Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive

How to Motivate People to Change, Part 3

By Jon Miller - February 1st, 2007

How do you motivate the people on the trailing edge of the bell curve? The so-called “anchor draggers” or CAVE people tend to attract the most attention or concern during the process of change. I wish we had time to bring e

Be SMART!

By Ron Pereira - February 1st, 2007

I am often asked why some projects fail to get results or even get completed. This is a difficult question with many possible answers. But if I were forced to narrow it done the ever famous “you must have a good champion” would be

How to Motivate People to Change, Part 2

By Jon Miller - January 31st, 2007

How to motivate people to change? A day later and I still don’t know, but Taiichi Ohno’s “game of wits” comes to mind (see chapter 25 of Workplace Management). A game is something that is fun. Most of us are mot

Control Charts – Part 3

By Ron Pereira - January 31st, 2007

Hello friends! This is the 3rd and final installment of all you wanted to know about control charts but were afraid to ask. In part 1 of the series we talked about the history and purpose of control charts. In part 2 we discussed three

How to Motivate People to Change, Part 1

By Jon Miller - January 30th, 2007

How to motivate people to change? That question was asked recently. It’s a good question and one that we should not assume we know the answer to. It is not a question that should be addressed in your organizations by professional

Control Charts – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - January 30th, 2007

Welcome back. This is part 2 of the 3 part series on control charts. As promised we will discuss the p, c, and u charts this evening. These control charts are used when we are dealing with attribute data, which is sometimes referred to

Control Charts – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - January 29th, 2007

The wife is off to her monthly book club, the kids are in bed, and the dogs are doing what they excel at – absolutely nothing. So I thought I would settle in for a bit and begin the first of a 3 part series on one of my favorite

Toyota Production System Implementation at Japan Post, Year 4

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2007

Here is an update to the story of Toyota instructors teaching TPS to the Japan Post and a partial answer to the question Toyota Botches Lean Implementation at Japan Post? posted earlier in this blog. The following is a summary from the

I am Humbled

By Ron Pereira - January 28th, 2007

Humility From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaHumility is a quality or characteristic ascribed to a person who is considered to be humble. A humble person is generally thought to be unpretentious and modest: someone who does not think

Free Scholarship at the Lean Six Sigma Academy

By Jon Miller - January 28th, 2007

My friend Ron Pereira started a blog two weeks ago called Lean Six Sigma Academy. The articles so far have been an interesting mix of topics such as Process Mapping – Lean or Six Sigma Tool?, CAVE People, Lean or Six Sigma?, Six

Evolution of Dance

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2007

This has nothing to do with Lean or Six Sigma but is perhaps the funniest 6 minutes you will ever experience! If you prefer to watch a Lean video scroll down and watch the Toyota video. But not even Toyota can compete with this guy! En

The Toyota Way

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2007

The Toyota Way

Toyota’s Real Secret: Hint, It’s Not TPS

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2007

Here is an interesting article from the folks at IndustryWeek. Enjoy.

The Forgotten M’s

By Ron Pereira - January 26th, 2007

Those familiar with lean manufacturing have likely heard the word muda many times. Muda is the Japanese word for waste and is the enemy of us all whether we know it or not. Strangely enough muda is not the only enemy of a lean system.

Kaizen of the Month at Gemba, December 2006

By Jon Miller - January 26th, 2007

By Marcie MacRae Going into the holidays and having the majority of the staff out of the office can be a good time to implement a big kaizen in the office. This year while the staff was on winter holidays, the admin team and two consul

CAVE People

By Ron Pereira - January 24th, 2007

Most of us have encountered individuals I call CAVE people. These people are: Citizens Against Virtually Everything You can likely name one or two CAVE people right away. In my experience there is no easy way to deal with them. They ar

Lean Manufacturing: A Five-Year Fix?

By Jon Miller - January 24th, 2007

On the way to the gemba this morning I heard the NPR report on American suit manufacturer Joseph Abboud on the rental car radio. Here is the transcript on the NPR website, titled Suit Maker Goes ‘Lean’ to Keep Jobs in U.S.

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Japan Kaikaku Experience Field Report, January 2007

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2007

Recap of Our Recent Japan Kaikaku Experience-By Brad Schmidt Toyota’s Innovation: Toyota showcased an impressive update. They’ve introduced full kitting on specific sections of their assembly line. Kit carts follow the car

Cupholders

By Ron Pereira - January 22nd, 2007

In my recent Lean Lunch blog I referenced the Kano Model. I received some questions on what this model was all about so thought I would shed some light on it this evening. By the way, if there is a topic you would like me to discuss pl

Motorola misses Badly

By Ron Pereira - January 20th, 2007

I just read an article stating that Motorola, the #2 maker of cell phones in the world, is preparing to cut 3,500 jobs. Motorola reported a 48% drop in fourth-quarter profit as margins in its handset business collapsed. Folks, 48% is a

TPS Kids

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2007

Modern marketing gurus will tell you that in order to build customer loyalty you need customers to develop a deep, emotional attachment to the brand. One of the ways this is done is by telling engaging stories about the brand. Toyota s

Lean Lunch

By Ron Pereira - January 19th, 2007

This is a picture of the taco salad I had for lunch today. OK, so “lean” in the truest sense may be a bit of an oxymoron since there was probably enough calories in this meal to last me a few days but I digress. Anyhow, I am always

Toyota Owes Grandpa Ford

By Jon Miller - January 19th, 2007

Earlier this month the Lean Insider attempted to answer the question Which Lean Book is Right for My Boss? These folks ought to have the answer, since Productivity Press has published the lion’s share of important books on what w

Six Sigma and JIT

By Ron Pereira - January 18th, 2007

I recently saw a question posted on the iSixSigma forum that went something like this, “How can Six Sigma enhance the just in time process?” I thought this was a great question and will offer my two cents on the topic this evening.

Why Not Chase the Rabbit?

By Jon Miller - January 17th, 2007

This is a question I have most often heard from European engineers, or from people in other countries who are working with extremely high volume light assembly operations, usually following some teaching about just in time production o

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