Gemba Archives - 6sigma

Lean Tools: Gemba Walk Is All About Quality

OpEx Learning Team — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:07:23 +0000

There is much confusion around Lean tools and the practice of a Gemba walk. Most commonly, leaders sometimes confuse a Gemba walk with the philosophy of Managing By Walking Around (MWBA). The two philosophies are truly in opposite camps, without similarity.

Gemba walk denotes the action of going to see the process, understand the work, ask questions, and learn. It is also one fundamental part of the Lean management philosophy.

The concept and development are credited to Taiichi Ohno, an executive at Toyota. It is an opportunity for staff to stand back from their day-to-day tasks to walk the floor of their workplace to identify wasteful activities. It is designed to allow leaders to identify existing safety hazards, observe machinery and equipment conditions, ask about the practiced standards, gain knowledge about the work status and build relationships with employees. The objective is to understand the value stream and its problems rather than review results or make superficial comments. Gemba walk is one of the five Lean guiding principles that should be practiced by Lean leaders on a daily basis. Usually, it is an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste and opportunities to practice Gemba Kaizen, or practical shopfloor improvement. They are crucial to maintaining the disciplined adherence to Lean process designs, part of the Lean support role permeating all leadership positions.

The more observation and problem solving that happens with operators on a Gemba walk, the more successful and enduring the changes will be. There is no rule that says a practitioner cannot take a Gemba walk at any point in a process change. In fact, reviewing ideas, piloting changes and tweaking implementation issues are all great uses of the Gemba walk. As a leader’s confidence builds in solving problems with many tools, the more problems you will solve directly on the shop floor, and consequently be able to coach others to recognize their abilities within themselves to solve the challenges they face.

A Gemba walk is not an opportunity to find fault in others while they are being observed. It is also not a time to enforce policy adherence, except possibly serious safety problems or gross violations. If a Gemba walk is used punitively, employees will shut down and resistance to change will rise rapidly. A Gemba walk needs to be approached from a place of mutual respect and interest in making things faster, safer, easier and just plain better.

The post Lean Tools: Gemba Walk Is All About Quality appeared first on 6sigma.

Andon System: What Does It Tell You?

OpEx Learning Team — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:04:49 +0000

What does your Andon System tell you? Typically, it is a manufacturing process that says there is something wrong and your attention is wrong. The word Andon simply means ‘lantern.’ Just like any other light, its presence tells us of a problem. But is it the act of the light or is it what the light signifies? The true essence of the Andon is to signify a circumstance and that is supposed to trigger a certain set of actions. The question is, what does your team do when the Andon is activated?

The Vital Core of an Andon System

The response or actions of your team is the true test of what an Andon system is all about. It is a core element of Lean practice, just as important as the 5s, the A3s or the 5 whys. There are five important elements of the Andon system that make it more than just a lantern:

Agree to What a Problem Is – You must identify and agree what constitutes a problem that triggers an Anadon. Some say a 3% variance, others say 10%. That is conflict and chaos.
Detecting the Problem – Does the operator ‘feel’ behind or out of control, or is it just their emotional state and not the reality? What mechanism do you use to separate fact from emotion?
Raising the Alarm – There must be agreement on how the Andon system is activated. The mechanism must be clear, concise and easy to use within the work flow.
Who Responds – The precision of who responds to an Andon alarm is crucial, just like any other part of your work flow. The responsibility of response would be clear up and down the chain of command.
Agreement of Response – Be clear on not only on who responds, but what type of response to the Andon alarm is crucial. An operator must be confident on exactly what is going to happen and how long it will take, every time! That way they can stay focused on the problem at hand and be confident of the response.

Give It The Respect It Deserves

You know that sometimes Andon alarms are received with a tepid response. Next time you are in a public place, look around and pay attention to the response to a fire alarm. In many situations, that type of Andon alarm is lacking a sense of urgency. That is truly alarming! If you approach your Andon system with seriousness and apply these five points, you will see the results you desire. Further you will be confident and comfortable in the fact that a part of your Lean practice is working to the level of effectiveness you expect. Be clear and be consistent.

