Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive

War, Oil and Lean Production

By Jon Miller - May 8th, 2006

Each day this week we will examine aspects of The Dark Side of Lean. Today’s theme is “War, Oil and Lean Production” – admittedly an extreme Left perspective based on Marxist thought and the examination of a murder-suicide at a

From the Mechanical Side to the Dark Side of Lean…

By Jon Miller - May 5th, 2006

This week started with an article about the top 5 reasons for using 3P. Requests from readers took us deeper into SMED and jidoka – all aspects of Lean manufacturing and machines. Without planning it the theme for the week was the �

The 5 Steps to Building Jidoka Equipment

By Jon Miller - May 4th, 2006

Delving deeper into themes related to Production Preparation Process (3P) today I’ll explain what is meant by the “5 Steps of Jidoka” mentioned number sixteen of the 16 Catch Phrases of 3P. Fist some background on jidoka. Jidoka

Gemba Keiei Chapter 20: What I Learned About Forging Changeover from Toyota do Brasil

By Jon Miller - May 3rd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter by saying “In order to achieve Just in Time you need to solve your changeover problems and reduce lot sizes. Forging processes are the most difficult.” This chapter should really be titled “Toyota

Designing Processes to Fit Lean Manufacturing with the 16 Catch Phrases of 3P

By Jon Miller - May 2nd, 2006

My apologies for introducing a new term with out explaining it yesterday. Thanks for asking Ben. The 16 Catch Phrases of 3P are used as guidelines for designing processes according to Lean manufacturing principles of JIT (Takt, Flow, P

The Top 5 Reasons for Using Production Preparation Process (3P)

By Jon Miller - May 1st, 2006

Last week we had the opportunity to give an online presentation to an automobile manufacturer on the Production Preparation Process (3P) and the top 5 reasons for using it. We discussed the impact Production Preparation Process can hav

Tame the Hedgehog, Name it Kaizen

By Jon Miller - April 28th, 2006

A reader e-mailed me a couple of days ago and said “I personally don’t believe all problems can be solved by a group of workers gathered together doing Kaizen” and went on to make a convincing case that specialized kn

Lean Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering & HRD: No Animals Today

By Jon Miller - April 26th, 2006

Leon Fok asked me a question today about the differences in Japanese and American management practices and how this affects their kaizen efforts. Leon is the Publications Coordinator at Gemba and has been with us a month. His question

Bill and Barry Grapple with the Lean Manufacturing Elephant

By Jon Miller - April 25th, 2006

Part of what started me thinking about Lean manufacturing, kaizen and the role of Industrial Engineering and Human Resource Development was an exchange on one of my favorite bloggers a reader a few weeks ago. There were two themes in t

Following the Kaizen Process Out of the Lion’s Den

By Jon Miller - April 24th, 2006

I’ll be blogging on the theme of Lean manufacturing, Industrial Engineering and Human Resources Development this week. This is a topic that’s been on my mind for quite a while and it’s time some of it was written down. Industrial

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