Lean Archives | Page 31 of 67

How Lean Transformations Achieve a Fast Takeoff, Part 1 of 2

By Jon Miller - March 26th, 2018

Superintelligence, as defined in the book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, is “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.” Hum

GA 207 | How to Define the Role of People in Lean with Jon Miller

By Jessica Bush - March 22nd, 2018

This week’s guest is GA Co-Founder Jon Miller. Ron and Jon discussed the people side of lean, specifically why stating that lean is “all about people” can be problematic. An MP3 version of this episode is available fo

Lean is All About People – Or is It? 2 of 2

By Jon Miller - March 19th, 2018

In Part 1, we asked whether it was true that lean was “all about the people” and saw that lean was at least as much about flow, batch size reduction, and the various lean methods that enable this. What are the other two mai

GA 206 | How to Sustain Your Lean Success with Geoff Cox

By Jessica Bush - March 15th, 2018

This week’s guest is Production Manager Geoff Cox. Geoff and Ron discussed the key role of culture, and why lean really is all about people. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’

Lean is All About People – Or is It? 1 of 2

By Jon Miller - March 12th, 2018

Lean is all about people. Few get very far arguing against this proposition because, when you do, you lose the people. As with any socio-technical system, engaging the people plays a large part in the success of lean. It feels good to

GA 205 | How to Use Lean in the Cafeteria with Willy Bustillos

By Jessica Bush - March 8th, 2018

This week’s guest is Willy Bustillos, a Food Service Manager who uses lean principles to improve high school cafeterias. Willy explained what it’s like applying lean in such an untraditional setting, including some of the c

Will the Smart City be a Lean City?

By Jon Miller - March 5th, 2018

Today we live in an era in which our phones, watches, household appliances and our homes themselves are getting smart. At the moment, all “smart” means is “internet connected”. This is a bit ironic as when humans connect to tod

Gemba Academy Enhancements

By Ron Pereira - March 2nd, 2018

We’ve recently made some enhancements here at Gemba Academy that I’m pretty excited about. Asset Browser First up is what we’re calling the “Asset Browser.” While we’re likely best known for videos

GA 204 | How to Set the Stage for Your Lean Journey with Matt Kellett

By Jessica Bush - March 1st, 2018

This week’s guest is continuous improvement leader Matt Kellett. Matt and Ron discussed what needs to be in place in order to successfully start and sustain a lean journey. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download

Has Anyone Seen My Target Condition?

By Jon Miller - February 26th, 2018

Steve Kane pointed out last week in his excellent blog post how we need to be careful when practicing Toyota kata not to “ambush” each other by demanding to know “What’s the current condition?” or “

Avoid the Ambush

By Steve Kane - February 23rd, 2018

As I’m writing this, I’m attending the Toyota Kata Summit in Atlanta. The early keynotes of the conference touched on several important aspects of Lean leadership. Among them were the general topic of respect for people

GA 203 | How to Apply Lean to Manufacturing Location Decisions with Harry Moser

By Jessica Bush - February 22nd, 2018

This week’s guest is Harry Moser, Founder and President of the Reshoring Initiative. Ron and Harry discussed reshoring, including what it is and how lean plays a role. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here

What is the Most Human Level of Complexity?

By Jon Miller - February 19th, 2018

One of the goals of continuous improvement, or the management of any enterprise, always seems to involve reducing complexity. It is almost an article of faith that simplicity equals beauty and goodness. I’ve always had a vague na

GA 202 | How to Achieve Clarity with Karen Martin

By Jessica Bush - February 15th, 2018

This week’s guest is consultant and speaker Karen Martin. Karen shed some light on the importance of individual and organizational clarity in anticipation of her new book, Clarity First. An MP3 version of this episode is availab

Homo Sapiens Visualis

By Jon Miller - February 12th, 2018

An interesting article suggested that the gap in artistic ability between early modern humans and relative Homo species such as the Neanderthals was due to differences in the way they hunted. The Neanderthals stabbed tamer prey at clos

GA 201 | How to Apply Lean to the Airline Industry with David Acklin

By Jessica Bush - February 8th, 2018

This week’s guest is David Acklin from Hawaiian Airlines. David explained how they improved their interline baggage process, including how they got other airlines involved. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download

Looking Right at the Essence of TPS

By Jon Miller - February 5th, 2018

My friend Reiko Kano began her career as Taiichi Ohno’s interpreter thirty years ago. She then supported Ohno’s disciples, the Shingijutsu consultants, for decades. She recently wrote a book about her experiences. One of he

Learn, Grow, Share

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2018

I had the strangest dream last night. I don’t normally remember my dreams… but I remember this one. I was speaking to a man about continuous improvement. I’m not sure who the man was… but in my dream I see

GA 200 | What We’ve Learned from 200 Episodes with Ron Pereira and Past Guests

By Jessica Bush - February 1st, 2018

This week we’re celebrating a milestone: our 200th episode. For this special episode we decided to highlight some of the major themes we’ve had thus far, featuring some truly incredible guests. An MP3 version of this episod

The Seven Losses of High IQ Leadership

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2018

Given a choice between a leader who is dumb and a leader who is smart, most of us would choose the smart one. A smart leader will be able to draw on more knowledge, make better decisions, and find solutions to the group’s more di

Big Decisions Don’t Lead to Results

By Steve Kane - January 26th, 2018

The Big Idea January’s the month for resolutions–big decisions to make significant changes in one’s life. Celebration of the new year offers a sense of renewal and opportunity for change. While the month of Januar

GA 199 | How to Understand Your Current Condition with Drew Locher

By Jessica Bush - January 25th, 2018

This week’s guest is Drew Locher. Drew explained a huge issue in continuous improvement…rushing into countermeasures before taking the time to investigate and understand the current condition. An MP3 version of this episode

Taoism, Lean Thinking and Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2018

I’ve written before on the parallels between Taoism and TPS a.k.a. lean thinking. It is not surprising that we find influences from so-called Eastern philosophies, as Taiichi Ohno and the others framers the Toyota Way were were f

GA 198 | How to Start and Fund Your Lean Journey with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - January 18th, 2018

This week we’re sharing our first two Gemba Talk episodes, a new video series available without a subscription. Specifically, Ron explains what it takes to both start and fund a lean journey. An MP3 version of this episode is ava

The Value of Muda

By Jon Miller - January 15th, 2018

I found some wisdom in a surprising place, on the theme of lean thinking, learning, value, and muda. Ichiro Suzuki is a very successful professional baseball player who at age 44 has played the game for 25 years and intends to play int

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