If you’d like to learn more about Andon, check out these articles:

The post Andon System: What Does It Tell You? appeared first on 6sigma.

Lean Leadership: 5 Secrets to Success

OpEx Learning Team — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:04:04 +0000

Creating an Environment of Success

Lean leadership is a valuable but sometimes elusive quality in managers. Yes, managers and leaders can completely miss having the necessary skills and still maintain their positions. Some develop these skills through experience and education, but still miss that key element that makes them great. Then there are the few that leadership is a natural skill that is simply multiplied through education and experience. The ability to lead is difficult to quantify. However, we do know that if we create the proper environment, provide educational opportunities and expose people to the proper experiences, leaders naturally float to the top. The trick is to identify and nurture those who just have the right stuff. Our military and many highly successful organizations are leadership factories. They understand the dynamics involved in leadership building and have become very adept at identifying potential very early on and nurturing that potential. These organizations create an environment of success for leaders, and the potential then rises.

Building Lean Leadership

There are some key tenets to building success that must occur to develop true leaders. Organizations that create true leaders understand that to survive and prosper we must improve, and to improve we must change. To change though, they require leaders to affect that change. Change is in fact the cornerstone of the lean practitioner, and lean leadership is at the forefront of that energy. If change is occurring in a lean environment, then someone is leading. Simply, successful leadership is exactly what it takes to create successful change. With that in mind, here are five skills lean leadership must possess to be successful:

Must be Technically Competent – There is no substitute for competence.
Leadership Presence – Must be present in the organization and go on the Gemba.
Teaching and Education – They must be able to comfortably teach and actively promote equation at all levels.
Be a Strong Role Model – Leading by example its crucial. ‘Do as I do’ is much more important than ‘Do as I say.’
Must Teach Leadership – Leaders have a keen responsibility to grow and develop other leaders.

In a successful organization that inspires and grows leaders, lean leadership is practiced at all levels. It is deeply embedded across the organization and in the lifeblood.

Moving Forward with Lean Leadership

When an organization is practicing Lean principles, then change will occur. How well that change occurs depends entirely on the presence of strong lean leadership. When these leaders possess and practice the five characteristics listed above, change occurs at a much higher rate, with a significant increase in quality. The organization subsequently changes at all levels without tangible disruption.

The post Lean Leadership: 5 Secrets to Success appeared first on 6sigma.

Gemba Walks: Do You Walk the Walk?

OpEx Learning Team — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:03:54 +0000

Do you walk the walk or are you all talk? Understanding Gemba and the true purpose of Gemba Walks is crucial. Gemba is where the work is done or better yet, the real place. A Gemba Walk then is just simply a walk where it is done. This process is simple and straightforward. It is intended to move leaders from the office or behind the computer out to where the action is, where the work is done. Many will immediately say management by walking around (MBWA). This is an old school concept and significantly broad. The fact is, leaders at all levels must be out where the work is done. Business does not get done behind a PC and effective leaders understand they must influence from Gemba, not in their office! Look at a leader that spends the majority of their work day behind a desk and you will see someone that is ineffective, out of touch and unable to drive their business. Harsh words maybe, but factual none the less. The process of Gemba Walks begins like any other business process. It must be understood, planned and conducted with specific intent.

We have defined what Gemba and Gemba Walks are, now let’s look at the elements that go into the process:

Plan the Walk: Be specific as to where and what the outcomes are to be achieved.
Go to the Gemba: Get out on the floor or in the business where business is done.
Understand the Process: Look for opportunity, waste, problems and seek patterns.
Show Respect: Engage the hearts and minds of the people by showing respect, relying on them, developing and challenging them.

