Gemba Academy

Experience Kaikaku, Day 3: The Thinking Behind TPS

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2006

Toyota posted a 34% rise in third-quarter net profit, clearing $3.34 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005. This hit the news just about as we were finishing our tours of Toyota Kamigo and Tsutsumi plants. It’s easy to copy what

Experience Kaikaku, Day 2: Fun with Pipes & Joints

By Jon Miller - February 7th, 2006

In the Japan Kaikaku Experience, we emphasize practical fun! We delve into the types of pipes and joints used in construction. As an example, we showcase a parts-picking station with sensors, demonstrating pokayoke (mistake-proofing) i

Experience Kaikaku, Day 1: The Airport

By Jon Miller - February 5th, 2006

This week I will be blogging from Japan. Internet access providing, I hope to be sharing bits of wisdom we gain each day with you on what is now our 17th Japan Kaikaku Experience trip. So far I have mostly spent time between the airpor

Minding the Length of a Toy Duck’s Neck

By Jon Miller - January 28th, 2006

On the front page of the January 27, 2006 Wall Street Journal there was an article titled In Tot TV Shows, Money is in the Toys. I’m always delighted to find lessons about Lean manufacturing in unexpected places. The article told

Chief Quality Officer of GE: Six Sigma is Dead

By Jon Miller - January 25th, 2006

The January 30, 2006 BusinessWeek article titled Would You Recommend Us? introduces something called “net promoter” scores being used by GE Healthcare to measure customer loyalty. Simplified, it’s a metric based on ho

Lean Office “Open Room” Foils Unethical Recruiter

By Jon Miller - January 24th, 2006

At Gemba we do our best to practice what we preach. This means that we turn our Lean tools inwards on ourselves and work hard to develop a kaizen culture. One of the most visible ways we do this is through our “open office”. There

We Don’t Need a Big Culture Change at Ford. No Wait, Yes We Do!

By Jon Miller - January 23rd, 2006

The Ford Motor Company presented their restructuring plan called “The Way Forward” today. Ford is planning to shake things up. In CEO Bill Ford, Jr’s words: “Here is what we will not stand for: incremental chang

The “Lean Manufacturing Push” at Chrysler

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2006

Selling Lean manufacturing to the world isn’t easy with headlines like Chrysler Cuts Trade Workers: In Lean Manufacturing Push, Automaker Also is Reducing Number of Job Classifications at Plants. Chrysler must be getting public r

Reflecting on Toyota’s 2,411,117 Recalls in 2005

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2006

That’s quite a big number. It’s actually more vehicles than Toyota sold in the U.S. in 2005. It’s more than double the number for 2004. It’s not as many as some other car companies, but far from zero defects. A

How to Give Lean Manufacturing a Bad Name

By Jon Miller - January 18th, 2006

One way that is almost guaranteed to stop a Lean manufacturing effort in its tracks is for management to announce that Lean manufacturing will be used to eliminate jobs. It’s hard to believe that anyone still does this, but the p

Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive