Gemba Academy

The Stabilizing Foundation of Values

By Kevin Meyer - September 11th, 2020

We’re living through some crazy times and dealing with issues that were not anticipated during planning sessions. Every day we’re confronted with new information, new analyses of facts and opinions, creating new decisions

How to Build High-Performance Teams through Lean Practices

By Jon Miller - September 7th, 2020

Teams are a well-established feature of how we manage, accomplish and improve our work. Yet too often teams at work are no more than a near-random collection of people. If we were building a high-performance car, we would never do so w

What Is a Transactional Value Stream Map?

By Ron Pereira - September 4th, 2020

We’ve recently released “phase 1” of a new Business Process Mapping series. Two additional phases will be added in the coming weeks. In phase 1 we explore the topic of transactional value stream mapping. In this

Akio Toyoda’s Take on TPS

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2020

One might think that Toyota, after more than fifty years of developing, working within, and refining the Toyota Production System, wouldn’t need to run training courses on TPS for managers. And yet recently Toyota has started a s

Platforms for Online Lean and Six Sigma Training

By Kevin Meyer - August 28th, 2020

Over the last decade, Gemba Academy’s online library has grown to nearly 2,000 lean and six sigma training videos. These are organized into three general categories: the School of Lean, School of Six Sigma, and our unique Gemba

Repainting the Wood Steps of Lean Transformation

By Jon Miller - August 17th, 2020

Summer is a great time for home improvement projects. This week I crossed off another one off of my list. The paint on one of the back staircases was worn and peeling. It was in dire in need of repair. At five feet wide, three feet tal

Leveraging the Solitude of Leadership

By Kevin Meyer - August 14th, 2020

I’ve long relished intentional periods of solitude to reflect and renew. I’ll often take advantage of the six mile stretch of beach between Morro Bay’s [hopefully] extinct volcano a couple blocks from my house and t

Better Business Processes through ECRSA

By Jon Miller - August 10th, 2020

I came across my old friend Ecrsa while working on some teaching videos for our Business Process Mapping. She’s actually an industrial engineering acronym, ECRS. It stands for Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify, with the a

What Is a Lean Daily Management System?

By Ron Pereira - August 7th, 2020

If you’ve been practicing lean for any amount of time you’ve likely heard about gemba walks, leader standard work, and obeya. To be sure, as individual lean tools and concepts they’re powerful. But, when you combine

What’s in the Continuous Improvement Attic?

By Jon Miller - August 3rd, 2020

Whether we’re talking about houses, management systems, or vacation plans, it’s almost always a good idea to build from the foundation up. Even when we think we already have a firm foundation, it’s worth checking befo

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