Gemba Academy

5S Simulation

By Ron Pereira - May 29th, 2007

I received my prize for my hard fought victory in the recent Gemba blog 5S competition. The prize was a 5S simulation game. My 4 year old daughter has been after me to let her have a shot at it. Yesterday was her lucky day! I do

How to Get Your Time Back

By Jon Miller - May 29th, 2007

They say time is the only resource you can’t get any more of. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your time back? All of that time that was lost, wasted or simply misplaced – if we could only get it back, we would p

Tsurube System

By Ron Pereira - May 29th, 2007

After reading some Lean textbooks and possibly attending a conference or two many “Lean Dreams” are crushed when the practitioner is told, “Friend, there ain’t no way we are converting that $4 million paint line into some fancy

Stop Moving and Start Working

By Ron Pereira - May 28th, 2007

In Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management we read about the difference between animal-like-motion and human work. Simply put many people confuse moving around with working. This is to say that we can work up a sweat and look as

Kaizen of the Month for May 2007: Windows Hack or Chopping Away at the Six Big Losses

By Jon Miller - May 27th, 2007

Improving OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) by eliminating the six big losses is the focus of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). Just as most industrial machinery is only 13% to 40% effective prior to TPM implementation, the same

Robots

By Ron Pereira - May 26th, 2007

Engineers at Cornell University have designed this odd-looking machine that can rebuild itself and also could perform repairs on itself.

Free TPS Video

By Ron Pereira - May 26th, 2007

Click here to watch a free video of Dr. Shankar Basu, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling, USA. This is NOT a sales pitch so don’t worry. Dr. Basu even speaks about reducing transportation, which he half jokes will

Habituation , Sensitization and Being Yelled At By Taiichi Ohno

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2007

Neuroplasticitiy is the ability of the human brain to rearrange its synaptic networks based on experience. This primarily affects the hippocampus, the region of the brain playing a key role in memory. In turn, memory affects behavior.

DOE use in the health care industry

By Ron Pereira - May 25th, 2007

We hear a lot about Lean in the health care world but not so much about Six Sigma. This fact made this story about how Design of Experiments is being used to make things better all the more intriguing to me. We read in a May 2007 S

I Plead Guilty

By Ron Pereira - May 25th, 2007

My friend Mark Graban of Lean Blog fame nailed me today… and I deserved it. Mark commented on my recent post about Lowes missing their numbers. I was actually as guilty as the folks at Qualpro in how I was trying to assign caus

How Does Lean Thinking Apply to Strategy?

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2007

How does Lean thinking apply to strategy? This was a good question that made me think. One way of answering this question might refer to hoshin kanri (policy deployment) but in fact this is more about policy than strategy. If hoshin ka

Lowes Misses the Mark

By Ron Pereira - May 23rd, 2007

A few months ago I blogged about how a company called Qualpro was (and is) claiming its MVT methodology was far superior to Six Sigma. One of their success stories was Lowes. Their angle was that since Home Depot is a “Six

Medicare May Stop Paying for Hospital Errors

By Jon Miller - May 23rd, 2007

Medicare may stop paying for hospital errors in 2008, according to a May 22, 2007 article from IndyStar.com titled Hospital-borne ailments face Medicare budget ax. According to the article: Medical mistakes are deadly and expensive. In

Does Toyota need Six Sigma?

By Ron Pereira - May 23rd, 2007

I bet the title of this post caught some of my Lean friends off guard. Fear not I am not going to talk about how Lean is about eliminating waste and Six Sigma is about reducing variation. I have said this before and regret it. T

Toyota Number One in the World… in Recalls?

By Jon Miller - May 22nd, 2007

Not two days after imploring everyone to do kaizen like Toyota, we’re reminded that no matter how good you are at lean manufacturing, kaizen, and continuous improvement, if you focus too much on eliminating muda (waste) while ign

Boeing starts assembly of 787 Dreamliner

By Ron Pereira - May 22nd, 2007

I read today that Boeing started production of the much anticipated 787 Dreamliner. Many of my fellow blogging friends have previously commented on the method by which Boeing is manufacturing this monster of an airplane. With this s

Winning Rocks!

By Ron Pereira - May 21st, 2007

I learned tonight that I, yes little old me, am a winner. I don’t mean a winner like the way your mom always says, “Oh son, you are always a winner to me.” No, I mean a winner in the truest sense of the word. Check ou

Lean and Tissue Donation

By Ron Pereira - May 21st, 2007

I came across an interesting article from the Dayton Daily News where they discussed how leaders of the Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services teamed up with Lean practitioners from Sinclair Community College. The article e

Do Kaizen Like Toyota

By Jon Miller - May 20th, 2007

How do we do kaizen like Toyota? Just the fact that we’re hearing this question more often is a good sign that either a) there is a growing awareness about there being a right way to do kaizen, or b) Toyota’s PR machine is

Announcing the 5S Challenge Winners!

By Jon Miller - May 18th, 2007

Thank you Konrad, Ron, Robert, Nancy, Chris, Eric, Jason, Rajdeep and Dee for your thoughtful answers to the question “which of the 5S is hardest and why?” There was a lot of emphasis in on keeping it going, the 5th S known

Fire at Will!

By Ron Pereira - May 18th, 2007

(I came across this link over at Evolving Excellence and just had to comment) Move over Dilbert. KT Cat, eat your heart out. Check out this piece of work from a Six Sigma basher extraordinaire! I always say to be nice to KT Cat a

Finance 101 by Taiichi

By Ron Pereira - May 18th, 2007

In Chapter Six of Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management we read about the Profit formulas. I must confess I thought I completely understood this concept when in fact I was only partly correct. Let’s explore it tonight. When we

Lean Manufacturing by the Numbers

By Jon Miller - May 17th, 2007

Lean manufacturing by the numbers: Zero inventory Zero defects Zero accidents 1 piece flow 1 point lesson 2 bin system 2 point control (AB control, full work control) 3D (dirty, dangerous, difficult) 3 don’ts of assembly 3 don’ts o

Welcome to the New LSSA

By Ron Pereira - May 17th, 2007

Welcome to the new Lean Six Sigma Academy (LSSA). After lots of “blogging research” I have decided to move to WordPress. Blogger is great and very easy to use and I will miss some of their user friendly features. Bu

About this Blog

By Jon Miller - May 16th, 2007

Introduction to Gemba Panta Rei Gemba Panta Rei is the corporate blog of Gemba Research, a kaizen consulting firm. In this blog we will share our thoughts on Lean manufacturing, kaizen, Lean healthcare, Lean governemnt, Lean transactio

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