Gemba Academy

On-time Delivery Starts with Trust

By Jon Miller - February 27th, 2005

On a recent trip to Dallas I had the chance to reflect on two different companies facing similar issues with poor on-time deliveries. One was an aerospace company and the other a consumer electronics company. Their production processes

OEE Basics from Europe

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2005

by Charles Lukey What is OEE and what can it do? OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. Done correctly, it can show you where your machines are losing money and what you can do about it. OEE is a powerful metric, calculated fr

The Four Elements for Sustaining Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 19th, 2005

One of the most frequent questions we encounter form our customers and prospects is the issue of how to sustain the gains made through kaizen and other continuous improvement efforts. In a recent discussion among our consultants, we ca

Three Keys to Sustaining 5S

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2005

Visiting a plant tour at a Midwestern cold rolled steel mill today, I had the chance to reflect on what makes a 5S effort sustained and successful. The owner took me through the mill and showed me a line at the start of the tour that w

Value Stream Maps & Right Brain Thinking

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2005

With the increasing commitment of major firms to TPS-based Lean initiatives, Value Stream Maps are increasingly becoming items seen in board rooms as well as kaizen team rooms. George David, Chairman and CEO of United Technologies is s

Where to Start the Lean Journey: 5S or With VSM?

By Jon Miller - February 1st, 2005

From time to time the question comes up, as it did again this week, or where an organization should start their Lean journey. Should they do 5S first and remove the obvious clutter? Or should they Value Stream Map the entire process, i

Why does Toyota Share the Secrets of TPS?

By Jon Miller - January 25th, 2005

During an overview of TPS given during a Just In Time training class, one of the participants asked why it was that Toyota was willing to share their secrets with their competitors. This is a question worth thinking deeply about. Certa

Planning a Lean Journey? Take the Toyota Way

By Jon Miller - January 14th, 2005

A survey of members by the Lean Enterprise Institute’s in February of 2004 found that 36% of those surveyed were in the planning or starting phase of Lean implementation. This number may be even higher if the level of requests we

Genchi Gembutsu

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2005

As we being a new year, there have been humbling reminders of one of the fundamentals of the Toyota way, namely Genchi Gembutsu. In short this means “go to the actual scene (genchi) and confirm the actual happenings or things (ge

TPS is the Thinking People System

By Jon Miller - December 1st, 2004

Recently, a friend who is a Lean Manager for a local aerospace company gave us some insight into how Toyota is presenting TPS to the world. After studying at several Toyota facilities in Kentucky, he informed us that they are now calli

Gemba Keiei, Chapter 2: If You Are Wrong, Admit It

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2004

In the second chapter Taiichi Ohno continues to gently lecture senior managers. He begins by answering the question of based on his earlier assumption “Why are we wrong half of the time?” by saying that our thinking is wron

A Sense of Urgency Like Smokey & the Bandit

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2004

On a recent trip to Brazil, I had the opportunity to visit a 270-employee automotive components manufacturer that is doing Lean. I was very impressed by the openness to change and the energy I felt among both the management and workfor

Gemba Keiei, Chapter 1: The Wise Mend their Ways

By Jon Miller - November 22nd, 2004

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter by saying that he doesn’t believe it’s easy to influence people on the Gemba to change. In order to get people to do kaizen, you need to convince them and help them understand. How are people

The Trap of Managing by Computer Screens

By Jon Miller - November 18th, 2004

One of the things that I notice when I go to offices in the US is walls everywhere and a computer screen at each desk. I recently lead a group of clients to Japan to visit a Toyota group company office that had taken the principles of

TPM Metrics & Financial Impact

By Jon Miller - November 17th, 2004

What metrics are available when utilizing TPM to show the financial impact of your program? During a recent kaizen event, we reviewed the TPM program for one of our clients. The Operations Manager raised a good question regarding TPM m

VP of Lean Enterprise Plays 20 Questions with Lean Managers

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2004

We received an odd call today at Gemba. Our Office Manager transferred the call to one of our senior consultants, saying “The person on the line wants to know about Heijunka.” The caller whom we’ll call Jay to protect

Introducing Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno

By Jon Miller - November 13th, 2004

Taiichi Ohno is one of the founders of TPS along with Shigeo Shingo and members of the Toyoda family. Three of Mr. Ohno’s major works on the Toyota Production System and kaizen have been translated into English. They are ‘T

Ownership Generates Success

By Jon Miller - November 12th, 2004

Bear McLaughlin, Operations Consultant October, 2004 During my journeys of training Office and Manufacturing Lean tools and techniques, I致e come across the same key in any business environment, OWNERSHIP, no ownership, means no succe

Where Does Lean Apply in Hospitals?

By Jon Miller - November 8th, 2004

Friday afternoon is a great time to call up customers and find out what’s on their minds. At Gemba Academy, we continue to talk with hospitals that are doing kaizen and pioneering Lean Healthcare. So last Friday, I put on the hea

Keeping Minds Nimble, Bodies Limber at Toyota

By Jon Miller - November 5th, 2004

Whenever we visit Toyota in Japan there is always at least one member of our study group who makes a comment about the pace at which the assemblers at the engine line and body assembly line work. At Takt Times of around a minute, worke

Streamlining Eye Surgery: Innovation in India

By Jon Miller - November 2nd, 2004

In the October 11, 2004 issue of BusinessWeek (The Innovation Economy issue, page 176) there was an interesting article providing an example of Lean thinking applied to healthcare. Lean Processes in Practice: Aravind Eye-Care’s H

In the News: Overproduction in Detroit

By Jon Miller - October 31st, 2004

On page one of the October 29th, 2004 Wall Street Journal there was an article titles “Big Dealers Pressure Car Makers To Cut Production: Higher Costs, Thinner Margins Are Forcing Major Sellers to Keep their Inventories Lean̶

The Power of Ideas from Everyone

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2004

Too few companies on the Lean journey have effectively incorporated what is known as “teian” or suggestion schemes for employees’ creative ideas. Although kaizen breakthrough activity may seem more dramatic and appeal

The Toyota Job Description: Follow Standards & Find Better Ways

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2004

The Toyota managers who share their insights with us on our study missions to Japan tell us there are two things that are part of every Toyota employee’s job. They are: 1) Follow the standard 2) Find a better way Kaizen: The Powe

Selling Autonomous Maintenance to the Machine Operator

By Jon Miller - October 18th, 2004

A client of ours has recently begun implementing TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) as the natural next step in their Lean journey. Their goals were to lengthen mean time between failures (MTBF) as well as replace time spent on reactiv

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