One of the most crucial steps in the process is planning. Start your planning with understand what is to be accomplished. Be specific. Are you looking for achievements or areas of improvement? Break down the Gemba into parts or process and target a specific area. With these specifics identified, go into the Gemba Walk with focus, intent and respect for the people. While you are engaged in the Gemba Walk, be 100% engaged and do not allow distractions. Talking on the phone, responding to emails or texts and engaging in casual or personal conversations during the walk is disrespectful to the people and will distract you from seeing what is really going on in your business. You must have the mindset that there is no more important task you could be doing than the Gemba Walk.

After completing your Gemba Walk, real and visible action is required. By taking action, you are showing respect to the people and demonstrating that your conversations were meaningful. Gemba Walks that have no follow up or after action responses are considered useless. Keep the following steps in mind:
Spend time reflecting and capturing key takeaways from the walk.

Prioritize and categorize your thoughts and findings.
Use Pareto or Trend Charts for evaluations for your future walks.
Document who you talked with and their comments.
Provide feedback to other leaders and management.
Follow up with individuals offering key insights or questions to keep the engagement going.

Getting the most out of Gemba Walks requires both planning and follow-up. Planning and execution are just as important as the post-walk follow-up.

The post Gemba Walks: Do You Walk the Walk? appeared first on 6sigma.

Bill Marriott Leadership: The Gemba Walk

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:02:15 +0000

Bill Marriott launched a blog yesterday — and, it’s very good. Why? Well, Bill Marriott Leadership lessons – how he applies the concept of the Gemba in his organization.

Here is what is good about it:

“Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly — and hear back from them.”

That is exactly right. Bill Marriott has traveled the world speaking with employees and customers. Now, he gets to do that from his desktop and the world can talk back to him. Currently, his first post has 49 comments. Bill Marriott shows that he truly cares about listening and speaking with his customers and his employees.

Blogging will allow me to do what I’ve been doing for years — on a global scale. Talking to the customer comes easily to me. I visit 250 hotels around the world every year. This year I’ll be traveling once again to China where we have 27 hotels, 16 under construction and many more in our development pipeline. At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it “management by walking around.” Like my parents, I value the input from our associates at all levels. I make lots of notes — and my best ideas almost always come from our people in the field.

“Truth be told, I’m not very good with computers, although I couldn’t do business in today’s fast-paced economy without my cell phone, and my grandchildren have gotten me hooked on my iPod.”

His posts are sincere, not PR-filled garbage, stuffed with rhetoric. He’s sincere. He has on a human face and his customers, employees, and the world will love and trust him for that.

“At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it “‘management by walking around.'”

He calls it “management by walking around”, but that concept is an old one. At Toyota, this concept is called “Gemba“, or “walking the gemba.” In other words, “go and see” and spend time where value is created and contribute. That is, go and see where transactions are processed, people are served, and value is created. Good stuff.

Bill Marriott might not be doing the Toyota version, but he is still spending time with the front-line folks and spending time where value is being created. That’s an excellent way of leading your people.

“Our 143,000 associates are truly the people who make Marriott a world-class business. I want to share some of their stories with you in future blogs. We are a company that is built on opportunity, and that foundation has made us successful.”

Again, he’s sincere and genuine. That’s the hallmark of a blog. He wants to show the human faces behind a company — awesome.

“Occasionally, I’ll blog about current events — even touch on controversial topics. Every American and everyone who wants to be an American deserves a chance to pursue the American dream of financial independence. That’s why I’m passionate about immigration reform and offering people a path to citizenship. I’ll share my ideas about that in a future blog.”

Again, more honesty and sincerity.

“Bottom line, I believe in communicating with the customer, and the internet gives me a whole new way of doing that on a global scale. I’d rather engage directly in dialogue with you because that’s how we learn and grow as a company.”

Customer obsession at its best. Great job Mister Marriott. I’ve already subscribed to your feed. I’m looking forward to learning from you. By the way, I’m a Silver Elite member — 50 more stays at a Marriott Hotel and I’ll be a Gold Member.

The post Bill Marriott Leadership: The Gemba Walk appeared first on 6sigma.

