Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive

Dealing with Non Normal Data

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2007

Robin, over on the iSixSigma blog, had an interesting post regarding hypothesis testing. Specifically, the question posed was how to deal with non normal data. Typically, most Six Sigma practitioners are taught to use “non parame

Half of the intel in Google is wasted

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2007

You know you’re a jaded TPS sensei too long in the Lean business when you read a headline like the one on 13 June 2007 in CNet News announcing Half the electricity in a PC is wasted: Intel, Google and your first thought is “

7 Tips to Better Brainstorming

By Ron Pereira - June 14th, 2007

Brainstorming is an extremely powerful tool.  Most of us have likely been part of a brainstorming session before.  Sadly, it’s been my experience that about 9 out of 10 people have no clue how to brainstorm the right way.  So

Want to Learn Kaizen? Forget About It

By Jon Miller - June 13th, 2007

Kaizen starts in the brain, so understanding the working of the brain is essential to doing kaizen better. A June 4, 2007 New Scientist article titled Forgetfulness is a tool of the brain suggests that if we want to learn kaizen, we al

Computer Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - June 13th, 2007

I have a question for you.  If I asked you to locate a random file I knew you had on your computer how long would it take you to find it?  Less than 30 seconds? What about the performance of your computer?  Is the Internet moving 

Help Decision Making with a Cause & Effect (C&E) Matrix

By Ron Pereira - June 12th, 2007

Last night we discussed how we can use a Cause and Effect (C&E) Matrix to narrow down a long list of inputs into a more manageable one.  I also provided a free MS Excel C&E Matrix Template for those interested. Tonight I wan

A Standard Way of Starting Your Day

By Jon Miller - June 11th, 2007

Having a standard way of starting your day has been written about in many personal productivity books, blogs and promoted by self-improvement gurus. Yet why is this so hard? In one word, variation. In some ways it is personal standard

About The Cause & Effect (C&E) Matrix

By Ron Pereira - June 11th, 2007

One of my favorite continuous improvement tools is the cause and effect matrix (C&E Matrix).  Sometimes you will hear this tool referred to as a XY Matrix.  However, I am not referring to the Ishikawa Diagram (fishbone) even thou

Suggestion

The Top 10 Suggestion System Stumbles and How to Avoid Them

By Jon Miller - June 10th, 2007

Are you looking to implement an organizational suggestion system? Perhaps you already have one in place, but aren’t satisfied with the program? Read on to see our top 10 stumbles to avoid in your own suggestion system programs. T

LSSA Carnival – 2

By Ron Pereira - June 9th, 2007

Here are some of my favorite posts from around the blogosphere this week. John Hunter, in response to one of my more controversial posts, offered an excellent take on how bad management results in layoffs. Over on the iSixSigma blog Mi

Putting the Zen Back in Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2007

The “zen” in the word “kaizen” has nothing to do with Zen Buddhism. This is a mistake we often see in books or presentations. Kaizen means continuous improvement, or literally “to change and make good̶

Kaizen Song: Hey, Juneka

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2007

Hey, Juneka (heijuneka) (to the music of The Beatles’ “Hey, Jude”) Heijuneka, don’t make a batch Fill one order, then fill another When salesmen place orders in small amounts Then you can start to make the load

Why Heijunka – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - June 7th, 2007

Last night we discussed why we would use heijunka in a manufacturing environment in response to a readers question.  Tonight I want to focus in on why we would want to use heijunka, or leveling, in an office environment. This could

Why Heijunka – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - June 6th, 2007

B.D. asked, “You’re talking about HOW to do heijunka, but I’m not seeing WHY.”     Great comment B.D.  I will attempt to answer the why here this evening.  Let’s dig into the manufacturing side of things in this articl

How to Reduce the Distance Between Management and Gemba

By Jon Miller - June 5th, 2007

This issue, and how it is addressed, is one of the main factors separating successful and sustained lean transformations from those that are not. Let’s say the distance between management and the gemba is value D and the quality,

Heijunka in the Front Office

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2007

In the house of Toyota heijunka belongs in the foundation.  Sadly many people dismiss this critical lean concept explaining how it isn’t relevant for their business. Heijunka which is properly pronounced (hey-june-kah) and n

Is Laying People off Really Anti-Lean?

By Ron Pereira - June 2nd, 2007

Update: June 3 @ 7:33 PM CST Over the weekend, this post has had some good action (via comments and emails I have received).  I am modifying the original post ever so slightly to make the “assumptions” a bit more clear. 

6 Ways to Use Lean & Six Sigma at Home

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

Here are some ways to use Lean and Six Sigma methods away from the office. Sort clothes according to color and place them into different bins eliminating the need to sort.  When the bin is full wash those clothes.  Don’t wait

More IBM Nonsense

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

Here is a doozy related to more IBM “Lean” blabber.  I am pretty sure the only quote I need to share is this.  “Lean is a collection of Six Sigma business processes used by a number of leading companies to improve

All the Surveys are Beginning to Whip Me

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

OK, I need to pick on some Lean friends of mine.  Well actually they may not even know I exist… but I digress. Anyhow, I was reading an article over at Industry Week (IW), Just-In-Time Remains Justifiable.  It’s a good article an

5 Steps to Data Collection

By Ron Pereira - May 31st, 2007

In most Six Sigma training programs and text books  you will hear about a 5 step data collection process.  However, what they don’t tell you is that collecting data is tricky.  Many people think they can simply run off and gra

Lean in Japan, Or Not

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2007

The YouTube video titled Lean in Japan is a bit bizarre. It’s probably strange enough to most people as a window into modern Japan, but overlaid with Lean lingo it’s just weird. It’s not clear if this video is tongue-

Calling all Bloggers!

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2007

One of the ideas I have been tossing around is inviting others interested in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement in general to “guest blog” here at LSS Academy.  So if you are a Blogger wanting to co

Typical Project Management

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2007

Click to Enlarge  Photo Credit: 1

WordPress Rocks!

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2007

When I first transitioned this blog over to WordPress (WP) I wondered if I had made a terribe mistake.  Blogger was so easy to use and format.  You can drag and drop things to your hearts desire.  This was gone when I went to a sel

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