Gemba Academy

A Question About Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2009

Here is a question for you about kaizen: You have two continuous improvement systems; one which invests in 10 brilliant people each solving one $250,000 problem per year or another system which invests in 1,000 average people solving o

Free Introduction to Lean Video

By Ron Pereira - February 18th, 2009

Here is part one of our first Gemba Academy video. To see the complete and full screen version – in high definition – please visit our main site. Stay tuned for more free videos in the coming weeks.

Guest Post: Daily Lean Marketing Speech

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2009

Hello, I am Franck Demarest, 32 years old. I am French and have been working in the continuous improvement field in the automotive industry. I have been in Tier 1 ((JIT Production Responsible, 6 Sigma Black Belt and Lean Facilitator) d

Smiling, Laughing, and Blow-out Diapers

By Ron Pereira - February 17th, 2009

A friend, who’ll stay nameless since it involves a family member of his, recently told the story of how his 8 month old child threw-up on him, smiled, laughed and then had a blow-out diaper. How’s that for imagery? Well, my fri

Free Introduction to Lean Manufacturing Video

By Jon Miller - February 17th, 2009

This is the first video from Gemba Academy. We will create both free content and subscription-based content with interactive content and guides you can download to check your learning. This 10-minute video is on YouTube. Please visit w

10 Ways that Kaizen Develops Better Leaders

By Jon Miller - February 15th, 2009

Here are ten ways that kaizen develops better leaders. #1 Attention The leader well-heeled in kaizen notices the small things and is bothered by them if they seem abnormal. They pay attention to details. #2 Vision The practice of kaize

Gemba Academy: Improvement Learning, Improved

By Ron Pereira - February 14th, 2009

Let me start with three words: passionate, ecstatic and enthralled. Passionate is the perfect word to describe how I feel about continuous improvement. While ecstatic best describes my joy at being able to share some exciting news with

7 Ways to Reduce Energy Cost

By Jon Miller - February 13th, 2009

Earlier this week Ron Pereira wrote about 7 ways to reduce costs at the Lean Six Sigma Academy blog. He ht a nerve and kicked up quite storm of more than a dozen comments when he suggested that frequent flyer miles be saved by the comp

Genchi Genbutsu: Do You Really Understand It?

By Ron Pereira - February 13th, 2009

If you’ve read this blog – or really any other lean related publication – you’ve likely heard the phrase genchi genbutsu used many times. “Data is of course important in manufacturing, but I place the greatest emp

The Lean Workplace as Classroom

By Jon Miller - February 12th, 2009

The the Harvard Business Review article Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System Kent Bowen and Steven Spear describe Toyota as a “community of scientists” based on the their approach to management. Specifically, th

Is Pottery Barn Lean?

By Ron Pereira - February 11th, 2009

We’ve had the same couch for about 8 years. I love it. It’s one of those huge sectionals with the “captain’s chair” in the middle. I’ve watched my Buckeyes win a National Championship while sitting on this couch. I’ve als

Where Did Value Stream Mapping Come From?

By Jon Miller - February 10th, 2009

Harish Jose asked about value stream mapping: Is this “tool” used and abused by lean manufacturing practitioners? Why is this tool not explained in Ohno, Monden or Shingo’s books? Shingo does talk about the process an

Celebrating Over 500 Years of Lean Thinking

By Jon Miller - February 9th, 2009

Since 1997 the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org) has helped to popularize and spread lean thinking worldwide through book publishing, seminars, conferences and many other ways. LEI has been especially generous in sharing

7 Ways to Reduce Costs

By Ron Pereira - February 9th, 2009

If you work for a company that doesn’t need to cut costs you can ignore this article. If, however, your company needs to reduce costs now more than ever it’s my hope this short article may help you along the way. And while the idea

The Top 10 Titans of TPS

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2009

Sean asked an interesting question: Who would you consider to be the titans of the TPS? Certainly, there was Ohno and Shingo, but is there anyone else that should be on the list? I like to connect the history to people because it shows

Don’t Touch the Fish. Because…

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2009

The last time I was in Japan, I was amused by a sound byte on the radio news. The Tsukiji fish market decided to close their doors to visitors because, “No matter how many times we tell them, they don’t listen.” In th

Kaizen Skills of an Operations Leader

By Jon Miller - February 4th, 2009

Stephen Ondoro is a newly appointed operations leader who asked: “I have been chosen as an operations leader yet it has not been clarified as to the role and scope. What kaizen skills do i need to lead my team successfully? Pleas

3 More Practical Ways to Show Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - February 3rd, 2009

One of the underlying principles of the Toyota Production System is the founder’s desire to instill in Toyota’s workers a deeply spiritual sense of respect for humanity in the course of operating a manufacturing company. Al

7 Practical Ways to Respect People

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2009

How many times have you heard lean advocates ramble on about how respecting people is a key tenet of the vaunted Toyota Production System? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this AND written it myself here on LSS Academy. A

How to Arrive at the Vital Few

By Jon Miller - February 2nd, 2009

Alex asked a question “How do organizations determine the ‘vital few’? Any small number of activities that have the largest impact in relation to business planning, launching an TPS implementation project or simply ge

The Correct Sequence for Doing 5S?

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2009

Harish was reading the archives and asked a question: Traditionally (Hirano or Ohno’s Work Place Management) 5S is in a specific order – Sort, Set (Straighten), Shine (Spic & Span), Standardize and Sustain (if needed).

10 Ways the USPS Can Become a True Economic Engine

By Jon Miller - January 28th, 2009

Today my good friend Bill who does lean training with the United States Postal Service sent me an article from CNN Money today titled USPS may cut day of mail delivery. Bill wondered if the proposal to cut Saturday delivery was “

Finding Time Values for Standard Work

By Jon Miller - January 27th, 2009

Thanks to Gary Tucker for a question regarding standard work and standardized time values: How do you get your time values and how do you know that they are standardized? You sure can’t just take any observed time. There are all

A Look Back… 400 Posts and Counting!

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2009

I remember the night well… I was sitting on my couch half watching TV while surfing the Internet. I had just visited one of the only blogs I consistently read back in those days – Gemba Panta Rei – which as many of you know is wr

The Best Investment Advice

By Ron Pereira - January 26th, 2009

Note: This is the 400th article here on LSS Academy! I’ll take some time to reflect on this in the near future. But for now, I have a far more important topic to discuss. Read on. Times are tough. Real tough. You may have recently lo

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