Toyota A3 Report Example [video]

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:02:09 +0000

Go here to see a video explanation of the A3 and also to get a Toyota A3 Template Download for Free. This article is about the Lean A3 Problem Solving Method, or sometimes called the Toyota A3 Report. Other articles on Lean Manufacturing can be found below. Continue past the Toyota House to read the rest of this article on the Toyota A3 Report.

[contentblock id=46 img=html.png]

Most problems are dealt with in superficial ways. Very few people and organizations actually arrive at the root cause of their problems. At Toyota, they employ Root Cause analysis in almost everything they do. One problem solving approach they employ is the Lean A3 Problem Solving Method.

A3 is a paper size, typically 11″ x 17″. There are actually several A3-type paper sizes, and Toyota believes that when you structure your problem solving around 1 page of paper, then your thinking is focused and structured.

Below are the steps of the A3 process, followed by a real-world example of an A3 collaborative problem solving that I was a part of while I spent a short time at Toyota. The steps below are taken from Dr. Durward Sobek’s very informative site [1. http://www.montana.edu/dsobek/a3/]:

Identify Problem or Need

Whenever the way work happens is not ideal, or when a goal or objective is not being met, you have a problem (or, if you prefer, a need). The best problems to work on are those that arise in day-to-day work and prevent you from doing your best.

Understand Current Situation

Before a problem can be properly addressed, one must have a firm grasp of the current situation. To do this, Toyota suggests that problem-solvers:

Observe the work process first hand, and document observations
Create a diagram that shows how the work is done – a value stream map will be helpful here.
Quantify the magnitude of the problem (e.g., % of customer deliveries that are late, # of stock outs in a month, # of errors reported per quarter, % of work time that is value-added); if possible, represent the data graphically.

Root Cause Analysis

Once you have a good understanding of how the process (i.e., the one that needs to be fixed) currently works, it’s time to figure out what the root causes are to the errors or inefficiency. To accomplish this, first make a list of the main problem(s). Next, ask the appropriate why? questions until you reach the root cause. A good rule-of-thumb is that you haven’t reached the root cause until you’ve asked why? at least five times in series.

Main Components of an Ishikawa Diagram

At the head of the Fishbone is the defect or effect, stated in the form of a question.
The major bones are the capstones, or main groupings of causes.
The minor bones are detailed items under each capstone.
There are common capstones, but they may or may not apply to your specific problem. The common ones are:

People

Equipment

Material

Information

Methods/Procedures

Measurement

Environment

After completing your Fishbone Diagram excercise as a group, it is helpful to test your logic by working the bones: top-down OR bottom-up like:

this happens because of g; g happens because of f; f happens because of e; e happens because of d; d happens because of c; c happens because of b; b happens because of a.

The excercise above is crucially important ” you must test your logic so that it makes pragmatic sense and that the atomic root cause is actionable ” that is, you can do something to correct it, reduce it, or eliminate the root cause.

Once you or your team arrive at a root cause for a specific capstone, then you typically cloud it to identify it as a root cause. A good rule is that there is typically *NOT* 1 root cause for a problem, but potentially several. Below is a diagram of one fishbone, decomposed:

Countermeasures

Once the current situation is fully understood and the root cause(s) for the main problem(s) has been unveiled, it’s time to devise some countermeasures. Countermeasures are the changes to be made to the work processes that will move the organization closer to ideal, or make the process more efficient, by addressing root causes. Generally speaking, we recommend that countermeasures help the process conform to three rules borrowed from Steven Spear and Kent Bowen and slightly expanded:

Specify the outcome, content, sequence, and task of work activities
Create clear, direct connections between requestors and suppliers of goods and services.
Eliminate loops, workarounds, and delays

Develop the Target State

The countermeasure(s) addressing the root cause(s) of the problem will lead to new ways of getting the work done, what we call the target condition or target state. It describes how the work will get done with the proposed countermeasures in place. In the A3 report, the target condition should be a diagram (similar to the current condition) that illustrates how the new proposed process will work. The specific countermeasures should be noted or listed, and the expected improvement should be predicted specifically and quantitatively.

