Gemba Tales Blog

It wasn't quite a Von Trapp family moment, but it certainly was a good lean moment. During a kaizen report-out, an associate was sharing several improvement ideas.

John, the Production Manager of a food manufacturing plant is having a good day.  At least until the Quality Manager bursts into his office:  "John, I can't believe that your operators can't put a seal on a jar."

John is surprised and replies, "What are you talking about, Steve?  We haven't had to put product on hold for seals for months.  I told the team that they better be careful when adjusting the sealer during the change-overs after the last issue."

First things first, as they say. It's hard to argue with such simple wisdom. That notion applies to strategy deployment, a.k.a.

People behave differently when there is transparency, scarceness and accountability.

I recently conducted a free one hour webinar on the subject of kaizen event malpractice, its causes, effects and how to avoid them.

I recently experienced  the pain associated with coaching a team with poor chemistry. It was a kaizen event team, so the pain was finite.

Labor density is not a measurement that is thrown around very often, at least explicitly. Conceptually however, it must be resident somewhere in the lean thinker's headset.

Visual management is typically applied for the purpose of indicating process and system performance so that everyone can tell, at glance, whether the situation is normal or abnormal. Abnormalities should prompt an appropriate response.

Business travel is a drag. One of the painfully few benefits, if you're flying (and waiting), is that you can catch up on some reading.

Leader standard work is a pillar of the lean management system. So, how does one start to develop leader standard work?