Gemba Academy

Gemba Keiei Chapter 27: We Can Still Do a Lot More Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter with the surprising statement “We have done a lot of rationalization on the production floor and we are near the limit. It’s becoming common sense that administrative processes still need a lot of ra

The Top 10 Reasons to Start Lean Office and Lean Manufacturing at the Same Time

By Jon Miller - June 27th, 2006

Most manufacturing organizations start their Lean journey on the factory floor first. Many soon recognize that meaningful, lasting improvement is only possible if Lean principles are also applied to administrative processes that suppor

Kaizen Song: I Stop the Line

By Jon Miller - June 26th, 2006

It’s a very busy week, no time to blog today. So I’ll post another one of the kaizen songs I wrote back in the days when I had a lot more time on my hands. Please enjoy this musical interlude. I Stop the Line (To Johnny Cas

Credit Suisse Does Gemba Research

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2006

An article in this month’s Fast Company magazine asks Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy? The approach Credit Suisse is taking to understand the problems with their products and processes is basically research by going to the g

Gemba Keiei Chapter 26: There Are No Supervisors at the Administrative Gemba

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2006

“Administrative work is done at the gemba just the same as the production gemba where we make things. The office is the administrative gemba.” Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter. Gemba is a Japanese word meaning “actual place”. In

How Toyota Uses Information Technology (IT) for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 21st, 2006

There is a staggering amount of good material being printed these days in the Japanese press about kaizen, the Toyota Production System and issues of manufacturing and business competitiveness. I just wish I had more time to read the m

Trying Out Herman Miller’s New Cubicle: Not for the Lean Office

By Jon Miller - June 20th, 2006

Herman Miller is credited for introducing the original cubicle. Instead of recognizing poor design and listening to the voice of customer, they have designed a better cube or according to designer Douglas Ball “an environment tha

Doing More with Less in the Lean Office

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2006

“An increasing number of local companies are shrinking their employees’ work spaces” begins an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal titled Offices Getting Smaller. Well known firms in our neighborhood including

Do Heijunka with Your Kaizen Efforts

By Jon Miller - June 18th, 2006

Last week we performed an assessment at a tier one automobile manufacturer. This company has done some Lean manufacturing activities. Due to a large number of new product launches at the moment, kaizen activity appeared to us to be at

Toyota Feels the Heat from Hyundai

By Jon Miller - June 17th, 2006

The Autoblog is always good for some emotional point-counterpoint when it comes to the fates and doings of the automobile manufacturers in the United States. Today’s post titled Toyota to suppliers: don’t sell to Hyundai pr

Gemba Keiei Chapter 25: Work is a Game of Wits with Subordinates

By Jon Miller - June 16th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter “In order to lead a large number of people in work, you have to be tough. But I think this is basically not a matter of giving orders or instructions, but a game of wits with subordinates.” Ohno says

The Lean Ranger in: The Workshop of the World, Part II

By Jon Miller - June 15th, 2006

After a short layover at Gemba’s Shanghai office, Yang Kai and I are off to Guangzhou. Since it’s a domestic flight, the Security level is a little lower, but there are still lots of uniforms standing around. I spot an ATM in the a

NHS Confederation Releases “Lean Thinking for the NHS”

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2006

The United Kingdom has taken an important step in leading the Lean healthcare movement today with the publication of Lean Thinking for the NHS by the NHS Confederation (National Health Service) based on studies done by the Lean Enterpr

Sell Complacency, Buy Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 13th, 2006

On June 12, 2006 Minyanville News & Views commentary money manager Ryan Krueger gave the advice “sell complacency, buy kaizen”. He sees the U.S. as complacent, giving evidence for the eroding dominance as the number on

Lean Thinking & Google’s 9 Notions of Innovation

By Jon Miller - June 12th, 2006

I’ve written from time to time about the relationship between kaizen, Lean process and innovation in this blog. Innovation is the hot thing at the moment as the United States struggles to cope with what appears to be the increasing i

Kaizen Song: Cycle Times They Are A-Changin’

By Jon Miller - June 10th, 2006

Doing some 5S with computer files this weekend I came across a folder of “kaizen songs” we had made for fun a few years ago. The melodies are well-known folk, rock or country tunes. This one is called Cycle Times They Are A

Some Thoughts on Future State Value Stream Mapping

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2006

To paraphrase a military expression “The most dangerous thing in a combat zone is an officer with a map” in Lean manufacturing terms: “The most dangerous thing on the shop floor is a manager with a value steam map.” I have noth

Gemba Keiei Chapter 24: Fight the Robot Fad

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2006

“We only started talking about ‘reduced volume production’ after the 1973 oil shock. Prior to that we could sell everything we made so cost reduction for mass production was easier.” Ohno goes on to say that although many other

Lean Manufacturing Mantras

By Jon Miller - June 6th, 2006

One of my favorite Lean manufacturing moments was when a group of highly intelligent and committed Lean leaders from an American industrial giant that we took to Japan realized that the excellent company we were visiting had no idea wh

Giving Lean Healthcare a Bad Name

By Jon Miller - June 5th, 2006

We’re giving Lean healthcare a bad name in Jean’s world. Jean is a nurse at a hospital where Lean healthcare practices based on the Toyota Production System are being implemented. At Jean’s hospital, it sounds like they a

Kaizen Consultant Asks: “Why is this Here?”

By Jon Miller - June 2nd, 2006

Last month I joined two kaizen consultants from our team to do an opportunity assessment at a tier one automotive company. It’s good to see kaizen and Lean manufacturing efforts increasing at automotive factories in the United St

Physiognomy & Phrenology vs. Root Cause Analysis & Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 1st, 2006

For 27 years the Harbour Report has been measuring and comparing the performance of automobile companies, using metrics such as productivity defined as vehicles per man hour. This reminded me of a pair of dead sciences called physiogno

Kaizen the Design, Recall the Part

By Jon Miller - May 31st, 2006

A Washington Street Journal article on May 31, 2006 reports that once again, Toyota Recalls Some Prius Cars. That’s some 170,000 Prius vehicles. If you include the other models it’s nearly a million cars recalled for parts

Gemba Keiei Chapter 23: Producing at the Lowest Possible Cost

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter by telling the story of when the President of Toyota, Mr. Ishida, was summoned to the National Diet and scolded by politicians for building passenger cars that were too expensive. Back then even the head

Before Kaizen, Ask “If You Had Enough, Would You Know?”

By Jon Miller - May 29th, 2006

I visited the 35th annual Seattle Folklife Festival yesterday, enjoying a couple of hours with my family before diving into a very busy couple of weeks. There was great music, passable weather and more hippies than you can shake a stic

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