Gemba Academy

Kaizen in a Petri Dish

By Jon Miller - April 18th, 2006

Last summer while teaching VSM and demonstrating one-piece flow at one of our client’s factories in southern China I was introduced to the General Manager. He shook my hand. He wasted no time. He had one urgent question for me: “Ho

Gemba Keiei Chapter 19: Toyota Made the Kanban System Possible

By Jon Miller - April 17th, 2006

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno explains the origin and the conditions that resulted in the development of the kanban system at Toyota. In the beginning the machining process upstream would replenish what the assembly process downstream u

Lean Food Service: Cut Overproduction, Feed the Hungry

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2006

One of the informal definitions of Lean manufacturing is “doing more with less”. A Puget Sound Business Journal article titled Throw Out Less Food and Help the Less Fortunate made a lot of sense to me. It maps out some prac

Job Shop Kaizen

By Jon Miller - April 12th, 2006

A continuous improvement specialist from a UTC group company e-mailed us today with the question “What principles should I look to implement for Job Shop Kaizen?” Kaizen in a job shop should aim to implement the same principles as

First Face of Innovation: Go to Gemba

By Jon Miller - April 10th, 2006

I’m reading The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, general manager of IDEO. These days innovation seems to be the trump card of executives and politicians who have grown bored with operational excellence. So I picked up this

Gemba Keiei Chapter 18: Supermarket System

By Jon Miller - April 7th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts out the chapter not quite having left the themes of his last two chapters behind. He describes how the jidoka idea that came from the Toyota textile business led to one operator running 20 or 30 machines. This think

Reflections on Standard Work

By Jon Miller - April 6th, 2006

Many companies lack documented standards and procedures, including Standard Work. As a cornerstone of the Toyota Production System, Standard Work is distinct from standardization. It is represented on a Standard Work Sheet, capturing l

What is Lean Government?

By Jon Miller - April 4th, 2006

As Lean manufacturing and “Lean fill-in-the-blank” take root in mainstream business consciousness I am noticing more mention of “lean government” by politicians in sound bytes as well as press releases and articles. I’m afrai

Gemba Keiei Chapter 17: The Goal – Improve Productivity Ten-Fold

By Jon Miller - April 2nd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno recounts when he first learned in 1937 that the American worker was 9 times more productive than the Japanese worker. Taiichi Ohno heard this from a Mitsubishi Electric factory manager who had recently returned from a tour

TPS from the Horse’s Mouth: View the Videos & Take the Quiz!

By Jon Miller - March 30th, 2006

Toyota has recently updated its website area for explaining the Toyota Production System (TPS), which includes the thinking and origins behind TPS, such as kanban, just in time, and judoka. The website offers simple explanations using

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