Gemba Academy

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei: Kaizen by Inspiration is Not Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2009

I was flipping through some Japanese books on sayings and speeches given by Taiichi Ohno looking for inspiration for a quick blog post when I found this passage: “Within the Toyota Production System, a lack of ability to do kaize

Seven Essential Qualities of a Lean Leader

By Jon Miller - October 11th, 2009

Profits are on the minds, tongues and priority lists of a lot of people lately. Companies are aggressively managing costs these days. As a result I am sad to see even some avowed lean leaders turning away from the principles and qualit

Level 5 Leadership

By Ron Pereira - October 8th, 2009

In his classic business book Good to Great Jim Collins introduces what he refers to as Level 5 Leaders, our topic in this article. Humility To start with, Level 5 Leaders are humble. In other words, those that Collins and his team of r

Online Training for Quick Changeover and SMED

By Jon Miller - October 7th, 2009

The Quick Changeover and SMED course is now available from Gemba Academy. There are 12 video modules with quizzes and supporting documents, for a total of approximately 6 hours of step by step learning. The twelve modules are; Module 1

Aquatic Life Forms and the Lean Organization

By Jon Miller - October 6th, 2009

One of the guiding principles of the lean approach to product and process design, known as the production preparation process (“3P”) is to learn from how nature does things. Nature, said Johannes Kepler, uses as little as p

How to Use 5S to Manage Kaizen

By Jon Miller - September 29th, 2009

Ronak asked: What should be ideal process flow for kaizen? What I mean is who can give their suggestions, how to evaluate kaizen event, should we plan an event on monthly basis? This is a good question and one that reveals how common i

Kaizen – FastCap Style

By Ron Pereira - September 28th, 2009

If you’d like to see kaizen in action, and I do mean real kaizen, you need to set aside around 23 minutes to watch this video of the FastCap team improving the way some items are packaged. As an aside, FastCap has been practicing

To Certify or Not…

By Ron Pereira - September 25th, 2009

Mark Graban wrote a relatively simple post a few days ago that has simply BLOWN up with comments. Mark, if I may be so bold, doesn’t really believe in certifications… especially if the words six sigma are involved! Me, well

New Lean Blog

By Ron Pereira - September 24th, 2009

Jamie Flinchbaugh is not really new to the lean blogosphere as he’s been writing over on the Lean Blog and most recently on Evolving Excellence… but I am excited to see him finally start his own blog. So, please be sure to

A Tortoise and a Hare Get Into a Potato Sack…

By Jon Miller - September 24th, 2009

Jamie Flinchbaugh, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean and founder of the Lean Learning Center has been a regular contributor to Lean Assembly magazine, the Lean Blog as well as Evolving Excellence. Now Jamie has his own blo

Free Quick Changeover / SMED Overview Training Video

By Ron Pereira - September 23rd, 2009

We continue to add new content over at Gemba Academy. So far we’ve covered the following topics: 5S Workplace Productivity. They say, “If you can’t do 5S, you can forget the rest.” Learn why 5S is far more tha

The Coffee Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - September 22nd, 2009

By Rick Foreman, Lean Development Manager Note from Ron: This is a guest post from my friend, frequent LSS Academy commenter, and most importantly Brother in Christ – Rick Foreman. Enjoy! We’ve heard of the phrase, “rose-co

How to Be Lean in a Batch Production Industry

By Jon Miller - September 22nd, 2009

Faisal asked: How to use lean in batch production industry? Most of the time I hear customers saying “lean is for mass production companies and not for us.” This is a common question and one worth shining some light on. The

Toyota-style Problem Solving, Step 7: Check Both Process and Results

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2009

The eight step description of the PDCA cycle of problem solving called Toyota Business Practice (TBP for short) or practical problem solving continues to top my list of important things everyone should know. I’m finding it surpri

The Wizard of Oz School of Lean

By Jon Miller - September 17th, 2009

The question is more than a month old (sorry Brian!) so perhaps it’s already been worked out with the client, but it was a good question I would like to address. Brian asked: Can you please share with me your thoughts on implemen

A mother and daughter shopping in a grocery store

Genchi Genbutsu on the Retail Floor

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2009

The September 14, 2009 Wall Street Journal article Seeing Store Shelves Through Senior Eyes explains how retailers are applying the TPS principle of genchi genbutsu (go to the floor and see what’s really going on) in redesigning

Three Risks of Implementing Lean without Policy Deployment

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2009

Ideally the goals of each discrete improvement activity are aligned with the goals of the overall improvement program or change deployment framework and this is also aligned with the strategic direction of the business. Unless you are

The e-mail gemba

By Jon Miller - September 10th, 2009

There is a lot to like about e-mail. Without its widespread adoption starting about 15 years ago I would not have kept in touch with many old friends. I can still remember writing letters, by hand, and waiting… E-mail has allowed

The Seven Wastes & $10 Off Subscription to iSixSigma Magazine

By Ron Pereira - September 3rd, 2009

I recently wrote an article for the iSixSigma magazine focused on the 7 Deadly Wastes. And as it turns out the good folks over at iSixSigma have been nice enough to allow me to offer this article to LSS Academy readers in PDF form. So

Learning From You

By Ron Pereira - September 3rd, 2009

I’ve been reflecting on my earlier post this week about my “mini-kaizen” while placing labels onto CDs. As always, your comments were great. Some folks agreed with my approach. Nice work and you have a good looking sister in law!

What is Kaizen? The Little Gear

By Jon Miller - September 3rd, 2009

What is kaizen? A reader reminded me that a lot of terms used in articles on this blog go unexplained. Although it’s one of our favorite topics, kaizen is one such term that is often used but seldom explained in enough detail for

Complexity and Love Songs

By Ron Pereira - August 31st, 2009

My family and I recently took a much needed vacation. One of our stops was in Chicago where my wife and daughters attended my sister-in-law’s wedding shower. One of the party favors for the ladies that attended the wedding shower was

Important Lessons in Kaizen from A Different Kind of Map

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2009

Can you guess what the small squares on this map indicate? This is an image that has been distributed on science news websites during the past week. The picture has been cropped to hide some information. This map and the tiny squares o

Energy Treasure Hunt at the Grocery Store

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

The energy treasure hunt at the grocery store is almost too easy. The bright lights, cooling or refrigeration of a large stock of items year-round, heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, the places we go to buy our f

Bad News from MIT for the PDCA Cycle?