Gemba Academy

My Week with Mr. Masaaki Imai

By Ron Pereira - June 24th, 2011

Shortly after graduating from college, many moons ago, my Father gave me a book he promised would change my life. The book was called “KAIZEN: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success” and was written by a man named Masaaki I

Dunbar’s Number, Span of Control and Lean Organization Design

By Jon Miller - June 21st, 2011

A few weeks ago I learned about something called Dunbar’s Number while listening to the radio. The relevance of Dunbar’s number to lean organization design struck me immediately. There are such things as magic numbers. Some

Kaizen Stories from Masaaki Imai

By Jon Miller - June 17th, 2011

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting with Masaaki Imai,the founder of our company Kaizen Institute Consulting Group. Most people know him as the author of his influential books. 1975 Never Take Yes for an Answer: An Inside Look at

Suggestion Box Visual Mistake Proofing

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2011

This suggestion box was placed in one of the walkways within the airport in Basel, Switzerland. It caught my eye because of the clever use of plexi glass to make the contents of the box visible. Making the contents of the box visible l

Understanding Lean through a Systems Theory of Safety

By Jon Miller - June 13th, 2011

Prof. Nancy Leveson is an expert in the safety of systems. She is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. She created the STAMP approach (Systems Theoretic Accident Model) and has written a book on systems theory applied to s

Gemba Glossary: 7 Wastes

By Ron Pereira - June 10th, 2011

In this edition of the Gemba Glossary we focus on the 7 Wastes. Click where it says “240p” to select a higher definition version of the video if you’d prefer. To access more than 150 additional lean training videos pl

What Challenges Are You Facing?

By Ron Pereira - June 7th, 2011

A quick question… what challenges are you currently facing as it relates to building a culture of continuous improvement within your organization? These challenges can be related to people, processes, or anything else in between.

Gemba Glossary: 5S

By Ron Pereira - May 31st, 2011

Gemba Academy has started a new series of free videos called the Gemba Glossary. These short, normally less than 2 minutes, videos will offer definitions and explanations of key lean terms. The first video in this series is focused

Character & Integrity

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2011

Those that follow American college football likely know that Jim Tressel, Ohio State’s football coach, resigned today. It’s a sad, although not totally unexpected, day for Buckeye nation. Of course the rest of the college football

Lean Maturity and the Four Stages of Competence

By Jon Miller - May 27th, 2011

People often ask how good or bad they are compared to best in class lean organizations. Not satisfied with answers of “there is no end on the journey”, they want to know how far along they are. This is a fair question, and

Three Requirements for Managing by Fact

By Jon Miller - May 20th, 2011

Management by fact is a pillar principle of kaizen and lean thinking. We must go see, observe without prejudice, approach problems rationally and with data, finally take the logical actions that will result in a better outcome. Yet the

Why You Should Go See for Yourself

By Jon Miller - May 14th, 2011

One of the pillar principles of kaizen and lean management is genchi genbutsu – literally “actual place actual thing” but often translated as “go see for yourself”. One of the first things a lean sensei wi

Something to Lighten Your Day

By Jon Miller - May 12th, 2011

Many advertising images are designed to make people subconsciously want to consume a product. How effective do you think this vending machine is towards that end? There is an implied lesson here about visual controls and lean thinking

Gemba Academy Releases Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Video

By Jon Miller - May 10th, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of the newest online lean training course focused on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) from Gemba Academy. This course features Mike Wroblewski, a Gemba consultant with the Kaizen Institute, record

Total Productive Maintenace (TPM) Overview

By Ron Pereira - May 9th, 2011

If your company relies on machines and/or equipment of any kind to satisfy customer demand chances are extremely high that Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) could benefit you. With this said, I’m excited to announce that Gemba A

The Ambiguity Deepens…

By Jon Miller - May 1st, 2011

This was found in Frankfurt airport, hanging every 100m or so in the hallway of the terminal. It’s a long narrow hallway. These signs are positioned such that if you are walking down the hall, the visual control indicates to go r

The Secret to Living a Happy Life at Home and Work

By Ron Pereira - April 27th, 2011

I’m confident that I’ve found the secret to living a happy life. I’m serious. I really do think I’ve figured it out. You see, I know many people who are unhappy since they spend most of their lives at jobs they don’t lik

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Too Much Information

By Jon Miller - April 27th, 2011

Among the side benefits of international travel are meeting interesting new people, learning about the local culture and running into ambiguous visual controls. Jet lag slows the brain and renders it unable to quickly find meaning in a

Make Lean Work For You!

By Ron Pereira - April 21st, 2011

I just got off the phone with a gentleman struggling to apply lean concepts in his workplace. This person — let’s call him Jeff — works in a distribution environment meaning he doesn’t produce widgets for a living. One

Hearing Taiichi Ohno's Voice

By Jon Miller - April 15th, 2011

Many of us have read the words of Taiichi Ohno and learned from his teachings. Relatively few of us have heard his voice and even fewer have met him directly. I unearthed a gem during one of my recent efforts to organize my work, and I

Review of Total Flow Management by Euclides Coimbra

By Jon Miller - April 12th, 2011

Total Flow Management: Achieving Excellence with Kaizen and Lean Supply Chains was published in early 2009 but has been distributed only within Kaizen Institute and its customers. Now this book is available to all and will surely join

Let’s Dance

By Ron Pereira - April 11th, 2011

A few months ago I wrote about my experiences coaching my daughter’s U7 soccer team. Specifically, I shared how lots of practice and hard work resulted in our girls winning their indoor league championship. Well, I’m very excited

Lean Leadership Lessons from Lantech (video)

By Jon Miller - March 30th, 2011

Our friend Paul Akers from FastCap recently visited Lantech, a leading lean manufacturer of wrapping and packaging machines. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Lantech has become a benchmark company that often invites visitors to share in

How to Do Yokoten

By Jon Miller - March 21st, 2011

Much of the work I do today with Gemba Academy is to share knowledge by developing online learning. We develop video library, blog posts, podcasts and other resources to help organizations learn, copy and adapt best available knowledge

Leader Standard Work Overview Video

By Jon Miller - March 18th, 2011

We have released the Leader Standard Work online training course at Gemba Academy. Currently there are seven modules in which Mike Wroblewski teaches how leaders at all levels can incorporate lean principles into their daily management

Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive