Lean Archives | Page 30 of 67

GA 217 | How Gemba Academy Practices Lean with Leslie Moles and Jennifer Scott

By Jessica Bush - May 31st, 2018

This week’s guests are our own Leslie Moles and Jennifer Scott. Leslie and Jennifer shared what it’s like practicing lean at Gemba Academy, specifically how we leverage Toyota Kata. An MP3 version of this episode is avail

Instructions Aren’t Enough

By Steve Kane - May 25th, 2018

During a recent airline emergency, cabin pressure was lost and the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Passengers donned the masks, but not quite as instructed. Mobile phone videos of the incident showed many passengers wearing th

GA 216 | How to Reignite a Continuous Improvement Program with Casey Johnson

By Jessica Bush - May 24th, 2018

This week’s guest is Casey Johnson. Casey and Ron discussed the best ways to help an organization who has experienced a failed CI initiative get back on track. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. In thi

Compassion as a Competitive Advantage

By Jon Miller - May 21st, 2018

“The long-term value of a company is based on the speed and quality of its decision-making.” These are the words of Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. He was speaking to the 2018 graduating business school students at the Univer

GA 215 | How to Reflect on Lessons Learned with Brian Buck

By Jessica Bush - May 17th, 2018

This week’s guest is Brian Buck. Brian reflected back on his journey thus far and shared some of the lessons he’s learned, including the importance of defining and maintaining standards. An MP3 version of this episode is av

Why Have Belts in Lean and Six Sigma?

By Jon Miller - May 14th, 2018

Motorola and the General Electric company made the greatest contributions to introduce Six Sigma across business in the 20th century. The deployment of Six Sigma often relied on “belts” of various colors, people who complet

Learn by Preparing to Teach

By Kevin Meyer - May 11th, 2018

Many studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to learn new material is not just to perform an activity with the new knowledge, but to teach it. It’s the reason why several companies ask interview finalists for new

GA 214 | How to Set a Challenge with Mark Rosenthal

By Jessica Bush - May 10th, 2018

This week’s guest is consultant Mark Rosenthal. Mark shared some insights regarding the various components of Toyota Kata, including setting a challenge and determining a target condition. An MP3 version of this episode is availa

What’s the Right Way to Do a Gemba Walk?

By Jon Miller - May 7th, 2018

From time to time people ask me a variation of the question, “What’s the right way to do a gemba walk?” They want to see an outline of activities, a step-by-step process for planning, taking the walk and reflecting on

Lean Municipal Government Forum in Grand Rapids

New Videos: Lean Municipal Government Forum

By Kevin Meyer - May 4th, 2018

Is your city’s government using lean? If not, perhaps you should forward this to them! We just released a new video series with the presentations and tours from the Lean Municipal Government Forum recently held in Grand Rapids, M

How do you walk the gemba?

By Ron Pereira - May 4th, 2018

Later this year we’re going to produce a course focused on the gemba walk. We have lots of ideas of how to approach this course but, like many aspects of lean, if you ask 10 “experts” how to go about the gemba walk

GA 213 | How to Lead with Joy with Richard Sheridan

By Jessica Bush - May 3rd, 2018

This week’s guest is Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations. Ron and Richard discussed the premise of Richard’s new book, Lead With Joy, including what it means to be a humble, compassionate, joyful leader. An MP3 ver

Lean Leadership is Teaching Learned Helpfulness

By Jon Miller - April 30th, 2018

When we use the expression “three-ring circus” we mean that the situation is chaotic and full of activity, not that it is entertaining. Chaotic or not, it takes effort to train animals to perform. Three-ring circuses and d

Where Do I Start with Lean?

By Steve Kane - April 27th, 2018

Where should I start with Lean? is a common question we receive at Gemba Academy. Some say starting with 5S is a must. Others favor eliminating the seven deadly wastes. Others still suggest value stream mapping. A great question

GA 212 | How to Combine TWI, Kata, and a Kaizen Event with Brandon Brown

By Jessica Bush - April 26th, 2018

This week’s guest is Brandon Brown. Brandon explained how he and his team have combined elements of TWI, kata, and kaizen events into a unique and effective learning system. An MP3 version of this episode is available for downloa

Too Good to Be True? Sustaining Kaizen for 20 Years

By Jon Miller - April 23rd, 2018

In podcast #211 we caught up with Jeff Kaas, the President of Kaas Tailored. When we first met, Jeff was 30 and I was 27 years old. He had just taken over the family business. Jeff suspected that he didn’t know what he was doin

GA 211 | How to Navigate a Kaizen Journey with Jeff Kaas

By Jessica Bush - April 19th, 2018

This week’s guest is Jeff Kaas, President of Kaas Tailored and Lead Consultant at Truth Bit Pull Consulting. Jeff described how he discovered kaizen, how it changed his company, and more. An MP3 version of this episode is availab

Lean Lessons from a Do-Nothing Scholar-Bureaucrat

By Jon Miller - April 16th, 2018

The words of the fourth century Taoist philosopher Zhuanzi led to a previous article about Lean thinking and respect for humanity. Another piece of writing attributed to him is titled Geng Sang Chu. It tells the story of a disciple of

The Importance of Respect for People in Problem-Solving

By Kevin Meyer - April 13th, 2018

Respect for people is one of the two core pillars of lean, if not the most important. We talk and write about it a lot, and it is a significant component of Gemba Academy’s online lean training programs. When respect for people i

GA 210 | How to Identify and Counteract the Three Root Sins with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - April 12th, 2018

This week’s guest is actually Ron himself. Our own Steve Kane came on the show to ask Ron about the concept of root sin, and how it applies to both business and continuous improvement. An MP3 version of this episode is available

The Three Key Metrics for Continuous Improvement

By Jon Miller - April 9th, 2018

There are three key metrics to track our progress when striving for the ideal of continuous improvement. What we call continuous improvement (CI) is in fact unattainable. Something that is continuous is uninterrupted and never rests. E

The Thinking Rat Race

By Ron Pereira - April 6th, 2018

We’ve recently had some really fun podcast conversations centered around the whole “respect for people” topic. My friend and colleague, Jon Miller, challenged the idea of whether lean is really all about people. Fel

GA 209 | How to Address Poverty with Lean-Like Thinking with Jacob Stoller and Mauricio Miller

By Jessica Bush - April 5th, 2018

This week’s guests are Jacob Stoller and Mauricio Miller. Ron, Jacob, and Mauricio discussed the Family Independence Initiative, and how a lean-like approach can be used to create real social change. An MP3 version of this episod

How Lean Transformations Achieve a Fast Takeoff, Part 2 of 2

By Jon Miller - April 2nd, 2018

In part 1, we learned about recalcitrance and how it could prevent a fast takeoff of a superintelligence. We then drew a comparison to organizations investing effort into becoming smarter by learning and improving on a continual basis.

GA 208 | How to Define Lean, Success, and Strategy with Jon Miller and Michael Ballé

By Jessica Bush - March 29th, 2018

This week’s guests are Jon Miller and Michael Ballé. Together with Ron, they discussed the definitions of lean, success, and strategy, as well as using lean as a strategy for innovation and growth. An MP3 version of this episode

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