Gemba Academy

What Does It Mean to Huddle?

By Jon Miller - November 18th, 2019

One of the encouraging trends I’ve seen in the past decade with Lean management is the emerging acceptance of team huddles. While still far from universal, this one simple activity is becoming a core part of the daily practice of

How to Measure the M in SQDCM

By Jon Miller - November 11th, 2019

The giant letters SQDCM are common sights on visual display boards of teams on the gemba. They stand for the key performance indicator categories of safety, quality, delivery, cost and morale. Visualization of key performance indicator

Question Yourself

By Kevin Meyer - November 8th, 2019

One of my favorite websites, Brain Pickings, recently turned 13. The reason it’s a favorite is because it offers content that is challenging intellectually – but not to the point of not making sense to humble minds like min

Lean Management for the Day After Tomorrow

By Jon Miller - November 4th, 2019

One of the criticisms of lean management is that it doesn’t address innovation. Lean practices build systems for delivering high quality services on-time to customers at lower costs. This is achieved through robust processes, dai

You’re Not the Hero

By Ron Pereira - November 1st, 2019

We continuous improvement practitioners have much to learn from the movie business. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the “storytelling formula” may be one of the most important things we lean thinkers can learn. Most good mo

10 Behaviors to Practice Respect for People

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2019

Last week I had the pleasure of facilitating a study mission for a group of leaders from a global manufacturer. We visited several companies. Each was two decades into their lean journey. The host companies were generous in sharing the

Lean Thinking and the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

By Jon Miller - October 21st, 2019

A few years ago, I read and blogged about the book Poor Economics and the key lessons it offered for change efforts such as Lean transformations. Congratulations are in order to the co-authors who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic S

When Does “No Idea is a Bad Idea” Become a Bad Idea?

By Jon Miller - October 14th, 2019

Brainstorming is a common method for generating ideas from a group to solve problems. One of the cardinal rules is not to criticize ideas as people raise them. We are reminded, “No idea is a bad idea.” One of the aims of th

The Wisdom of Humility

By Kevin Meyer - October 11th, 2019

Lately I’ve been reflecting 0n the impact of mistakes on leadership, and how important humility becomes to learning from those mistakes. An article in The Washington Post this week describing the humility of Dr. James Peebles,

How to Get the Most Out of Your NFL Franchise with TPM

By Jon Miller - October 7th, 2019

The American football season is full swing. The NFL is celebrating 100 years of this game of athletic and mental matchups. As an organization, the NFL is concerned with increasing its income by providing an entertainment product. To th

How to Run Your Own Lean Simulation

By Ron Pereira - October 4th, 2019

If you’ve ever wanted to run your own lean simulation but just aren’t sure how to go about it… you’re in luck. We recently captured a series of videos with our good friends at Kaas Tailored. During our visit,

More Gems from Gemba-focused Executive VP Kawai

By Jon Miller - September 30th, 2019

In a blog post last year, we described how gemba-focused Toyota Executive VP Kawai spends a typical day at work. In a series of interviews in IT Media, a Japanese online business magazine he continues to drop gems. He was asked about

Applying Lean Principles to a Business Planning Meeting

By Jon Miller - September 23rd, 2019

This past week my business partners Kevin Meyer, Ron Pereira and I met face to face over a span of two days. The purpose was long-term business planning, near-term goal-setting and prioritization of supporting projects. The three of us

How to Be an Effective Change Leader

By Jon Miller - September 16th, 2019

A Knowledge @ Wharton article titled How to be an Effective Organizational Maverick is worthwhile reading continuous improvement leaders, lean managers, change agents or anyone refusing to accept the status quo as the best or only way

Oh, the Mistakes I’ve Made…

By Kevin Meyer - September 13th, 2019

Lately we’ve witnessed what happens when leaders don’t have the emotional intelligence to admit to even the smallest and most originally inconsequential mistakes. This has caused me to reflect on some of mine over the pas

The Best Indicator of Success with Lean

By Jon Miller - September 9th, 2019

This past week I had the opportunity to walk the gemba of several companies. They ranged from large to small, public to private, across manufacturing and service. Each has been committed to Lean management for more than twenty years. T

What is Sensorial Management?

By Ron Pereira - September 6th, 2019

A few weeks ago my colleagues and I visited the Lighthouse for the Blind in Seattle, Washington. Here’s what I shared on LinkedIn a few days after the visit. I’m still processing what my colleagues and I experienced two d

Three Answers to “How do We Sustain the Results of Improvement?”

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2019

Rumors have it that the vast majority of Lean transformations fail. Some even quote success rates as being below 10%. There are many problems with this. How we define success. When (too soon) we measure and conclude failure. What exact

Reframe Your Thinking

By Steve Kane - August 23rd, 2019

Part of my role at Gemba Academy is to coach customers along their continuous improvement journey. Coaching sessions are typically brief phone conversations that help clients continually realign their efforts with organizational goal

Advancing the Self-Revolution

By Jon Miller - August 19th, 2019

A brand-new banner caught my eye during a recent trip to China. If judging by the size, variety and volume of banners alone, one would think that the communist revolution is still in full swing 98 years after the formation of the Party

Why Can’t We See the Financial Impact of Continuous Improvement?

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2019

Last week I had the opportunity to address the question of why it’s sometimes difficult to see the financial impact of successful continuous improvement efforts. If actions are inadequate to deliver results or if they are not sus

The Divergent Paths of Old Lean Dudes

By Kevin Meyer - August 9th, 2019

I’ve been immersed in the lean world for over a quarter century. From the start when some folks from the Association for Manufacturing Excellence showed me how quick changeover could save my injection molding operation (and pro

The Lean Approach to Strategy

By Jon Miller - August 5th, 2019

A strategy is a plan of action intended to achieve a major objective. Lean transformation aims to make major changes in how we work, to streamline our processes, to upgrade our thinking and skills. Many agree that Lean is a strategy fo

The Soul of a Company

By Ron Pereira - August 1st, 2019

Creating a strong company mission and vision is an important part of the Hoshin Kanri, or Policy Deployment, process. All companies should have a vision. All companies should have a mission. And these vision and mission statement

Can We Have Too Much Scientific Thinking?

By Jon Miller - July 29th, 2019

The term scientific thinking has been used with increasing frequency in the Lean management community over the past decade. The idea is not new. There is little doubt as to its importance in continuous improvement, good management and

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