Gemba Academy

Gemba Keiei Chapter 10: The Misconception that Mass Production is Cheaper

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2005

“Another example of a misconception that becomes common sense,” Taiichi Ohno begins “is the idea that mass production is cheaper so that by the same logic low volume production must cost more. I have seen many factori

Toyota Loves France!

By Jon Miller - October 27th, 2005

Or so the full page ad taken out by the French government in the Otober 31, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek would have you believe. The ad takes no chances that the reader might not get the point, using the tag line “The New France. W

Toyota is No Friend of the Earth, Say Greens

By Jon Miller - October 26th, 2005

Last week I praised Toyota’s environmental efforts but a new and sharply critical ad campaign is making me reconsider. Even as Toyota continues its advertising campaign to promote its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology with the R

Tune into NUMMI Tour Tales

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2005

Today Mark Graban posted his first trip report from his visit to NUMMI, the GM / Toyota joint venture in California. I won’t give away the details, but it’s a good reminder to “abandon fixed ideas” and do what&#

Kaizen Mindset at the Head of Chrysler

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2005

The October 24, 2005 Wall Street Journal article At Chrysler, Profits Don’t Keep Chief From Cutting Costs has a funny title. Why would profit keep you from cutting costs? Not everyone thinks like Taiichi Ohno, who gave chapter 14

How Not to Spend $453 Million

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2005

Listening to the radio on my commute last week I heard a perfect example of the opposite of Lean government. I’m always bothered by waste but this was truly disturbing. In the highway bill signed this summer there is what is know

Highlights from an Interview with Masaaki Imai

By Jon Miller - October 21st, 2005

I came across a January 28, 2005 interview with Masaaki Imai by Gita Piramal, Managing Editor of The Smart Manager, a bi-monthly Indian business management magazine. It is titled The father of Kaizen speaks! and some good questions are

No Pushing

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2005

It always horrified me to see perfectly good products being sold at a discount because they were no longer in season or in style. Why fill a dealer lot full of cars, only to sell last year’s models at a discount? Why design and p

Tough Love for Delphi Leadership

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2005

Dr. James Womack is not the only one saddened to see a corporation like Delphi who championed Lean so well struggle so mightily. I read Dr. Womack’s article on the LEI site about Delphi, hoping for a lesson learned. I was disappo

Lean Applied to Food Service

By Jon Miller - October 18th, 2005

I recently had lunch at Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, Texas. It was a surprising place to find Lean principles at work. They have a streamlined product offering with two items on the menu, fried chicken and chicken frie

Small Companies Playing With Big Company Rules

By Jon Miller - October 17th, 2005

This is something I’ve noticed with a few of the sites I’ve been visiting lately. They are all part of a huge global, well-respected company and yet the Lean implementation is not as robust as we would like to see it. A lot

First, it’s about People. Second…

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2005

There’s a very good article about Lean manufacturing implementation in a sewing shop titled Becoming a Lean Manufacturer on Kathleen Fasanella’s Fashion-Incubator blog. We don’t do much Lean manufacturing consulting i

Gemba Keiei Chapter 9: Reduced Inventory, Increased WIP

By Jon Miller - October 12th, 2005

“We reduced inventory” the manager of one company told Ohno, hoping for praise. This was raw material inventory so Ohno asked “Won’t the lack of raw materials cause problems for production?” “Not at

What I Learned from a Marxist about Lean Manufacturing

By Jon Miller - October 5th, 2005

While on a recent business trip to New York City I met with an old friend of mine who does human rights work. He told me a story of how he persuaded policy makers to take a position on issues of human rights by issuing statements that

Gemba Keiei, Chapter 8: Limited Volume Production is to Produce at Low Cost

By Jon Miller - September 30th, 2005

The title for this chapter is awkward in English. It comes from the problem of trying to translate the nuances of Japanese words that have the same sounds but different meaning due to an intentional replacement of one of the kanji (Chi

Virtual JKE – Final Entry

By Jon Miller - September 29th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Confucius “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve seen ’til you get back home.” –Luke Frida

Virtual JKE Day Five

By Jon Miller - September 28th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America As someone who only recently joined the consulting world after 25 years directing manufacturing, assembly, and distribution operations, I can say with absolute conviction that I have never seen a lean ass

Virtual JKE Day Four

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America It is Wednesday night in Tokyo, after another long day on the Gemba Research JKE tour. Today we visited Hokuetsu Industries, which owns about 10% of the global market for industrial air compressors and ha

Sitting Work vs. Standing Work in a Lean Manufacturing Workplace

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2005

I recently spent 3 days standing on the shop floor while leading a training event for future kaizen facilitators. I spent probably 8.5 hours per day standing, 60 minutes sitting (lunch, breaks), and 30 minutes walking around the 100 sq

Virtual JKE Day Three

By Jon Miller - September 26th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day three on the Gemba road was long, hot, and fascinating. We were on our way to catch the bullet train for Denso before 7:00. On the way, we took the usual opportunity to go over what we would be seeing

Virtual JKE Part Two

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day 2, the first real day of our Gemba Research Japan Kaikaku Experience tour. “Going to the gemba” is the whole point of this tour – to be the best requires going to see the best. Today

Virtual JKE

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2005

A key aspect of our work here at Gemba is the Japan Kaikaku Experience. We take business leaders to Japan to see the world’s best practitioners of lean. This week, Kent Bradley, on his second tour of Japan, will share his experie

Postal Service Provides Model for Lean Government

By Jon Miller - September 10th, 2005

Originally published Sept 10, 2005 It would be easy to point out how non-Lean the U.S. government has been at the city, state, and federal levels these last few weeks. We’ve seen examples of a lack of decision-making, poor logist

Gemba Keiei, Chapter 7: Don’t Fear Opportunity Losses

By Jon Miller - September 4th, 2005

While the point of this chapter is clear (see the title) it is not as well illustrated by examples as some of the previous chapters. The message here supports the message of the following chapter on limited volume production. Taiichi O

Effective ERP Implementation

By Jon Miller - August 29th, 2005

I recently read about a Japanese company called OKI Electronics that went through implementing a new ERP system. They had a few good rules that I thought were quite smart and something I think all of us can learn from. ERP Implementati

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