Gemba Academy

The 1950s Movie Guide to Lean Service

By Jon Miller - July 15th, 2009

Ah, those irony-free halcyon days of naming films for what they were… The challenges facing the service business attempting to practice lean principles bear an uncanny similarity to those confronting the hero of a bad 1950s scien

5 Practical Ways to Climb out of Any Slump

By Ron Pereira - July 14th, 2009

Are you, or have you ever been, in a slump? Do you ever find yourself feeling unmotivated, uninspired, and just flat out crappy? Or maybe you feel a little overwhelmed as there is so much to do and you’re not sure where to start? Sou

When Automation is Stupid

By Jon Miller - July 11th, 2009

I don’t know how many times I’ve passed through this section of Narita airport. Only yesterday did it strike me how stupid this moving walkway was. It is all of 18 paces long. Hardly worth breaking your stride to step onto,

How do You Say “‘No problem,’ is a Problem” in Romanian?

By Jon Miller - July 9th, 2009

A friend of mine recently took a position in an electronics factory in Romania. He sent me an e-mail and the photo above. One day he came in to work to find this sign on his computer. It says “We don’t have a problem, only

The Power of U

By Jon Miller - July 8th, 2009

My Japanese teachers often spoke about making processes flow “like a single brushstroke”. It was and still is a phrase difficult to translate. Often I would mimic picking up a calligraphy brush and sweeping it in a u-shape

One Point Lesson: Kamishibai

By Jon Miller - July 6th, 2009

Prof. Jeffrey Liker has uploaded an excellent slideshow from 2005 titled The Toyota Way: A Sociotechnical Learning Organization in Action. The image above is from this presentation in which Liker touches briefly on the kamishibai board

Inexpensive (But Powerful) Visual Controls

By Ron Pereira - July 5th, 2009

I love simple visual controls. And I love them even more when they don’t cost a lot of money! Thus the smile that came across my face when watching the “Lean Leadership” interview we recently did with a cell leader from a Washing

Boeing Gets a Grip

By Jon Miller - July 2nd, 2009

…on its supply chain, according to a Wall Street Journal article from July 2nd, 2009. Boeing is in talks to buy Vought and possibly other suppliers in an attempt to gain control over the supply of parts. It’s about time lea

Saluting NUMMI

By Jon Miller - June 30th, 2009

The New United Motor Manufacturing factory in Fremont, California was originally a General Motors plant opened in 1962. For the past 25 years it has been a successful joint venture between GM and Toyota. Bloomberg reports their uncerta

Your Valuable “Lean Feedback” Is Requested

By Ron Pereira - June 29th, 2009

I am helping some fellow lean thinkers out with a short lean related survey. This survey appeals to me for a few reasons. First, it’s all about lean and second this survey is SHORT! You’ll be done in a few minutes. Th

Agile Kanban Journal Day 8: Do We Need a “Done” Column?

By Jon Miller - June 29th, 2009

I continue to benefit from the use of my Agile kanban board, if nothing else to keep my supposedly most important tasks in front of me (or behind me as it were, per layout of the office). I have faith and confidence that using this met

How clean is clean enough?

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2009

Here’s a question for you. When practicing the 3rd step of 5S – often referred to as shine or sweep – how clean is clean enough? Should the area you’re working in shine as bright as the Texas sun? Should the floor be clean enou

Seeking: Checklist for a Sense of Urgency

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2009

“The most important factors for success are patience, a focus on long term rather than short-term results, reinvestment in people, product, and plant, and an unforgiving commitment to quality.” This is a quote from R

The Funny Thing About Waste

By Jon Miller - June 23rd, 2009

The funny thing about waste is that it’s all relative to your sense of scarcity. At least that’s how a Wired magazine article by Chris Anderson titled Tech Is Too Cheap to Meter: It’s Time to Manage for Abundance, Not

Agile Kanban Journal: Kaizens on Day 1

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2009

Kaizen emphasizes making small changes every day and retaining the ones that bring positive outcomes. With the help of friends, my agile kanban board evolved on its first day of use. After organizing my projects and tasks on an erasabl

Trying Out My Agile Kanban Board

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2009

One of the biggest challenges of doing kaizen in office work is to make the work itself visible so that waste can be clearly identified. Much of the time spent in office work is finding files or information, switching between tasks, fi

45 Inches and Sizers

By Ron Pereira - June 18th, 2009

I recently got an email from American Airlines titled, “Important Reminders About Carry-On Baggage.” Normally I delete these kinds of emails but for some reason I decided to give this one a quick read. Click the image thumbnail to

The Amazing Adventures of Kanban

By Jon Miller - June 17th, 2009

Kanban was born nearly 60 years ago. It’s creator, Taiichi Ohno, intended kanban to combat the evil overlord Overproduction, Mother of All Wastes and her Minions of WIP. The battle is far from won. During those six decades kanban

Is Economic Lot Size Dead?

By Ron Pereira - June 16th, 2009

On page 19 of Shigeo Shingo’s masterpiece A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System he writes an extremely strong statement: “In fact, there is an important blind spot in the concept of economic lot size: the assumptio

There is No Such Thing as Wasteful Work

By Jon Miller - June 16th, 2009

I read an interesting article today in the Japanese paper Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The topic was how white collar businesses men in Japan are adapting the Toyota Production System, or what we would call lean thinking, to their work. The c

Parenting and Lean Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2009

I am the father of 4 wonderfully perfect children. I love them more than words can describe and couldn’t imagine my life without them. And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and

Free Gemba Academy Video: The 7 Deadly Wastes

By Jon Miller - June 11th, 2009

It has now been three months since we launched Gemba Academy – the online learning center for continuous improvement. Each month we add new videos, quizzes, self-study materials and forum discussions. The School of Lean is curren

Review of Follow the Learner by Dr. Sami Bahri, DDS

By Jon Miller - June 10th, 2009

Follow the Learner: The Role of a Leader in Creating a Lean Culture by Dr. Sami Bahri, DDS is the best book on the subject of leadership and lean I have read in a long time. Written as a very personal account of the development of teh

How to Engage People in Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 9th, 2009

As always, thank you for your questions, comments and improvement suggestions. Today one of our readers shared via email a challenge with getting people engaged in kaizen. Whether it is an improvement suggestion system, a software syst

How Do You Make Decisions?

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2009

One of things I’ve come to realize about myself is I can make decisions quickly. I don’t need to think about things for days on end… and when in a crisis mode, or a situation that requires an immediate action, I have no problem s

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