Gemba Academy

The Versatile Leader – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - August 18th, 2009

There’s one thing I know for sure… being a leader of people is hard work. No matter if the “people” are those you work with or your children at home… knowing how to best inspire and move them to greatness is no easy task.

Review of Toyota Supply Chain Management by Iyer, Seshadri and Vasher

By Jon Miller - August 18th, 2009

Toyota Supply Chain Management by Ananth Iyer, Sridhar Seshadri and Roy Vasher is a valuable book that will be of interest to the students and practitioners of supply chain management or the Toyota Production System. This book takes ma

Why Should I Mark My Cupboards!?

By Jon Miller - August 17th, 2009

Ronak has been successful with 5S in the factory but is facing challenges with 5S in the office. He said in a follow-up to the post on 5S guidelines for the office: “Only problem is in personalized cabins, where there are lots of

Ambiguous Visual Controls… this one’s pretty clear actually

By Jon Miller - August 13th, 2009

I waited and waited but didn’t catch sight of any humped zebras making a run for it. I bet their crossing frequency plots out as a histograms with a bimodal distribution.

5S Guidelines for the Office

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2009

Jonathan asked: “Hi Jon, Recently, I was tasked to head a 5S project here in our department (Purchasing) but I have limited knowledge on what is applicable and what should be implemented. I was thinking that some guidelines could

Free 7 Deadly Wastes Overview Video (Spanish Subtitles)

By Ron Pereira - August 11th, 2009

We’ve been unbelievably busy over at Gemba Academy the last few months. We continue to develop new content (we’re now up to 44 videos, 28 interactive quizzes, 28 PDF summary documents, and much more) and most recently our t

One Point Lesson: Takt Image

By Jon Miller - August 10th, 2009

John asked: What is the difference between Takt Time and Takt Image? Takt time is the calculated pace of production based on the average speed at which the customer is buying a product or service. The formula is net available time to p

If Lean Is So Great, Why Is Toyota Struggling?

By Ron Pereira - August 9th, 2009

Balaji, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question/comment via email: Toyota, GM, and Ford are experts in state of the art assembly technology and in implementing Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methods and

Management Improvement Carnival #72

By Jon Miller - August 8th, 2009

John Hunter over at Curious Cat Management Improvement blog has asked me to guest host an episode of the Management Improvement Carnival. Kudos to John for having done 71 of these over the past several years. Here are my choice of arti

What Can Lean Do for the Healthcare Business Office?

By Jon Miller - August 6th, 2009

Daisy asked, What can lean do for the Healthcare business office? The billers, the insurance follow up staff? Lean can do a great things for the healthcare business office. I have asked Chris Schrandt to answer this one. Chris has been

The Harmony of Discipline and Creativity

By Jon Miller - August 5th, 2009

“Creativity and discipline go hand in hand.” So said best-selling author and business guru Jim Collins during an interview in the April 2009 issue of Inc. magazine. These words resonate and bounce around in the back of my h

Do You Read Much Russian?

By Ron Pereira - August 4th, 2009

The LSS Academy Guide to Lean has been translated to Hungarian and most recently to Russian. If you’d like to download the Russian version please visit this site (free registration required). If you’d like to download the H

The Lean Buzz at Starbucks

By Jon Miller - August 4th, 2009

In the past when the training venue was not close to gemba, I have used a trip to the Starbucks as a teaching tool for value stream mapping, waste observation, even drawing spaghetti diagrams. Based on the news in the Wall Street Journ

Value Stream Management: Evidence on the Parking Lot

By Jon Miller - August 3rd, 2009

Today I was able to drop in on a customer on the return leg of a business trip. I was looking forward to visiting old friends whom I hadn’t seen a few years, the new building they had moved into in early 2009 and also their progr

Oh Snap! We Sent Bad Product to Our Customer: Fun with the Hypergeometric Distribution

By Ron Pereira - August 3rd, 2009

If you enjoy statistics this is the perfect article for you! But even if hearing the words hypergeometric distribution makes you want to yack all over the floor at least give this article a quick skim as it could prove useful for you s

Ask Gemba: Volume and Variability in Demand Segmentation

By Jon Miller - July 31st, 2009

Joe asked an interesting question: I am doing some research on demand segmentation and found some rather conflicting information from two credible resources. According to The Toyota Way Fieldbook when leveling production you produce Hi

Queuing Kaizen at Southwest Airlines

By Jon Miller - July 29th, 2009

I can count the times I’ve flow on Southwest airlines, which is to say not often. Their no-frills approach and unique profitability as an airlines has earned them praise and the designation as “lean” by some. My impre

I’ll Take My Lean with Water, On the Rocks

By Jon Miller - July 27th, 2009

As an archaeology and ancient history buff it’s always exciting when someone discovers the ruins of a lost city. More so when the lost city is found off the coast and under a few meters of water. There is a great deal of history

Lean Hackathons – Are You Using Them?

By Ron Pereira - July 27th, 2009

Are you on Facebook? I am but that’s not the point of this article. No, the point of this article is that I just watched a short video about how the Facebook development team uses what they refer to as “Hackathons” to quickly bri

Kaizen Song: Hold On ‘Til You See (the Downstream Pull)

By Jon Miller - July 26th, 2009

Late last night after dropping a couple of friends off at the airport, “Hold On Loosely” by 38 Special came on the radio. It’s simple but lovely song that holds on loosely to a timeless truth. Those wild-eyed southern

It’s Always Day 1

By Ron Pereira - July 23rd, 2009

I just got done watching this video of Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, where he announced that Amazon has snatched up Zappos. I first saw this over on John Hunter’s blog. And while this is big news for sure… the thing that I loved a

Agile Kanban Journal Day 30: Show the Flow!

By Jon Miller - July 22nd, 2009

When agile kanban meets kaizen, only good things can happen. Yesterday was day 30 of my agile kanban board usage. Having been on the road much of the last month I haven’t had a lot of time to think about appropriate metrics, targ

Three Hoshin Habits for Effective Execution

By Jon Miller - July 20th, 2009

One of the people I most respect as a business leader often repeats the phrase “go slow to go fast”. There is a nearly identical Toyota way principle which states that slow and deliberate planning will speed up execution of

Dream Big… Start Small

By Ron Pereira - July 19th, 2009

My youngest daughter, who turns 1 this coming weekend, recently took her first steps and is a much happier little girl as a result. My wife and I think she just wanted to go, go, go as she watched her older brother and sisters run arou

Value Added Percentage Question

By Jon Miller - July 16th, 2009

Yesterday I came across an example of a value stream whose numbers left me puzzled. The value-added percentage was greater than 100. This seemed impossible at first but I now understand how it can happen. The process, the numbers, and

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