

Kaizen Skills of an Operations Leader

By Jon Miller - February 4th, 2009

Stephen Ondoro is a newly appointed operations leader who asked: “I have been chosen as an operations leader yet it has not been clarified as to the role and scope. What kaizen skills do i need to lead my team successfully? Pleas

How to Arrive at the Vital Few

By Jon Miller - February 2nd, 2009

Alex asked a question “How do organizations determine the ‘vital few’? Any small number of activities that have the largest impact in relation to business planning, launching an TPS implementation project or simply ge

The Correct Sequence for Doing 5S?

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2009

Harish was reading the archives and asked a question: Traditionally (Hirano or Ohno’s Work Place Management) 5S is in a specific order – Sort, Set (Straighten), Shine (Spic & Span), Standardize and Sustain (if needed).

Finding Time Values for Standard Work

By Jon Miller - January 27th, 2009

Thanks to Gary Tucker for a question regarding standard work and standardized time values: How do you get your time values and how do you know that they are standardized? You sure can’t just take any observed time. There are all

Ask Gemba: World Class Direct to Indirect Labor Ratio?

By Jon Miller - January 21st, 2009

B. Huey asked on January 20 in a comment to this article on TPM metrics & financial impact: What is considered a world class ratio for direct labor to indirect & salary? In other words total indirect & salary divided by tot

Further Reflections on Standard Work

By Jon Miller - January 16th, 2009

The topic of standards is really an interesting and deep one with great importance to not only how we do our work but how we do it more effectively. I thank lean healthcare practitioner Brian Buck for giving us an opportunity to explor

Planning for One Piece Flow Cells

By Jon Miller - January 5th, 2009

Bas Timmermans from the Netherlands asked a question about OEE and one piece flow cells: How would you best plan such a cell? Would you make an hour-by-hour chart based on the cycle time and plan only the hours needed, leaving some con

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