Gemba Academy

Room Service Menus Gone Bad

By Jon Miller - February 24th, 2011

Telling the business traveler “you are in an inviable position” is bold but may not be the best way to sell freshly squeezed orange juice for 5 Euro per glass. The definition of “inviable” is “unable to su

Are Dishwashers Lean?

By Ron Pereira - February 21st, 2011

Doug, a reader of LSS Academy and Gemba Academy subscriber sent me the following question. I have some opinions but am very interested in what you all think of Doug’s question. Here is what Doug sent. Hi Ron, Does a dishwa

Where Excellence Fears to Tread

By Jon Miller - February 17th, 2011

In the latest e-letter from Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook titled Toyota and Sudden Acceleration: Facts from the NASA Report, John draws a few deeper lessons about the Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System by reflecting

Stealing Monkeys

By Ron Pereira - February 16th, 2011

I love learning new things… as such yesterday was a very good day as I had the privilege to hear Mike Wroblewski deliver training on Leader Standard Work, TPM, and Time Observation. For those interested, all of this live training was

Lean Consulting, Packaging and the Slow Path to Success

By Jon Miller - February 13th, 2011

I eat out too often. This is the factor of the amount of work-related travel and the difficulty of preparing my own food in a time and materials-efficient manner while on the road. This is one of the reasons why too many lean consultan

This is the worst it’s ever been

By Ron Pereira - February 10th, 2011

I’m typically a glass is half full kind of guy. But I also believe the phrase “This is the worst it’s ever been…” just may be the mission statement successful people and organizations live by. You se

Does Master Yoda Wisdom Contradict Lean Thinking?

By Ron Pereira - February 4th, 2011

In this famous Star Wars Dagobah swamp scene Master Yoda challenges Luke to raise his sunken starfighter with the power of his mind. I’ll Try Luke replies like many of us might when he says, “I’ll try.” Master Yoda then sco

The True Meaning of Zen

By Jon Miller - February 2nd, 2011

What is the true meaning of zen? At one level the answer is easy. It means meditation. The Japanese for zen is from the Chinese for chan which in turn comes from the Hindu dhyana, the form of yoga through meditation. Ok, so that is the

Practice Makes Champions

By Ron Pereira - January 31st, 2011

A few months ago I wrote about my soccer coaching experiences with my daughter’s U7 team. To conclude that article I mentioned we were about to start playing indoor soccer. Well, that indoor season ended Friday night… and I’m hap

The Importance of Metering the Smallest Losses

By Jon Miller - January 26th, 2011

There is an expression in Japanese, 　「ちりも積もれば山となる」　”Dust accumulates to form a mountain.” (chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru). While this may not be geologically correct, it carries a deep truth

Why Don’t We See More QC Circles?

By Jon Miller - January 24th, 2011

In the early 1990s I recall my Japanese sensei were absolutely appalled at the dearth of industrial engineers and production engineers within the ranks of the major American manufacturers who hired them as kaizen consultants. The cycle

Applying Lean at a Food Bank

By Ron Pereira - January 24th, 2011

** Updated Jan 13, 2017 ** It seems the original video linked in this blog article has been removed. Not to worry, we found another great video for you to enjoy! ** Original Post Below ** Hat tip to my friend, and business partner, K

Intel Volunteers Apply Lean Principles to Food Bank

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2011

My friend Kevin Meyer of Superfactory shared a great example of lean principles being applied beyond manufacturing to help a non-profit organization become more productive in serving the needs of the community. Roadrunner Food Bank put

3rd Annual Management Blog Review 2 of 2: The Lean Thinker

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2011

Mark Rosenthal has a lot to think about. For the past several decades he has seen companies struggle, fail and succeed at implementing lean thinking. He has played a role in the success at Boeing, Terex and Eastman-Kodak to name just a

We Need Less FAKE Lean, More FAIL Lean

By Jon Miller - January 18th, 2011

This week in Bob Emiliani’s e-newlsetter Lean Leadership News, he addresses two interesting questions: “Does an organization need to start with Fake Lean?” “Is that a key part of the learning process on the way

3rd Annual Management Blog Review 1 of 2: DailyKaizen

By Jon Miller - January 18th, 2011

Every so often John Hunter of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog organizes a handful of us to review the writing of other bloggers. The 3rd annual review involves 14 bloggers introducing the work of 50 others. My choice was to

The Only Type of Kaizen is Daily Kaizen

By Jon Miller - January 17th, 2011

Last week I was asked to identify the three types of kaizen. People feel the need to classify. Boundaries are useful approximations and should not limit us too much in practice. The three types of kaizen commonly identified are big, me

Standardization Video

By Ron Pereira - January 16th, 2011

This video focuses on the extremely important topic of Standardization. It’s also the first video of Gemba Academy’s latest course focused entirely on the lean concept of Standard Work. To learn more about this Standard Wor

My Take on Lean and Six Sigma Certifications

By Ron Pereira - January 13th, 2011

A few days ago I posed the question about whether exam based lean six sigma certifications were legitimate or frauds. As usual, many of you came through with excellent thoughts and comments. Some of you supported the idea, others argu

Exam Based Six Sigma Certifications – Legit or Fraud?

By Ron Pereira - January 12th, 2011

The topic of Lean and Six Sigma Certification is one of the most debated topics in the continuous improvement world. And since I’m never one to shy away from some good old-fashioned debate… I’d like to present the fol

Ambiguous Visual Controls: KEEP RED OFF LINE

By Jon Miller - January 5th, 2011

Who is Red and why is it important to keep him off line? This Monday I realized that for the past 13 years I have been stepping on or over these letters on the floor in SeaTac International Airport without taking any action regarding R

The Best of LSS Academy – 2010 Edition

By Ron Pereira - January 4th, 2011

As we welcome 2011 with open arms I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect back on the year that was. In 2010 LSS Academy grew far faster than I could have ever expected as we reached more than 11,000 subscribers. Thank you! An

Why Hoshin Kanri?

By Ron Pereira - January 3rd, 2011

In this article we’ll continue our hoshin kanri series. In part 1 of this series we learned what the words hoshin kanri mean… so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already. Let’s Set Some Objectives! As we start 2011 many

Tools are Worthless, but Tooling is Everything

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2011

Last month LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook asked us all a fundamental question in his e-mail newsletter. Everyone wants to know “what’s next for lean?” and John Shook answers this by saying, but in a much nicer way, &

A New Year, a New Gemba

By Jon Miller - January 1st, 2011

I welcome 2011 with a great deal of optimism and excitement. Today marks a new beginning for our company, our team and for me personally. Thirteen years ago we founded Gemba Research with the goal of doing something significant towards

Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive