Gemba Academy

What’s the ROI of a 5S Program?

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2010

A reader asked, “What’s the ROI of a 5S program?” She explained that she had read on another blog that it was impossible to calculate an ROI for a 5S program and that this was troubling for her. She has been leading 5

Introducing the 5 Why “So What” Test

By Ron Pereira - January 10th, 2010

We, over at Gemba Academy, are busy finishing up our 8 Step Practical Problem Solving course which is modeled after the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) methodology. In one of the modules we’re exploring 5 Why Analysis in more detail s

Agile Kanban Journal Day 200: Small is Beautiful

By Jon Miller - January 8th, 2010

Last June I began using what many in the software development community are calling an agile kanban board to track, and ideally to speed up, work on my various projects. The biggest benefit from this so far has been to keep the proble

2 Ways to Handle Varying Inventory Levels When Creating Value Stream Maps

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2010

Shaunak, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question via email. By the way, if you have ever have questions related to continuous improvement (lean and/or six sigma) feel free to email me. I will do my very best

Kanji and Humility

By Ron Pereira - January 6th, 2010

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” – Rabindranath Tagore My friend, and fellow Texas lean blogger / Big Ten college football fanatic, Mark Graban wrote an article earlier this week summarizing ten t

Lean Product Design, 3P and Nature’s Greatest Engineers

By Jon Miller - January 4th, 2010

Over the holidays I had the chance to catch up with some reading as well as visiting some bookmarked websites. One of my favorites is the TED video lecture series. The 20 minute talk by Janine Benyus titled Biomimicry: Innovation Inspi

3 Ways to Stop Failing at New Years Resolutions

By Ron Pereira - January 4th, 2010

As we start off the new year one thing is for certain… there will be lots of resolutions stated. Everything from weight loss to improving the way money is managed will be focused in on for, at the very least, 7 to 10 days. Yep.

Knowing When to Stop: More TPS & the Tao

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2010

There is no set path to a successful change. Although once we understand it, we see that the lean path is the simplest of things, nobody can grasp it. If our leaders could gain control of a surefire approach change management everythin

Top 7 Behaviors to Change in 2010

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2010

Connected to the second step of writing resolutions for arbitrary dividing points in time, we need to address one of the biggest obstacles to success which all of us face: ourselves. The human mind is an incredibly powerful thing, the

How to Write an Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolution

By Jon Miller - December 31st, 2009

I’ve never been a big believer in Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolutions, or as some people call them, New Year’s Resolutions. Goal setting should be a constant output of the continuous improvement lifestyle, the resu

2009 Carnival of Lean Blogs

By Jon Miller - December 30th, 2009

It’s time for a quick look back on the year before we slam, lock and bar the door on 2009 and welcome 2010 and the opportunity to demonstrate our learning by not repeating our mistakes. I can’t wait. Carnival master John Hu

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Invisible Inventory Management

By Jon Miller - December 28th, 2009

It appears that our local Hello Kitty store is low on stock of invisible pens. I only see one invisible pen in this display (or rather, don’t see it). I would hate to have the job of the invisible pen warehouseman on cycle counti

The Correct Sequence for Implementing Lean Systems

By Jon Miller - December 26th, 2009

Looking through some of my notes from seminars, salons and study sessions I participated in during November and December, I came across an interesting string of characters: JID > JIT > TWI > SW > TQC? This was code to mysel

Are You a Million Method Man?

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2009

Are you a million method woman or man? Too many well-intentioned lean implementations are. The million method man has a tool or method to solve any problem they encounter. In the best of situations they are heroes and teachers who brin

Declutter with 5S in 20 Minutes Per Day?

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2009

In modern society there are many promises of something in “only 20 minutes per day” whether it is flat abdominals, riches or perfect happiness. In fact what many people miss is that it is “20 minutes per day FOREVER&#

How to Use Lean to Achieve Bottom Line Results

By Jon Miller - December 22nd, 2009

In an e-mail, blog reader Heather asked: How else can you use lean to achieve bottom line results besides a growth strategy? The growth strategy for delivering bottom line results through lean goes something this: lean improvements cre

The 18 Most Active LSS Academy Articles in 2009

By Ron Pereira - December 21st, 2009

I recently wrote about the most read LSS Academy articles in 2009. Now, in this post, I’d like to share with you the LSS Academy articles that garnered the most comments in 2009. As you’ll see some of these posts are quite

Now in Paperback: Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management

By Jon Miller - December 15th, 2009

Taiichi Ohno said, “Your wits don’t work until you feel the squeeze.” By that measure I and most of the world ought to have seen a significant improvement our mental capacities in 2009. It’s been quite a year. A

The Positive Tension Between SMART and Stretch Goals

By Jon Miller - December 14th, 2009

While helping a client through their hoshin kanri process last month one of the leaders in the company raised an interesting question about the selection and definition of breakthrough objectives as part of the hoshin plan. Breakthroug

What deux yeux have teux deux?

By Ron Pereira - December 14th, 2009

I recently came across an elegant and minimalist online “to do” tracking tool called Teux Deux. Now, to be sure, I am a fan of the hand written to do list… but since I travel a lot I also like to maintain an online li

Free Practical Problem Solving Overview Video

By Ron Pereira - December 9th, 2009

Gemba Academy has recently released the first three modules of our latest course – Practical Problem Solving. Here is the first overview module of this course. Please note that if you are reading this article via email or your

The Path, the Traveler and the Destination

By Jon Miller - December 8th, 2009

The path, the way, the road, the tao, el camino: the course of the traveler has many names. Each evokes a sense of possibility, anticipation and wonder. What lies ahead? What is the destination? What will one find along the way? Robert

The Advantages of A1 Thinking Over A3 Thinking

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2009

What is popularly called A3 thinking is the practical problem solving process which summarizes the PDCA cycle on one page. Those of us who have memories of TQC will recognize it as nearly identical to the QC storyline concept. Many QC

Review of The Lean Manager by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle

By Jon Miller - December 1st, 2009

The Lean Manager by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle is the second “lean business novel” by these authors. This novel relates the story of a factory in France threatened with closure and relocation of its business to Poland.

Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive