Gemba Academy

Swimming With Alligators

By Steve Kane - January 20th, 2015

By Steve Kane When I was a kid, I visited my dad at his office quite often. I remember he had a note on a corkboard that read “When you’re up to your [backside] in alligators, it can be difficult to remember your original objective

The Mindful Ohno

By Kevin Meyer - January 13th, 2015

By Kevin Meyer Mindfulness has become all the rage in personal and professional leadership these days, which is good and bad. Understood and done right, it is a very powerful concept. But as with most concepts it is also often misunde

Why Habits Could Be the Secret to Your Success in 2015

By Ron Pereira - January 6th, 2015

“All our life, so far as it has a definite form, is but a mass of habits.” – William James It’s the new year and just about everyone I know has some sort of resolution. Some want to lose weight so they’re committe

The Value of Not Knowing

By Steve Kane - December 30th, 2014

By Steve Kane “If I am wiser. . . it is because I know that I do not know.” ~ Socrates Is it possible that expertise on a particular subject can become an obstacle to learning and growth? There comes a point when a person

Reflecting on the Intentional Routine

By Kevin Meyer - December 16th, 2014

By Kevin Meyer My post a couple weeks ago on Gratitude, for Gratitude, generated a large number of responses. Interestingly, most were private, commenting on both the nature of gratitude but especially on my daily routine. I had de

3 Things I’ve Learned in 2014

By Ron Pereira - December 9th, 2014

This article was written by Ron Pereira I’m not sure about you… but 2014 has come and gone faster than any year I can remember! My wife and I welcomed another child to our family towards the end of 2013 which has definitely kept us

Skateboarding and A Path To Discovery

By Steve Kane - December 2nd, 2014

This article was written by Steve Kane Clarity of Vision Vision, mission and values are often thought to be guiding forces of an organization. These ideas give us a sense of who we are as an organization and where we’re headed—wh

Lean Thinker Challenge #6

By Ron Pereira - November 25th, 2014

Welcome to another edition of the Lean Thinker Challenge! The Situation Several members of your team just attended the AME Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. Today is their first day back to work and they’re far more pumped up

Airbnb and Uber – From Batch to One Piece Flow

By Kevin Meyer - November 17th, 2014

Some of the more interesting internet-driven companies these days are the likes of Airbnb and Uber. They call themselves part of the “sharing economy.” But let’s take a look at the word “share.” From the MacMillan dictionary

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Caution! Possible Scalding

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2014

Labeling and signage alone are about as effective in preventing accidents as fences are in preventing birds from flying over them. Warning labels can come across as a mere attempt to minimize a business’s liability, rather than a

Review of Lead with Respect by Freddy & Michael Ballé

By Jon Miller - August 2nd, 2014

Lead With Respect: A Novel of Lean Practice by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé is the one book on lean that I will recommend this year to anyone who asks. I am not a fan of the business novel. There is already enough fiction in most b

What’s Faster: One Piece Flow or Mass Production? Watch This Envelope Stuffing Simulation To Find Out!

By Ron Pereira - July 29th, 2014

We recently re-shot the first video I ever created back in 2008. Specifically, this video shows the difference between one piece flow and mass production. I first learned of this simulation many years ago while reading the book Lean

We Have Met the Enemy

By Ron Pereira - July 21st, 2014

My 7-year-old son and I were recently driving together in the car. My son isn’t normally a big talker (his sisters more than make up for it… ha!) so we were engaged in some small talk while listening to the radio. Then, out

Why is “What is Lean?” ‘A Simple Question Without An Easy Answer’?

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2014

This article refers to the Lean.org posting: ‘simple question without an easy answer?’ First of all, “what is lean?” is not a question whose answer can be qualified as “easy” or “hard&

The Secret to Lean Success in One Sentence

By Ron Pereira - June 16th, 2014

I was working on an office value stream map module for the refresh we’re doing to our Transforming your Value Streams course. During this module we share several questions that can be asked as team’s work to create an impro

Gemba Academy Culture Code – A Guide to the Way of Life at Gemba Academy

By Ron Pereira - June 9th, 2014

My business associates and I have been busy creating what we’re calling the “Gemba Academy Culture Code.” We’re sharing it with the world since we hope it gives everyone a better idea of what we’re strivin

How I Got to Inbox Zero and Have Maintained It For More Than One Month

By Ron Pereira - May 20th, 2014

My email inbox is currently at 0. Actually, no, that’s not right. My email inboxes are currently at 0. You see, I have three different inboxes configured within my Apple Mail – my main Gemba Academy inbox, my personal G

Lean Thinker Challenge #5

By Ron Pereira - May 5th, 2014

Welcome to another edition of the Lean Thinker Challenge! The Situation Your company has been on the lean journey for a little over a year… things have gone well and while there’s been some resistance to change most associ

My Final LSS Academy Post

By Ron Pereira - April 25th, 2014

I remember it like it was yesterday… it was January 2007 and I was sitting on my couch surfing the web while watching TV. I had just read a lean related blog article by my friend, Jon Miller, and wondered how hard it would be to

Is Home Depot’s Expedited Checkout Lean?

By Ron Pereira - March 31st, 2014

It’s warming up here in North Texas… as such businesses like Home Depot are EXTREMELY BUSY places. Yesterday I joined the crowd to buy some tomatoes and other vegetables to plant in our garden. And, yes, the checkout line

My Newest Stand Up Desk!

By Ron Pereira - January 23rd, 2014

Friends, I have a confession to make. In November of 2009 I wrote about my new stand up desk. I was quite proud of how I’d managed to prop an old desk up on some crates… I guess you could say I definitely used my wits over my w

Review of Value Stream Mapping by Karen Martin & Mike Osterling

By Jon Miller - January 14th, 2014

There have been several watershed moments in the development of Western consciousness and practice of Lean management over the past 25 years. Perhaps first was the arrival of Masaaki Imai, Chihiro Nakao and Yoshiki Iwata in Connecticut

Lean Thinker Challenge #4

By Ron Pereira - January 7th, 2014

Welcome to the first Lean Thinker Challenge of 2014! The Situation You’re the owner of a very successful manufacturing company. Your company began its lean journey 10 years ago and has realized tremendous benefits. In fact, lean thin

Review of Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein

By Jon Miller - December 17th, 2013

It’s a happy day when a favorite author-business philosophers integrates two favorite qualities into 121 concise pages. Edgar Schein has done this in Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. He argues simply a

What does ‘right first time’ mean in an R&D environment?

By Jon Miller - December 8th, 2013

Decades that have passed since anchoring principles of Lean have been published, reworded and republished, from Deming, Liker and others. Lean tools and their results abound, but Lean behaviors evidencing belief in these principles are

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