Gemba Academy

Seeing Problems for What they Are, Or Lean Insights from G.K. Chesterton

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2007

G.K. Chesterton was an extremely clever early 20th century writer who used many twists of phrase to make his points. His style of thinking and the points he makes at times makes me wonder if members of the Toyoda family read and were i

Alignment of People, Process and Purpose

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2007

A few years ago during a visit to the gemba of high volume manufacturing client, I found a good case study in a disjointed Lean implementation. There was a lack of alignment between how management was leading the Lean effort (providing

Steelcase to Bring Lean Office to China?

By Jon Miller - October 22nd, 2007

An article in the October 23, 2007 in the English version of the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily hints at a future for the Lean office in China. Titled Furniture firm builds presence, it is largely corporate PR announcing the ex

Top 10 Lean Education Mistakes (and a Few Recommendations)

By Jon Miller - October 21st, 2007

Here is a mixed bag of thoughts on common Lean education mistakes and a few recommendations on how to avoid them: #1: Teaching things rather than teaching thinking If one thing can be said about the Lean tools, it is that they work. Ye

Lean Specialists, Lean Generalists and the Benefit of Half-Persons

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2007

Things seem to come in threes. Or perhaps we become satisfied and stop counting at three when in fact the particular phenomena we are counting in fact persists. This week three separate organizations asked us on three separate occasion

The Right Inventory is an Asset!

By Ron Pereira - October 19th, 2007

Most lean practitioners, myself included, spend lots of time talking about how calling inventory an asset is hog wash. We use analogies like how lowering inventory is the same as lowering water in a river… eventually all those

The Open Office Comes to Silicon Valley

By Jon Miller - October 16th, 2007

An October 15, 2007 Wall Street Journal article titled Why Silicon Valley Is Rethinking The Cubicle Office explains how companies such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Autodesk, and Hewlett-Packard are either testing or planning tests with the

The First Step to Kaizen the Environment: Problem Awareness

By Jon Miller - October 15th, 2007

The last few days have been ones of closer observation and increased awareness of what goes on around me, in preparation for today, Blog Action Day, when fifteen thousand bloggers are writing about the cause of protecting our environme

Highlights from Lean Manufacturing Journey to the West

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2007

On this trip to China I found a lot of openness to learning about new things, and Lean manufacturing in particular. People in China are certainly proud of their 4,000 years of history, but they are eager to learn and progress. We could

Guidelines for Continuous Moving Lines

By Jon Miller - October 11th, 2007

This article is in response to a question posted by a reader about guidelines for continuous moving lines as part of a Lean manufacturing implementation. This is not a comprehensive list of all things to consider when designing and man

Things to Leave Behind When Jumping Out of Airplanes

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2007

Flying west on Sichuan Airlines today I saw the most bizarre in-flight safety video. The cartoon character flight attendant was the star of the show, with a video bubble of a real person explaining in sign language, while passable Engl

The Challenge of Lean Human Resource Development, and A Modest Proposal

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2007

Good question from Alberto about how Chinese companies who are pursuing Lean manufacturing are managing to invest in their people. There is a lot of truth to the stereotype of the Chinese factory worker doing very simple tasks, in a ba

Questions About Lean Manufacturing in China

By Jon Miller - October 7th, 2007

I will be in China this week seeing some factories and talking to people about Lean manufacturing. Adapting and applying time-tested methods and approaches to new environments and new challenges is always a treat. I go with many questi

Kaizen Song: Kits

By Jon Miller - October 6th, 2007

It seems like many of the kaizen songs end up being about material flow and Lean logistics. At the risk of being campy, here is a lesson in Lean from musical royalty… Kits (To the melody of “Kiss” by Prince) U don’t have 2

Prioritizing the Elimination of the 7 Types of Waste

By Jon Miller - October 3rd, 2007

Tim Wood helps us remember the 7 types of waste, but he does not teach us about prioritizing the elimination of the 7 types of waste. “TIM WOOD” stands for Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Over-pr

Six Characteristics of a Lean Leader

By Ron Pereira - October 3rd, 2007

There are a plethora of books on leadership. I have read many such books and seem to gain something from each of them. I don’t always agree with the authors but in the end I feel better for studying these folks. But, if I were to

Ten Topics for Hansei After Kaizen Event

By Jon Miller - October 2nd, 2007

For better or worse, the 5-day kaizen event is a generally accepted and standard approach for rapid process improvement as part of a Lean implementation. There are both pros and cons to the 5-day kaizen event, of which more later. The

Who is your mentor?

By Ron Pereira - October 1st, 2007

No matter what you do for a living or your vocation in life I believe it is essential to have a mentor… or even better mentors. Paging Jory Around 13 years ago, I began my professional career after college working at Motorola

One Person, One Piece Flow

By Jon Miller - October 1st, 2007

One piece flow is not just for the manufacturing shop floor. Actually – even in office settings where one piece flow is starting to come into use it is done with numerous people. I have been through Kaizen Products’ Factory Flow si

Work is Love Made Visible

By Jon Miller - September 30th, 2007

In his 1923 book The Prophet, Lebanese American poet and artist and visionary Kahlil Gibran wrote Work is love made visible. What if love is not visible in work? What if you do not love what you do? Perhaps according to Kahlil Gibran,

Why Flow Counter Clockwise?

By Ron Pereira - September 30th, 2007

When designing a u-shaped cell it is often recommened that material flow in a counter clockwise direction. Why is this? It’s about the right hand Research shows that most people are right handed. I have heard that as many as 85%

Liquor Stores and Churches

By Ron Pereira - September 27th, 2007

They say there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Here’s an example of why this is sadly true in many cases. It’s been proven that there is a strong correlation between the number of churches and liquor stores in a commun

Top 10 Success Factors for 5S

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2007

Are you struggling with sustaining your 5S efforts as part of a Lean implementation? You’re not alone. We conducted a poll during a Lean facilitator training class and found that many experience common barriers and struggles in m

11 Ways to Improve Customer Service

By Jon Miller - September 26th, 2007

Marcie MacRae posted an excellent article about customer service titled 10 ways to improve customer service based on her deep experience in that area and the 10 Commandments of Kaizen, which are rephrased here: 1. Let go of your fixed

The Bridge Builder

By Ron Pereira - September 25th, 2007

I recently heard this poem. While I am not a big poem kind of fellow I must admit this one resonated with me. It summarizes why I love what I do… which is to find better ways to do things better. Put another way my goal in

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