GA 128 | How to Implement Lean Efforts That Last with Amanda Culver

By Jessica Bush - September 15th, 2016

Today’s guest is Amanda Culver. Amanda has over 10 years of experience with Lean and Six Sigma, especially as it applies to Pharmaceuticals. She shared a lot of valuable insight with us, including her take on why organizations

GA 127 | How to Apply Lean to Different Industries with Gary Beaudette

By Jessica Bush - September 8th, 2016

Today’s guest is Gary Beaudette, a consultant with an impressive lean background. Gary and Ron discussed Gary’s career thus far, the different industries he’s applied lean to, and more. An MP3 version of this episode

GA 126 | Scaling Lean with Ash Maurya

By Jessica Bush - September 1st, 2016

Today’s guest is Ash Maurya, an entrepreneur and author in the Lean Startup realm. Ash explained how lean applies to entrepreneurship and discussed his books, Running Lean and Scaling Lean. An MP3 version of this episode is

GA 125 | How to Introduce Lean with Dalton Prather

By Jessica Bush - August 25th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dalton Prather, a Lean Coordinator who is at the beginning of his continuous improvement journey. Dalton shared his approach to introducing lean, his goals for the future, and more. An MP3 version of this episod

Create a Learning Path

By Steve Kane - August 19th, 2016

This article is a continuation of the series based on best practices from the Gemba Academy community: Part 1: Don’t let perfect get in the way of good Part 2: Create a Learning Path Lean, for many organizations, involves transfo

GA 124 | How to Utilize People-Centric Leadership with Ron Harper

By Jessica Bush - August 18th, 2016

Today’s guest is Ron Harper, President of Cogent Power Inc and Canadian AME board member. Ron talked to us about people-centric leadership, how to transition to it from a traditional leadership approach, the obstacles you might

Standard Work for Dairy Farmers

By Jon Miller - August 15th, 2016

The next time someone claims to have a work day that is too unpredictable, non-repetitive, requires flexibility, or otherwise not amenable to structuring and improving via leader standard work, have them study A Day in the Life of a Da

Respect by Sharing Knowledge

By Kevin Meyer - August 12th, 2016

Gaining knowledge is the first step to wisdom. Sharing knowledge is the first step to humanity. – Unknown Well over a decade ago when I became president of a medical device company, I already had many years of Lean experience. I kn

GA 123 | How to Reflect on Your Lean Journey with Phil Roether

By Jessica Bush - August 11th, 2016

Today’s guest is Phil Roether, President Emeritus of AME. Now retired, Phil shared some stories from his impressive career and reflected back on the ups and downs of his lean journey thus far. An MP3 version of this episode is

My Ideal Day

By Ron Pereira - August 5th, 2016

It was around 11:30 PM on a Thursday night a little more than 7 years ago. I was sitting at my home office desk working late into the night. What was I working on? Two words – Gemba Academy. You see, when we first started Gemba A

GA 122 | How to Improve Your Lean ROI with Cheryl Jekiel

By Jessica Bush - August 4th, 2016

Today’s guest is Cheryl Jekiel, Founder of the Lean Leadership Resource Center. Cheryl explained how the concept of ROI, or return on investment, applies to the people-aspect of lean. An MP3 version of this episode is available f

GA 121 | Leading AME with George Saiz

By Jessica Bush - July 28th, 2016

Today’s guest is George Saiz, President and CEO of AME, or the Association of Manufacturing Excellence. George talked about how his first few months in the role have gone, and shared some of the wisdom he’s gathered throug

GA 120 | How to Invest in People with Jamie Parker

By Jessica Bush - July 21st, 2016

Today’s episode features the audio from our recent webinar with Jamie Parker, a Region Manager at FedEx Office and passionate lean practitioner. Jamie gave us a detailed look at FedEx Office’s lean journey, including both

Don’t Let Perfection Get In the Way of Progress

By Steve Kane - July 15th, 2016

The Gemba Academy team is in a great position to interact with many lean practitioners around the world.  With a thousand or so subscribing organizations and presumably hundreds of thousands of Gemba Academy users, we’re able to see

GA 119 | How to Handle Skepticism with Brian Rotsaert

By Jessica Bush - July 14th, 2016

Today’s guest is Brian Rotsaert. Brian and Ron discussed Brian’s continuous improvement journey, including his experiences with coaching and mentoring over the years. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download

Back to the Beginning with Ohno, Suzuki, and Yoda

By Kevin Meyer - July 8th, 2016

As I was researching the remarkable similarities between Lean and Zen for my book, The Simple Leader, one of the most interesting – and meaningful – was the concept of the beginner’s mind. Taiichi Ohno said, “Ob

GA 118 | How to Use Lean and Zen to Become a Better Leader with Kevin Meyer

By Jessica Bush - July 7th, 2016

Today’s guest is our own Kevin Meyer, Co-Founder of Gemba Academy. Kevin and Ron discussed Kevin’s new book, The Simple Leader, in which Kevin describes his career thus far and shares a lot of valuable insight related to

GA 117 | How to Stay Motivated on Your Lean Journey with Dale Crownover

By Jessica Bush - June 30th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dale Crownover, the CEO of Texas Nameplate. Dale is one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming AME Conference in Dallas. He and Ron had a great conversation about his experience with continuous improvement, i

GA 116 | How to Use Storytelling with Jacob Stoller

By Jessica Bush - June 23rd, 2016

Today we are excited to have Jacob Stoller back on the podcast. Jacob and Ron discussed storytelling and how it can be extra powerful in a continuous improvement context. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. I

Safety In Numbers: What Message Are We Sending?

By Steve Kane - June 17th, 2016

Guest contribution by Jamie Parker “Don’t tell the team. I don’t want to be the reason our number goes back to zero.” These are the words a front-line team member shared with her plant manager after sustaining an injury. You se

GA 115 | Mastering Puppets with Filipe Marques

By Jessica Bush - June 16th, 2016

Today’s guest is Filipe Marques. Filipe has a very unique perspective on continuous improvement, and he shared some great examples of what he and his team do to stay on track. He even connected Metallica and lean. Don’t miss this o

GA 114 | How to Apply Lean to Healthcare with Mark Graban

By Jessica Bush - June 9th, 2016

Today’s episode features Mark Graban, a recurring podcast guest and good friend of Gemba Academy. Ron and Mark discussed lean healthcare, the third revision of Mark’s book Lean Hospitals, and some of the main misconceptio

How to Become a More Passionate Leader & Person

By Ron Pereira - June 3rd, 2016

Do you want to be part of an incredible culture at work? What about your personal life?  Well, in this article I’d like to explore a characteristic I believe to be extremely important for any person, or organization, seeking excelle

GA 113 | How to Utilize the Power Score with Jonathan Sands

By Jessica Bush - June 2nd, 2016

GA 112 | How to Pursue Greatness with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - May 26th, 2016

Today’s episode features a keynote speech, “In Pursuit of Greatness,” delivered by our own Ron Pereira at the TWI Summit in San Antonio, Texas. As you’ll hear, he thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learned a