Lean Archives | Page 16 of 68

Live Virtual Online Lean Experiences with the Kaas Pass

By Jon Miller - August 9th, 2021

Kaas Tailored has been on their continuous improvement journey for over twenty years. For the past ten years, they have been generous in sharing both the successes and struggles of their journey. More than forty thousand people have wa

GA 383 | Giving and Receiving Feedback with Glade Holman

By Jessica Bush - August 5th, 2021

This week’s guest is Glade Holman. Glade has a coaching and consulting background, and he explained his work as a “feedback specialist.” Ron and Glade discussed the nuances of giving and receiving feedback, including

How to Lead Without Subject Matter Expertise

By Jon Miller - August 2nd, 2021

This week, while reading a Wall Street Journal article, I was reminded of something James Womack said at a lean conference about a decade ago. It was during a speech about value stream management. He pointed out a main key difference b

GA 382 | Simplifying Value Stream Mapping with Steve Pereira

By Jessica Bush - July 29th, 2021

This week’s guest is Steve Pereira. Steve and Ron discussed Steve’s minimalist approach to value stream mapping, and how it differs from other approaches. Steve doesn’t have a traditional lean background, but his pers

Piloting Continuous Improvement

By Jon Miller - July 26th, 2021

During several recent conversations with customers, I found myself discussing the pilot as an effective way to roll out continuous improvement. Like many terms that have settled into common usage in the business world, this can mean di

GA 381 | The Art of Coaching with Kelly Mallery

By Jessica Bush - July 22nd, 2021

This week’s guest is Kelly Mallery. Kelly and Ron talked all about coaching, the skills involved, and the challenges Kelly has faced. A Lead Lean Manufacturing Specialist at GE Aviation, Kelly also shared some of her coaching suc

What Is a Milk Run?

By Jon Miller - July 19th, 2021

The milk run is a method for connecting material movement between multiple sources and a storage location nearer to the point of use or processing. The name comes from a practice in the dairy industry. A tanker truck makes rounds to

GA 380 | The Concept of Humble Inquiry with Peter and Ed Schein

By Jessica Bush - July 15th, 2021

This week’s guests are Peter and Ed Schein, prominent figures in the leadership and organizational culture fields. A father-son team, they discussed the books they’ve written, the concept of Humble Inquiry, vulnerability in

Hypotheses from Hansei in Odd Times

By Jon Miller - July 12th, 2021

The Independence Day weekend has turned into sort of a second holiday of thanksgiving for me. It’s a chance to appreciate improving weather, fresh produce, and a moment to reflect on the last half-year. For the past decade or

Reconstructing Degraded Processes and a Yearning for Darkness

By Kevin Meyer - July 9th, 2021

Yesterday I returned from almost two weeks in Iceland, which was tacked on to two weeks exploring Maine. Nearly a month away from the home and office, and our first international trip in well over a year. We had a fantastic time with g

GA 379 | Leading vs. Lagging Indicators with Tracey and Ernie Richardson

By Jessica Bush - July 8th, 2021

This week’s guests are Tracey and Ernie Richardson. Tracey and Ernie broke down leading and lagging indicators, balancing the two, and some examples of both. They also explained the role standards play in navigating these indicat

What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

By Ron Pereira - July 2nd, 2021

One of my responsibilities here at Gemba Academy is to coach our Black Belt and Master Black Belt candidates. And, without question, the most common question I ask during the project selection phase of the journey is “What proble

GA 378 | Lean in Construction with Robert Penney

By Jessica Bush - July 1st, 2021

This week’s guest is Robert Penney. Robert, whose background is in construction, explained how the industry uses lean, what tools they use, etc. Robert also had some great books to recommend. An MP3 audio version of this episode

The Five Steps to Getting Better at Anything

By Jon Miller - June 28th, 2021

Jerry Seinfeld is an immensely successful comedian. He has achieved fame and fortune through his skill at making funny observations about everyday things. An Inc. magazine article asks him why he still works so hard and receives a simp

GA 377 | Psychological Safety and the 5Cs with Karyn Ross and Jessica House

By Jessica Bush - June 24th, 2021

This week’s guests are Karyn Ross and Jessica House. Karyn and Jessica talked about their work with kindness, mental health, and psychological safety in the workplace. They then walked Ron through the 5Cs and how you can delibera

Learning from a Blogging Experiment Failure

By Jon Miller - June 21st, 2021

We’re about ten weeks into running an experiment in blog post writing. The purpose is to be less deadline-driven, allow time for quality checks and make the writing process less of a weekly struggle. It was going well until this week

GA 376 | Navigating Visual Management and the Obeya Method with Greg Woods

By Jessica Bush - June 17th, 2021

This week’s guest is Greg Woods. Ron and Greg talked about the various approaches to visual management, including physical and digital strategies. They also discussed the obeya method and what it entails. An MP3 audio version o

Respect for Soft Skills

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2021

In lean circles we talk a lot about respect for people. Along with continuous improvement, it’s one of two core elements of the Toyota Way brand of lean thinking. In contrast to the tools and techniques of continuous improvement,

GA 375 | Ending Human Suffering with Process Improvement with Kyle Kumpf

By Jessica Bush - June 10th, 2021

This week’s guest is Kyle Kumpf. Ron and Kyle discussed Kyle’s experience using lean in engineering versus banking, and what he’s learned from the pandemic. Kyle also explained why he wants to use process improvement

How to Think Long Term

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2021

One of the 14 Toyota Way principles is to think long term. In fact, it’s the first on the list. What does it mean exactly to base decisions on the long term, in the context of lean management? Reading carefully, we can see that n

GA 374 | Lean, Learning, and Karate with Kieran Dougall

By Jessica Bush - June 3rd, 2021

This week’s guest is Kieran Dougall. Ron and Kieran discussed Kieran’s manufacturing background and how he discovered lean. Kieran also described his experience with karate and how it relates to lean. A MP3 audio version of

The Surprisingly Positive Power of Deception

By Jon Miller - May 31st, 2021

Recently I wanted to persuade an acquaintance to try something. It was a simple solution that I was pretty sure would work for them. There was very little practical downside. And yet as anyone who has ever tried to present a solution t

The Value of Lean Certifications

By Steve Kane - May 28th, 2021

It’s often argued that certifications are not required to practice Lean. This is absolutely true. Lean and other continuous improvement methods can and should be practiced by anyone in any organization without a certification or

GA 373 | Exploring Agile Kanban with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - May 27th, 2021

This week we’re releasing another solo episode by GA Co-Founder Ron Pereira. Ron talks a little bit about our new Agile Kanban course(s), and about the power of Agile Kanban in general. He then breaks down each of the four main p

Roundabout Lessons on Scaling Lean Solutions

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2021

Traffic roundabouts are one of my favorite flow management devices. There is a physical WIP limit. They’re visual. Look to the left for oncoming traffic, if there is a gap, this is the “pull signal.” No oncoming car in the ci

Lean

Start your improvement training today.