Gemba Academy

Is Zero Defects Possible?

By Jon Miller - April 1st, 2007

Sonu asked: “Is zero defects possible? If so, what are the steps. We are dealing with around 300 parameters each having minimum 25 to 30 parameters to be met. We find it difficult to maintain zero defect for all parameters. Any t

Textron Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - March 30th, 2007

I recently came across this article written about the Six Sigma program at Textron. In the article Bob Zimering, a Textron Master Black Belt, discusses Six Sigma at Textron and responds to some of its critics. When discussing th

How Not to Screw up Pluses and Deltas

By Ron Pereira - March 29th, 2007

An extremely powerful, yet often misused, tool is pluses and deltas. I say misused since 9 out of 10 people I know (including MANY consultants) do not know how to do them properly. What are Pluses and Deltas? The easiest way to do plus

The Largest Room in the World

By Jon Miller - March 29th, 2007

What is the largest room in the world? I just heard this yesterday. Any guesses? Think about it. Or give a hint to other readers if you know the answer. I’m not telling.

Why So Much Confusion About Kanban?

By Jon Miller - March 28th, 2007

I had a very interesting conversation today with a friend who is a manager spearheading a Lean effort at a local facotry. His latest focus is on connecting the metal forming operations with the assembly operations using kanban. He obse

The Value of Figuring It Out for Yourself

By Jon Miller - March 27th, 2007

There is a curious mention of Nissan purchasing an American automobile factory before World War II and moving it to Japan in chapter 21 of Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management: Before the war Nissan had purchased an American facto

The Hardest of the 5S’s

By Ron Pereira - March 27th, 2007

I recently heard the best explanation of which of the 5 S’s is the toughest to master. Many say how hard sorting all the rubbish is… others say that sustain is without a doubt the hardest.Both of these common responses are

White Space Muda

By Jon Miller - March 26th, 2007

I heard a story about a Toyota employee. This was years ago when Toyota Motor Sales merged with Toyota Motor Company to form Toyota Motor Corporation. The employee from Motor Sales asked for paper to write a report. A woman in the offi

Explaining Cp and Cpk

By Ron Pereira - March 26th, 2007

Originally published on March 26, 2007 When we speak about process capability, we often refer to two indices called Cp and Cpk. These two indices, used together, can tell us how capable our process is and whether or not we have a cente

The Art of Nemawashi

By Jon Miller - March 25th, 2007

Nemawashi is the building of support for a project through advance communication and consensus. The Japanese term nemawashi (根回し) comes from “to dig around the roots” in order to prepare a plant for transplant. Withou

The Cat is Back!

By Ron Pereira - March 25th, 2007

The Cat is back! My blogging pal KT Cat, over at The Scratching Post, has thrown out another hot sports opinion related to his (or her) negative experience with Lean Six Sigma. I must admit I like to read this feline’s stuff a

Twelve Reasons to Tell Customers About Your Lean Manufacturing Efforts

By Jon Miller - March 24th, 2007

Here is a follow up to reason #3 from of the post Here are 4.5 Signs that Your Lean May be L.A.M.E. from earlier this week. I could think of 12 reasons to tell customers about your Lean manufacturing efforts. 1. Customer behavior is th

Here are 4.5 Signs that Your Lean May be L.A.M.E.

By Jon Miller - March 22nd, 2007

Mark Graban at the Lean Blog coined L.A.M.E. as “Lean As Misguidedly Executed” and Kevin Meyer at the Evolving Excellence blog builds on this idea in pointing out how Lean is often added on in press releases, though it may

Work in Process in Knowledge Work

By Jon Miller - March 21st, 2007

The Lean principles of the seven types of waste, flow, building in quality at each step, and making small improvements locally each day are all readily accepted by knowledge workers with a minimum of explanation and demonstration. Visu

North American Manufacturing

By Ron Pereira - March 21st, 2007

I recently read an interesting article related to manufacturing in North America. Here are some interesting quotes for those wanting the abbreviated version: “But CMP, which opened its first U.S. manufacturing operation just north of

Safety Glasses Are a Sign of Unsafe Processes

By Jon Miller - March 20th, 2007

I left the training room too eager to go to gemba today and forgot to put on my safety glasses. Within two minutes one of the safety coordinators on the shop floor stopped me and sent me back to get them. Kudos to the management of thi

Dials for adjusting pressure, speed, and temperature

Demystifying Design of Experiments

By Ron Pereira - March 19th, 2007

I love Design of Experiments (DOE). Over the years, I have done my fair share of them – everything from simple 2^2 full factorial designs to your more complicated Response Surface Methodology designs. In this article, I want to start

Introducing SPACER

By Ron Pereira - March 18th, 2007

Tonight I want to introduce one of the best tools available to ensure you have a good meeting or training class. The technique I am referring to is called SPACER. It stands for: Safety Purpose Agenda Conduct Expectations Roles It sound

Reading Lean for Dummies

By Jon Miller - March 17th, 2007

I just finished reading Lean for Dummies. It covers a lot of ground in 362 pages. It’s full of diagrams, lists and other useful visuals. It is light and accessible reading. Parts IV “The Lean Enterprise” and Part V &#

The Kaizen Mindset Requires Starting with Scarcity

By Jon Miller - March 16th, 2007

We have been fortunate to visit Ricoh factories in Japan and in my opinion Ricoh is an excellent company and a great example of implementing the Toyota Production System outside of the automotive industry. They are also a leader in red

The Mysterious Process Cycle Efficiency

By Ron Pereira - March 15th, 2007

A key metric used by Lean practitioners is Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE). You may also hear it called Value Added Ratio. When used in conjunction with a Value Stream Map, PCE is calculated as follows: Value Add Time / Production Lead

Nine Rules for Fighting Endless Meetings

By Jon Miller - March 15th, 2007

I’ve heard that at Toyota the meetings are 60 minutes long, with 50 minutes of actual meeting time and 10 minutes to get to the next meeting. The use of the standardize A3 size one-page format to communicate the progress on PDCA

Oops!

By Ron Pereira - March 14th, 2007

I was just made aware that when you post a blog highlighting other good blogging links from the week you should call this a “carnival.” I called it a blogroll a few weeks back. You learn something new everyday!

Taking the Toyota Production System to City Hall

By Jon Miller - March 14th, 2007

There was an encouraging article about Lean government in the March 15, 2007 NB Online (Nikkei Business) titled City Hall in Aichi Studies at Toyota to “Enhance the Capabilities of the Staff (愛知の市役所がトヨタで修

Confused about Waste

By Ron Pereira - March 13th, 2007

A while back I wrote about how I felt waiting was the worst of the 7 wastes. OK, so being trapped on an airplane may have influenced that post a bit but I bring it up since I outlined the 7 (or 8 depending on whose book you read) deadl

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