Gemba Academy

Toyota’s Suggestion System: 56 Years and Still Going Strong

By Jon Miller - December 9th, 2007

In 1951 Toyota launched its Creative Idea Suggestion System. It was largely a copy of suggestion systems that were in place in U.S. companies at the time, namely the Ford Motor Company. Toyota made some notable innovations to it over t

Lean Journey Advice from an Optimistic Hungarian Scientist

By Jon Miller - December 5th, 2007

I spent last week in Hungary on consulting assignment. Several times I heard from the locals, “We Hungarians are a pessimistic people” but they are making slow but steady progress with Lean nonetheless. I was also introduce

Continuous Improvement Begins with You!

By Ron Pereira - December 5th, 2007

One of the things that drives me batty is how hard some people make continuous improvement. Some think you have to go to 2 or 4 weeks of training to make something better. Some think if you don’t have a green or black belt you are no

No Standards No Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - December 3rd, 2007

I don’t know the exact quote and I am 38,000 feet in the air (I am flying home from London) so I can’t look it up… but Taiichi Ohno once said something like, “Without standards there can be no kaizen.” What does this mean? We

Direct Instruction, Standardized Work and Kaizen

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2007

I learned about something called Direct Instruction in chapter seven of Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. This book is a light and entertaining read on statistics and evidence-based decisions in marketing, education, healthcare and governm

Sensei and Sensibility

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2007

Please excuse the pun. I’m increasingly convinced that awareness and sensibility outweigh knowledge and capability when it comes to being a Lean leader or teacher of kaizen. Taiichi Ohno called for a “revolution of awarenes

I am Addicted to Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - November 29th, 2007

Hi, my name is Ron and I am addicted to kaizen. I was first introduced to kaizen years ago and while I did like it I didn’t go overboard. I worked on a few point kaizen events but never really accomplished more than some nice

Muri, Hubris and the Laws of Proportion

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2007

One reason that the Toyota Production System is so effective is that it is built around many fundamental principles which apply universally. One of these pieces of timeless wisdom is that muri is bad and should be avoided. Muri is the

Five Questions to Ask When You Hear "We're too busy for Lean"

By Jon Miller - November 26th, 2007

How many times have you heard “We’re too busy for Lean” from managers and professionals in your organization? How do you respond? How do you know whether they are in fact too busy? When it is true, what do you do to g

What I Learned About TPS from Ratatouille

By Jon Miller - November 22nd, 2007

Our family watched the Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille last night. It is a story about an intelligent rat and a kitchen full of cooks at a haute cuisine restaurant in Paris. About half way through the film a cook named Colette i

Jim Womack Interview in IndustryWeek – Nation Full fo Kaizen Consultants

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2007

There is a very long and insightful interview with Jim Womack available at the IndustryWeek online magazine titled Thought Leaders — Lean On Me. At over 7,000 words the discussion ranges from a history Womack and Jones’ dis

The Three Habits Required for Built-In Quality (Jidoka)

By Jon Miller - November 19th, 2007

As one of the pillars of the classic TPS house, jidoka represents two distinct but important ideas. The first part of jidoka or “automation with a human touch” involves the harmonization of people and machines. Humans shoul

Back from the Big House

By Ron Pereira - November 18th, 2007

Let me just say this past weekend rocked! As regular readers of the blog know I attended the Ohio State versus Michigan football game this past Saturday. Well my Buckeyes handled Michigan with ease and won the Big Ten championship.

Four Things to Do Before Letting the Lean Consultants in the Door

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

We are often asked, “What can we do in the mean time?” when shaking hands on an agreement to begin a Lean consultation with a new client. For most companies that are new to Lean, and even some that have been at it for a whi

Diverse people discussing problem solving

A3 Problem Solving as a People Development Process

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

Too many organizations today have no effective, simple, and formalized method of developing front-line leaders. The typical new supervisor or manager is lucky to be given instruction in how their job is done properly, and why. Most oft

Management by FACTS!!

By Jon Miller - November 12th, 2007

These are the words staring at me each day while standing or sitting at my desk: FACTS! Please feel free to hit Print and place this visual reminder for all to see. Sadly my personal MTBFTFTBF performance (mean time between failures to

What is the Standard?

By Jon Miller - November 6th, 2007

A problem was brought to my attention today. Some of our consultants are not submitting expense reports on time, causing us to be unable to bill clients on time. Simply put, some people are keeping other people from doing their job. Th

Free Videos on Lean Healthcare, Toyota Production System

By Jon Miller - November 5th, 2007

Here are a pair of free videos on YouTube. The first is titled A Quick Introduction to Lean Thinking and it is brought to you by the NHS group Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Some of the graphics and examples of Lean in healt

Three of the Lessons Learned from Gemba’s 2007 Hoshin Kanri

By Jon Miller - November 4th, 2007

We are in our pre-planning phase for our 2008 hoshin kanri (policy deployment) here at Gemba. That means we start by reflecting on 2007 and the progress made so far. Without airing too much dirty laundry, here are three of the lessons

Why a Kaizen Newspaper is Called a Kaizen Newspaper

By Jon Miller - November 1st, 2007

The kaizen newspaper is tool used to perform visual management on the process of continuous improvement itself. Many people who have not been introduced to the kaizen newspaper through kaizen events or as part of a program of team-base

Thank You, Thank You, Sam-I-Am

By Jon Miller - October 30th, 2007

One of my favorite philosophers is Theodor Geisel, a man whose illustrated stories continue to entertain and speaks to children and adults alike. Anyone continuous improvement professional who has read his “Green Eggs and HamR

Stumbling on the Lesser Category of Obstacles

By Jon Miller - October 29th, 2007

The important and influential ideas of W. Edwards Deming include a System of Profound Knowledge, 14 Points for Management, and the 7 Deadly Diseases. While Deming was not an innovator of practical tools to implement Lean manufacturing,

Do You Understand the System of Profound Knowledge?

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2007

W. Edwards Deming said “without theory there is no learning” while Taiichi Ohno said “understanding means doing.” Deming left a great legacy with his Theory of Profound Knowledge which if followed allows the way

Two Types of Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - October 28th, 2007

The word kaizen is fast becoming a buzz word galore. You will hear about how people are “doing kaizen” or running a big “kaizen event” next week. Many times folks are in fact executing kaizen’s in an att

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