Gemba Academy

Scottish Local Authority Wins Award for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2006

Congratulations to the Aberdeenshire Council on winning the top Performance Improvement Award from UDITE – The Association of European Local Authority Chief Executives for their kaizen efforts. Kaizen in the public sector, how sweet

Operational Excellence Requires Kaizen and Respect for People

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2006

Kaizen is easy. Respect for people is hard. I don’t know why. I just don’t see a lot of companies talking about and doing the latter. Talking about only, perhaps. What does respect for people really mean, anyway? At Toyota

Toyota Production System as a Learning System

By Jon Miller - October 8th, 2006

There is a new working paper by Michael Balle, author of The Gold Mine, that explores how the Toyota Production System (TPS) is a learning system. The paper takes a hospital in France as a case study and highlights the importance of st

Not Trying to Coin A New Buzzword, But…

By Jon Miller - October 6th, 2006

I’m thinking of phrases to replace the one we are avoiding this month… Contiunously Improving Operation, Rational Manufacturing, Intelligent Operations, Smart Production, Holistic Production, Adaptive Manufacturing, Non-loc

Copy + Kaizen = Yokoten

By Jon Miller - October 5th, 2006

Here’s my understanding of one of the winning behaviors of Toyota, namely copying and improving on kaizen ideas that work. We’ll call this yokoten since it’s more precise than “copy” or “horizontal d

Applying the 80-20 Rule to Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 3rd, 2006

I’m fond of the 80-20 principle. Any time an understanding of statistics, laws of physics or human biology can make day to day decision making easier, it’s a welcome thing. The same is true in applying the 80-20 rule to kai

Things They Say at Toyota: Protect Your Own Castle

By Jon Miller - October 2nd, 2006

One of the expressions I’ve come across working with and reading the writings of Toyota people is “Protect your own castle” 「自分の城は自分で守れ」. You could also say “You are responsible for prote

My Early Kaizen Days

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2006

Thirteen years ago this month I nervously stepped into the lobby of the Sheraton at Hartford, Connecticut airport. It was the first day of my first Shingijutsu kaizen event. I did not know what to expect. I remember the first words out

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 30: Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu Shitsuke

By Jon Miller - September 25th, 2006

“Seiri (Sorting) is throwing out what you don’t need and Seiton (Straighten) is arranging items so that they are ready when you want them. Arranging things neatly is only Seiretsu (lining up in rows) and proper shop floor m

One Sign of a Lean Culture: Kaizen or Get Out

By Jon Miller - September 22nd, 2006

I had lunch yesterday with a local client of ours. He owns a small factory that employs about 30 people. The products they make are fairly simple and the processes are not complex. They have made some big changes in the factory layout

A Workplace that Encourages Movement Gets Good Results

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2006

A classroom that encourages movement gets good grades. One of our team members recently spotted this article during a Northwest Airlines flight in the September 2006 in-flight magazine. According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic with

It’s Not Really “Go See”, It’s “Go Observe”

By Jon Miller - September 18th, 2006

The Toyota Production System principle of genchi gembutsu is often translated in English as “go see”. This rolls off the tongue a lot easier than genchi gembutsu, but it doesn’t quite capture the essence. The word

Healthcare Costs Can Be Cut

By Jon Miller - September 15th, 2006

Healthcare cost can be cut. So says a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article by the same title on September 14, 2006. The examples from Virginia Mason Medical Center do demonstrate that healthcare costs can be cut, but is this enough? The a

How to Learn the Fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 Days

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2006

Anyone can be taught to do kaizen in 30 days. If you’re wondering how to learn the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 days (or how to teach it) you can take a hint from the June 23, 2006 article in Nikkei Joho Str

What Experience Do You Have in My Industry?

By Jon Miller - September 12th, 2006

“What experience do you have in my industry?” I heard this again today for the nth time, with n being a number sufficiently large such that n x $1 would buy a nice lunch for everyone who reads this today. The “industr

Lean by Any Means Necessary

By Jon Miller - September 10th, 2006

We toured a tier 1 automotive supplier recently with a group of our customers on our Japan Kaikaku Experience. Our customers learned many things but there was one main lesson. First, the General Manager who took us on the in-depth gemb

What is Flexibility for Lean Manufacturing?

By Jon Miller - September 8th, 2006

Flexibility is a term that is often used interchangeably with Lean manufacturing. But what does it actually mean, and how does it relate to Lean philosophy? The Lean blog published an insightful post on Thursday, September 7th titled &

Hoshin is 5S for Your Head

By Jon Miller - September 6th, 2006

Busy, busy days. It’s days like these that it becomes more important to avoid working harder, longer and instead take a precious moment out of your day to examine whether what you are doing is really adding value towards the ulti

Workflow Design: Horizontal Handling vs. Vertical Handling

By Jon Miller - September 4th, 2006

Here’s a follow up to a previous post of the one point lesson on operational availability vs. rate of operation. A reader pointed out that pictures and not just words would be helpful, so in answer to a related question about multi-p

A Heijunka Economy

By Jon Miller - September 2nd, 2006

As summer officially comes to a close in the United States this weekend with the kick-off of the American Football season and something Americans call Labor Day, I find myself thinking about heijunka (averaging of both your demand volu

Look Up from Your Work and Ask: “Could We Flow This?”

By Jon Miller - September 1st, 2006

At the center of the Toyota Production System, and therefore of Lean manufacturing, is the fundamental principle of creating flow. For example in a machine shop this means connecting processes so that an operator can be a multi-process

One Point Lesson: Operational Availability vs. Rate of Operation

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2006

What is Operational Availability? First, a brief Japanese lesson, if I may. 可動率 is Operational Availability and is pronounced “ka-dou-ritsu”. 稼動率 is Rate of Operation and is pronounced “ka-dou-ritsu”

Ouch! Change Hurts

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2006

There’s an interesting article titled The Neuroscience of Leadership in Strategy+Business magazine. Thanks to Kathleen Fasanella for spotting and writing about it on her Fashion Incubator blog. The article has a tempting tagline

While We’re Promoting Lean Author Interviews on other Blogs…

By Jon Miller - August 29th, 2006

Shmula is a blog with a funny sounding name (who am I to talk?) and the occasional gem of a post about Lean. There is an August 28th interview with Mary Poppendick, author of Lean Software Development and Implementing Lean Software Dev

Lean Blog Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Liker

By Jon Miller - August 28th, 2006

Visit the Lean Blog to hear Mark Graban’s podcast interview of Dr. Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way and Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineerring at the University of Michigan. Find out answers to pressing Lean m

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