Gemba Academy

Guest Post: Should You Display Standardized Work Sheets at the Workstation?

By Jon Miller - March 1st, 2009

by Franck Demarest When discussing this subject with many people, I often encounter the dilemma about the location of standardised work sheet meaning either close to the line or in a cupboard in management office. About which standard

10,000 Hours of Practice

By Ron Pereira - February 26th, 2009

10,000 hours. That’s precisely how long you need to practice something before you can even think about calling yourself an expert. Well, at least this is what Malcolm Gladwell claims in his newest book Outliers, which I must say is o

Taiichi Ohno’s Three Lessons for the New Toyota President

By Jon Miller - February 26th, 2009

Yesterday Kevin Meyer provided a useful summary of how Toyota is getting back to basics, as described in the Wall Street Journal article titled “A Scion Drives Toyota Back to Basics”. Here are the key takeaways from both so

You’re Late. What Do you Say?

By Ron Pereira - February 24th, 2009

It’s 7:58 AM and beads of sweat are forming on your forehead. Your pulse rate is increasing as you grip your steering wheel tightly. And to make matters worse… you forgot your mobile phone at home. In 2 minutes you will officially

Drive and Dedication Power the TBP Process

By Jon Miller - February 23rd, 2009

As a companion to the problem solving funnel or the 8 step approach of the problem solving process at Toyota, there is a set of principles that guide thought and action. Together these make up the newly described way of working called

The Complete Meaning of Shitsuke

By Ron Pereira - February 22nd, 2009

There are some Westerners (Americans, Europeans, etc.) who get all bothered when lean folks use too many Japanese terms. So these people go on about how it’s “Policy Deployment” and not “Hoshin Kanri” or it’s “Continuous

TBP: Toyota Business Practice

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2009

Are you interested in practical problem-solving and continuous improvement methodologies? In this blog post, we explore the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) and its relationship with PDCA and A3 thinking. We also take a closer look at th

Edwards Deming, Supply Chain Visionary?

By Jon Miller - February 20th, 2009

This is my contribution to the Supply Chain Anti-trends Cross Blogging series organized by Michael Lamoureux of Sourcing Innovation. The Strategic Sourcerer contributed with a farewell to golden parachuted fat cat CEOs and two other ar

A Question About Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2009

Here is a question for you about kaizen: You have two continuous improvement systems; one which invests in 10 brilliant people each solving one $250,000 problem per year or another system which invests in 1,000 average people solving o

Free Introduction to Lean Video

By Ron Pereira - February 18th, 2009

Here is part one of our first Gemba Academy video. To see the complete and full screen version – in high definition – please visit our main site. Stay tuned for more free videos in the coming weeks.

Guest Post: Daily Lean Marketing Speech

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2009

Hello, I am Franck Demarest, 32 years old. I am French and have been working in the continuous improvement field in the automotive industry. I have been in Tier 1 ((JIT Production Responsible, 6 Sigma Black Belt and Lean Facilitator) d

Smiling, Laughing, and Blow-out Diapers

By Ron Pereira - February 17th, 2009

A friend, who’ll stay nameless since it involves a family member of his, recently told the story of how his 8 month old child threw-up on him, smiled, laughed and then had a blow-out diaper. How’s that for imagery? Well, my fri

Free Introduction to Lean Manufacturing Video

By Jon Miller - February 17th, 2009

This is the first video from Gemba Academy. We will create both free content and subscription-based content with interactive content and guides you can download to check your learning. This 10-minute video is on YouTube. Please visit w

10 Ways that Kaizen Develops Better Leaders

By Jon Miller - February 15th, 2009

Here are ten ways that kaizen develops better leaders. #1 Attention The leader well-heeled in kaizen notices the small things and is bothered by them if they seem abnormal. They pay attention to details. #2 Vision The practice of kaize

Gemba Academy: Improvement Learning, Improved

By Ron Pereira - February 14th, 2009

Let me start with three words: passionate, ecstatic and enthralled. Passionate is the perfect word to describe how I feel about continuous improvement. While ecstatic best describes my joy at being able to share some exciting news with

7 Ways to Reduce Energy Cost

By Jon Miller - February 13th, 2009

Earlier this week Ron Pereira wrote about 7 ways to reduce costs in his blog. He ht a nerve and kicked up quite storm of more than a dozen comments when he suggested that frequent flyer miles be saved by the company and redeemed to red

Genchi Genbutsu: Do You Really Understand It?

By Ron Pereira - February 13th, 2009

If you’ve read this blog – or really any other lean related publication – you’ve likely heard the phrase genchi genbutsu used many times. “Data is of course important in manufacturing, but I place the greatest emp

The Lean Workplace as Classroom

By Jon Miller - February 12th, 2009

The the Harvard Business Review article Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System Kent Bowen and Steven Spear describe Toyota as a “community of scientists” based on the their approach to management. Specifically, th

Is Pottery Barn Lean?

By Ron Pereira - February 11th, 2009

We’ve had the same couch for about 8 years. I love it. It’s one of those huge sectionals with the “captain’s chair” in the middle. I’ve watched my Buckeyes win a National Championship while sitting on this couch. I’ve als

Where Did Value Stream Mapping Come From?

By Jon Miller - February 10th, 2009

Harish Jose asked about value stream mapping: Is this “tool” used and abused by lean manufacturing practitioners? Why is this tool not explained in Ohno, Monden or Shingo’s books? Shingo does talk about the process an

Celebrating Over 500 Years of Lean Thinking

By Jon Miller - February 9th, 2009

Since 1997 the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org) has helped to popularize and spread lean thinking worldwide through book publishing, seminars, conferences and many other ways. LEI has been especially generous in sharing

The Top 10 Titans of TPS

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2009

Sean asked an interesting question: Who would you consider to be the titans of the TPS? Certainly, there was Ohno and Shingo, but is there anyone else that should be on the list? I like to connect the history to people because it shows

Don’t Touch the Fish. Because…

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2009

The last time I was in Japan, I was amused by a sound byte on the radio news. The Tsukiji fish market decided to close their doors to visitors because, “No matter how many times we tell them, they don’t listen.” In th

Kaizen Skills of an Operations Leader

By Jon Miller - February 4th, 2009

Stephen Ondoro is a newly appointed operations leader who asked: “I have been chosen as an operations leader yet it has not been clarified as to the role and scope. What kaizen skills do i need to lead my team successfully? Pleas

3 More Practical Ways to Show Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - February 3rd, 2009

One of the underlying principles of the Toyota Production System is the founder’s desire to instill in Toyota’s workers a deeply spiritual sense of respect for humanity in the course of operating a manufacturing company. Al

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