Lean Archives | Page 44 of 68

More Than Metrics

By Steve Kane - March 18th, 2016

By Steve Kane I’ve had some conversations recently about what a successful lean journey looks like. Of course, we talked about key performance indicators and monitoring metrics. As the saying goes, not everything that can be coun

GA 102 | Sustaining Your Lean Journey with William Harvey

By Jessica Bush - March 17th, 2016

Today’s guest is William Harvey, a former U.S. Marine with over a decade of experience in the printing and consumer packaging industries. William and Ron discuss strategy and culture, specifically what it takes to keep a lean jou

Coaching in Sports and at Work

By Jon Miller - March 14th, 2016

In the sporting world the separation of duties between the coach and the players on the team is pretty clear. The players play, the coaches coach the players. For professional sports there is also the general manager who handles the bu

Looking Back on All My Children Have Taught Me

By Ron Pereira - March 11th, 2016

I’ve been blogging since 2007 and have written hundreds of articles. And while I definitely have some favorite lean thinking articles like the value stream mapping series I wrote back in 2008… the articles I cherish the m

GA 101 | How to Implement a Lean Culture with Steven Leuschel

By Jessica Bush - March 10th, 2016

Today’s guest is Steven Leuschel, author of Lean Culture Change. He and I discuss the contents of the book, which focuses on the critical people component of lean. This An MP3 version of this episode is available for download her

Why Leaders Don’t Counter Biases for “Why Organizations Don’t Learn”

By Jon Miller - March 7th, 2016

A November 2015 Harvard Business Review article titled Why Organization’s Don’t Learn did a good job of outlining the main cultural reasons that organizations fail to learn and adapt. The concepts introduced can be equa

The Other Flow of Csíkszentmihályi

By Kevin Meyer - March 4th, 2016

Those of us in the Lean world are accustomed to discussing “flow” – where work is performed in an even manner to reduce mura. Activities are synchronized, layouts are optimized, resources are available exactly where a

GA 100 | How to Survive with Matt May

By Jessica Bush - March 3rd, 2016

Today’s episode marks a very special milestone for the Gemba Academy podcast. To celebrate our 100th episode, we brought back our first ever guest, Matt May. Matt shares the story of how he died (yes, you read that right), told f

The Fog of Waste

By Jon Miller - February 29th, 2016

Last week I made a stunning discovery. There are literally bucketfulls of water in the air around me. For months this winter, I thought nothing of mopping up the condensation off of the windows every morning using paper towels. To put

GA 099 | How to Motivate People with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - February 25th, 2016

Today we’re sharing the audio version of a keynote presentation Ron gave to The Woodbridge Group, a Canadian company and Gemba Academy customer. This episode contains a lot of great information on both motivation and cultu

The Skills Sought in a Lean Graduate

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2016

Matching the content, quality, cost and speed of delivery of a product or service to what the customer wants is the key for business success. This basic lesson is taught in business schools both as theory and through real-life case s

Say No

By Steve Kane - February 19th, 2016

By Steve Kane I’ve recently committed to more short-term responsibilities in and out of work than I should have. We’ve all be in this situation before, leaving ourselves with insufficient time to meet all the demands we’ve put

GA 098 | How to Apply Lean to Sales and Marketing with Joe Dager

By Jessica Bush - February 18th, 2016

Today’s guest is Joe Dager, President of Business901, a firm that specializes in helping companies apply lean to their sales and marketing departments. Joe and I discuss the many ways continuous improvement can be used to improve

Learn How to Present Like Steve Jobs & Simon Sinek

By Ron Pereira - February 12th, 2016

Over the last few years I’ve started to do more and more keynote presentations in front of live audiences. And, while I love doing these live talks it’s much different than shooting a video in our studio or on the road during a

GA 097 | How to Apply Lean to the Military with Samuel Selay

By Jessica Bush - February 11th, 2016

Today’s guest is Samuel Selay, a Continuous Improvement Manager for the United States Marines Corps. Samuel and I discuss his continuous improvement journey and some of the incredible projects he’s done with the military.

Weighing the Waste of Waiting

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2016

TIMWOOD is a mnemonic, or memory aid, for reciting the seven types of waste that lean aims to reduce. At its geographic if not spiritual center is W – waiting. This indicates time people spent unproductively while waiting for so

GA 096 | How to Build a Lean Community with Dr. Eric Olsen

By Jessica Bush - February 4th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dr. Eric Olsen, a professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California. Dr. Olsen and I discuss the lean community he’s helped to build on the Central Coast of California, the Central Coast Lean Summit, and

Meal Preparation as a Metaphor for Lean

By Jon Miller - February 1st, 2016

In recent weeks my opportunities to prepare meals for my family has increased. I have planned meals, purchased the groceries, followed recipes, prepared the food, served the food, received feedback, and filed this information for futu

Respect for People: Roommate Edition

By Jessica Bush - January 28th, 2016

As a young lean enthusiast, I have yet to experience a greater example of the need for Respect for People than living with roommates. From a cramped dorm room shared with one other person, to a more “grown up” house shar

GA 095 | How to Practice Lean from the Heart with Karl Wadensten

By Jessica Bush - January 28th, 2016

Today’s episode features a keynote from VIBCO Vibrators President Karl Wadensten at the 2015 Iowa Lean Consortium conference. Titled “Lean from the Heart,” Karl explores the emotions and thought processes behind lean

GA 094 | How to Embrace Lean with Bob Rush

By Jessica Bush - January 21st, 2016

Today’s guest is Bob Rush, a Lean Manufacturing Group Leader at Tesla Motors. Bob shares a lot of truly valuable advice based on his own personal lean journey, including some great stories that will both entertain and inspire y

Surviving E-mail Overburden with Seven Ds

By Jon Miller - January 18th, 2016

A recent Scientific American article on the strain of always being on call summarizes the stressful effects of always being connected to work. The modern workday may be unique in human history, in that we receive hundreds of messages p

The Only Genuine Knowledge Is That of Actual Experience

By Steve Kane - January 15th, 2016

“The only genuine knowledge is that of actual experience.” ~ Chinese proverb Training is a big part of lean transformation. Countless hours and dollars are spent in training rooms, seminars, and classrooms every year. It’s comm

GA 093 | How to Start a Lean Initiative with Blake Watermeier

By Jessica Bush - January 14th, 2016

Today’s guest is Blake Watermeier, Regional VP of Operations at ARC Document Solutions. Blake and I discuss the process of starting a new lean initiative and the obstacles that often follow. This episode complements last weekR

Putting Things on Top of Other Things

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2016

One of my favorite comedy sketches is the “Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things” by Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Over the years I have grown to appreciate its insight into organizational behavio

Lean

Start your improvement training today.