Lean Archives | Page 11 of 67

Leverage the Power of Safety to Drive Cultural Transformation

By Kevin Meyer - February 11th, 2022

Earlier this week our good friend Mark Graban at Lean Blog reminded me of an article on how former Alcoa CEO Paul O’Neill focused on improving workplace safety, which contributed to driving growth from $3 billion in 1987 to $27 b

GA 410 | Are You Winning or Losing? with Max Krug and Pavel Kuviarzin

By Jessica Bush - February 10th, 2022

This week’s guests are Max Krug and Pavel Kuviarzin. Part Two of a recent episode, Max and Pavel discuss everything from root cause analysis and problem-solving, to sustaining success. They also stressed the importance of visual

Towards A Practice Pattern for Gratitude

By Jon Miller - February 7th, 2022

Between food, family, and the feeling of gratitude, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s easy to be thankful when our blessings cover and surround the dining room table. Even when we have little, or when we face stru

The Continuous Improvement Culture Model

By Ron Pereira - February 4th, 2022

This article was written by John Knotts, a Senior Coach here at Gemba Academy In September, we started our journey of Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement. In that first article, I discussed the concept of my model I use to

GA 409 | Continuous Improvement at Douglas Dynamics with Shannan Vlieger

By Jessica Bush - February 3rd, 2022

This week’s guest is Shannan Vlieger. Ron and Shannan talked all about Douglas Dynamics and their management system, DDMS. Shannan explained the five levers of DDMS and why they’re important. An MP3 audio version of this ep

Leader Standard Work for Time and Contingency Planning

By Jon Miller - January 31st, 2022

Many of us make plans or set intentions to improve some aspect of our lives early in the year, or after a break or period of reflection. We may want to prepare healthier meals, exercise more, increase our earnings, get better at guitar

Building A Culture Of Continuous Improvement Part Two

By Steve Kane - January 28th, 2022

This article was written by John Knotts, a Senior Coach here at Gemba Academy. This is the fourth in a series of five articles written by John. The previous three are hyperlinked below: Over the last three months, we have covered th

GA 408 | Lean and Life Coaches with Sarah Tilkens

By Jessica Bush - January 27th, 2022

This week’s guest is Sarah Tilkens. Sarah talked about her journey as a leader at GE and how she has embraced her true self in the process. Sarah also explained her interest in becoming a life coach. An MP3 audio version of thi

From Lean Workplaces to Empowered Work Spaces

By Jon Miller - January 24th, 2022

We could describe what lean management does as an exercise in threefold rearrangement. First, we rearrange what’s in our minds. This often begins with our attitude about what is our isn’t “my job”. It includes h

GA 407 | Choosing an Approach to Lean and Six Sigma with John Knotts

By Jessica Bush - January 20th, 2022

This week’s guest is John Knotts, Senior Coach at Gemba Academy. Ron and John took a deep dive into process improvement versus project-based approaches, and why the two can and should coexist. An MP3 audio version of this episode

Continuously Lubricating Processes

By Kevin Meyer - January 14th, 2022

As I push through my later 50s I’m finding that I value flexibility and balance far more than strength and endurance. This is augmented in my case as I’ve always had very high calcium levels, and even after removing dairy

GA 406 | Reflecting on 2021 with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - January 13th, 2022

This week’s guest is Gemba Academy Co-Founder Ron Pereira. As we kick off the new year, Ron decided to share some of the observations he’s made and the lessons he’s learned recently, and how he’s going to live a

Lean Thinking and Extending the Mind

By Jon Miller - January 10th, 2022

It’s well-known that the the particular method for combining manpower, materials, and machinery known as lean manufacturing matured at Toyota in the latter half of the 20th century. Many organizations, both industrial and not, ha

Crafting Your Continuous Improvement Strategy

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2022

This article was written by John Knotts, a Senior Coach here at Gemba Academy Two months ago, we started our journey on building a culture of continuous improvement. We know that continuous improvement brings many benefits to an organi

GA 405 | Elevating Constraints with Max Krug and Pavel Kuviarzin

By Jessica Bush - January 6th, 2022

This week’s guests are Max Krug and Pavel Kuviarzin. Max and Pavel gave us their take on the relationship between lean, processes, and The Theory of Constraints. They also touched on the dangers of falling too far into one partic

How Lean Practices Adjust the Difficulty Level of Work

By Jon Miller - January 5th, 2022

One sentence caught my attention around the midpoint of the episode of Hidden Brain, titled Work 2.0: Game On! This was after setting the context of how people often view work as pointless or tedious, while enjoying playing games, even

GA 404 | Leading in a VUCA Environment with James Newell

By Jessica Bush - December 30th, 2021

This week’s guest is James Newell. Ron and James talked all about what VUCA means, how James introduced his team to lean, and more. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’ll

GA 403 | Moving the Needle with Robb Holman

By Jessica Bush - December 23rd, 2021

This week’s guest is Robb Holman. Ron and Robb talked about Robb’s most recent book, Move the Needle. Robb also shared some of the most powerful stories we’ve had on the podcast to date. Don’t skip this one. An

GA 402 | Leading From the Jumpseat with Peter Docker

By Jessica Bush - December 16th, 2021

This week’s guest is Peter Docker. Speaker, author, and former member of the Royal Air Force, Peter had a lot of very powerful leadership advice to share. He and Ron also specifically discussed Peter’s book, Leading From th

How to Think About Breakthrough Objectives

By Jon Miller - December 13th, 2021

It’s the time of year when many organizations begin their final review of the past period, and begin looking ahead to the next one. Before setting goals for the coming year, it’s common to zoom out, looking at the big pictu

GA 401 | Continuous Improvement and the Future of Industry 4.0 with Juan Gomez

By Jessica Bush - December 9th, 2021

This week’s guest is Juan Gomez. Juan has an impressive continuous improvement background and a real passion for Industry 4.0. He and Ron talked about the history of industrialization, how we’ll adapt moving forwards, and m

GA 400 | The Gemba Academy Journey with Ron Pereira, Kevin Meyer, and Jon Miller

By Jessica Bush - December 2nd, 2021

This week we’re celebrating our 400th episode with some very special guests, the Gemba Academy Co-Founders. Joined by Jennifer, one of our Business Development Managers, Ron, Jon, and Kevin reflect on our journey as a company t

Continuous Improvement of Learning and Development

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2021

I was reading through some research on how businesses are evolving their approaches to learning and development. A figure caught my attention: $1,111. This is how much businesses spent per person on training in the year 2020. What stru

GA 399 | Practicing Lean Accounting with Mike De Luca and Nick Katko

By Jessica Bush - November 25th, 2021

This week’s guests are Mike De Luca and Nick Katko. Together with Ron they discussed the concept of lean accounting, and what its advantages are over traditional cost accounting. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available

Rediscovering the Taste of Toast

By Jon Miller - November 23rd, 2021

This week I had the opportunity to abstain from food for a couple of days for medical reasons. This wasn’t my first experience with fasting. The couple of times I did when I was much younger, I didn’t enjoy it. I was more a

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