Gemba Academy

Give Me 60 Minutes and I’ll Give You a Lean Transformation

By Jon Miller - March 5th, 2007

That’s 60 minutes from everyone in supervisory position and above, at least once every three weeks, forever. If that’s too much to ask, save yourself two minutes and stop reading now. There’s something called “s

Regression – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - March 4th, 2007

After posting my recent blog on hypothesis testing I received a request to write about regression in a similar manner. As I am always focused on the “voice of the customer” I will take on regression tonight. This will b

How Do You Sustain Improvement?

By Jon Miller - March 3rd, 2007

“How do you sustain improvement?” This is one of the most common questions posed to us about kaizen and Lean. I used to think this question required a thoughtful pause and a serious three-part reply. But lately I ask “

Lean Culture in a Temporary Workforce

By Jon Miller - March 1st, 2007

Can you have Lean manufacturing without Lean enterprise? Can you have Lean enterprise without a Lean culture? Can you have Lean culture without a motivated shop floor? All of the trappings of operational excellence such as one piece fl

The Tipping Point

By Ron Pereira - March 1st, 2007

The blog”scribbit” is one of the coolest, non CIPish, blogs I have ever come across. This blogger has some serious skills. She recently posted a blog about an excellent book I highly recommend you read – The Tipping P

Teaching our Kids

By Ron Pereira - March 1st, 2007

I am of the opinion that the US education system needs some major work. Today, in our public school system we push students through with little regard to what their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes are. I once heard (from som

Top 5 Things I’ve Never Heard from a Kaizen Team Member

By Jon Miller - February 28th, 2007

#5. “I’m surprised at how little we got done in four and a half days.” #4. “I have no concerns about these results being sustained.” #3. “Everything went as planned.” #2. “There’s n

How Much Should We Pay for Kaizen Ideas?

By Jon Miller - February 27th, 2007

“How much should we pay for kaizen ideas?” This is a question we often hear during a kaizen class. The type of kaizen we are talking about here is the everyone-everyday kind, otherwise known as the soikufu system in Japanes

Hypothesis Testing

By Ron Pereira - February 27th, 2007

One of my favorite statistical tools is hypothesis testing. We can use hypothesis testing for many purposes. For example, we would use the popular 2-sample t-test when we have two samples of variable data and want to understand if they

Scott County Schools Trying Out the Toyota Way

By Jon Miller - February 26th, 2007

Today’s article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Scott County Way: Educators take a page from ‘The Toyota Way’ to boost curriculums, made my day a little bit better. It seemed only natural that Toyota’s corpo

Lean Six Sigma Hot Sports Opinions

By Ron Pereira - February 26th, 2007

It seems “Lean Six Sigma” has been on the minds of some bloggers lately. There was a great discussion over at the Gemba Research blog here. I saw Rob commented on the topic here. Last, but certainly not least, the folks at the Scra

Genchi Gembutsu at the Starbucks Coffee Company

By Jon Miller - February 24th, 2007

Toyota is not the only global brand having growing pains from its success these days. In today’s Wall Street Journal article titled Starbucks Chairman Says Trouble May Be Brewing, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz has sent out a

Once a Month Cooking – Lean or Not?

By Ron Pereira - February 23rd, 2007

A few posts ago I went on about my Sensei wife. I told you how she was teaching my kids about lean concepts, etc. Well, I must be fair and balanced with my blogging and need to confess something to you all. Tonight, my beautiful wife i

The Seven Habits of Toyota People

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2007

The harder Toyota’s overwhelming success becomes to ignore, the more books and articles are written about what makes them great. Many say the same thing, but in different ways. I’ve just started flipping through a Japanese

The New Savior of the Free World – MVT

By Ron Pereira - February 22nd, 2007

Matt, a reader of this blog, sent me an article from Chief Executive magazine. While I was not going to comment until I studied this more I decided what the heck… tap dancing makes for boring blogs. I’m letting it fly!A company th

Value Stream Mapping Confusion

By Ron Pereira - February 21st, 2007

When drawing value stream maps there can be confusion regarding the different “times” that are measured and, in some cases, calculated. I recently came up against this myself and thus want to share some tips with you all. Cycle Tim

Lean Six Sigma is Not Lean

By Jon Miller - February 21st, 2007

Lean Six Sigma is not Lean. It is Six Sigma, but one that is more “Lean” than just regular “Six Sigma.” In the English language the adjective (Lean) modifies the noun or subject word (Six Sigma). So Lean Six Sig

Japanese Words

By Ron Pereira - February 20th, 2007

Over the years I have heard American and European employees from many companies grumble when hearing Japanese words. This is most apparent during Lean training. Personally, I feel it is extremely important to use the Japanese names for

My “Sensei” Wife

By Ron Pereira - February 20th, 2007

My wife is the best. As I have to travel some for my work she takes care of the house, kids, dogs, and pretty much anything else you can imagine without me around to yell at… I mean without me to help, of course.Well, in an attempt t

Let’s Establish a Waste and Efficiency Tip Line… and then Another One

By Jon Miller - February 20th, 2007

I caught a rerun of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night on television. The bit of news involved the $22 billion in cash lost in Iraq during Paul Bremer’s time there. Both political parties want to be seen as addressing thi

Bollinger Bands

By Ron Pereira - February 19th, 2007

I am not an active trader of stocks or options although I do enjoy reading and studying the methods people use to “time” the markets so to speak. I will confess I have tried to time the markets myself but have gotten whacked more t

Getting the CEO on a Kaizen Team is Like Pulling Teeth

By Jon Miller - February 19th, 2007

As I was flipping through my copy of the February 2007 issue of Dental Economics today, an interview with two Danaher executives caught my eye. Danaher is known as a leading American company who has quietly and profitably grown through

NASCAR Fans React!

By Ron Pereira - February 18th, 2007

I’m not a NASCAR fan nor foe. I could really care less about the sport but a recent article bothered me. It seems two popular drivers, Darrel Waltrip and Dale Jarrett, have decided to drive Toyota cars and many NASCAR faithful are b

The Trouble with Exploring “all options” at Chrysler

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2007

Chrysler is feeling the squeeze. Third quarter losses were twice as large as projected. The DaimlerChrysler leadership are using their wits in an ongoing effort to turn things around. Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche has stated that R

Not Enough “Toyota Way” in Factory Air?

By Jon Miller - February 16th, 2007

There’s a good article over at the New York Times on February 15, 2007 titled The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers. It’s not about putting Jeffrey Liker’s book The Toyota

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