Implementation Plan

In order to reach the target state, one needs a well thought-out and workable implementation plan. The implementation plan should include a list of the actions that need to be done to get the countermeasures in place and realize the target condition, along with the individual responsible for each task and a due date. Other relevant items, such as cost, may also be added.

A3 Example

Below is an example from an A3 project. The context for the A3 Report below is around the question “Why was the end-of-shift clean-up not being completed?” This question drove the team to follow the A3 method and subsequent root cause analysis to arrive at the root causes and implement solutions. This activity below was done proactively done by the team with full support from management.

Toyota A3 Transcript and Show Notes

My name is Chris Schrandt. I worked for Toyota for just over nine years, from the years of 1988 to 1997.

I worked at the Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant. My position at the plant was I was originally hired in as a quality engineer and then ended up being one of four quality engineering managers.

My favorite lean tool or TPS tool, that’s probably, of all the questions, the most difficult, because there so many, right? Again, the elimination of waste is what it’s all about. So if you consider the tool of recognizing what are the wastes of a process, that’s very powerful, but then using the value stream mapping tool to uncover those wastes. Once you uncover them, then the tools of built in quality, of course, quality being my background, is one of my favorites. But then, also, standardization, extremely powerful in solving the problems that you uncover with the value stream mapping. And then, of course, without teamwork and 5S, none of that’s possible. So that’s a tough one. Favorite tool, all of them.

The answer to this one, how does Toyota implement the idea of continuous improvement? And there’s three other questions, how about 5S and how about . . . ? At Toyota, I don’t ever recall thinking about them as a tool. It’s how we did the work. It was always that thinking of how we will do things better. I mean, of course, the word Kaizen was used quite a bit. But again, it was just the culture. It wasn’t something that taught as a tool. It’s how you did the business. Same as 5S, it’s how you did your work.

The idea of respect for people, the concept of respect for people is most evident in the fact that everyone is empowered. Everyone’s opinion matters. Everyone is expected to participate in continuous improvement, in doing their own job, how can I do my job better? So again, part of the culture. You were always treated well. Fujitsu [Fujio] Cho, who is now the current or was the CEO of global Toyota, was our first plant manager there. And he would hold the door open for an hourly worker the same as he would for anyone else. I mean it was just tremendous amount of respect for each other. And then again, you were not only empowered, but expected to participate in the process of continuous improvement.

Before Toyota, I worked for a defense contractor making parts to launch nuclear weapons. It wasn’t very rewarding. But what was interesting is is that I used to regulate-, it was a union factory, okay? And it was my first job after college. And so I was always in trouble at that plant because I was doing things against their policies. Well, it turns out I didn’t realize it was completely in line with how Toyota works of go and see and involve people involved in the project. So that was very interesting to learn that the things that I was always in trouble for at a union facility was completely the right way to behave at Toyota.

Well, in there I had many senseis. We had a very interesting system there of . . . When I first joined, we were fairly small organization. And every single person had what they called coordinator was the name for the Japanese sensei. Then of course, as we grew, we couldn’t have someone there as your sensei. But finally, every manager level would always have a sensei.

So again, I had many there. Unfortunately, it’s a very tragic story of the gentleman who was my sensei the longest. He’d been my sensei for a period of two years and then was gone for two years and came back. And then when he was at his second stint there, he was killed in a plane crash in Detroit on his way to the Detroit Auto Show. His name was Keita Takanami. And again, very strong personality, we fought all the time. It really wasn’t until years later trying to teach others what he taught me that I understood the brilliance of what he was teaching me. I was always butting heads with him. But again, it was like unbelievable what I learned from him.

Again, it was a lot about discipline. I learned everything about the A3 and problem-solving from him and tricks to do a good A3. Oh my gosh, one time, we worked on an A3 probably for a month non-stop, till we got it just right. And again, things that I thought were just nitpicky had a very strong meaning behind them of being concise and not using words. Use diagrams, use charts, use pictures, things like that. Again, I just thought he didn’t like English because he couldn’t read English. No, it was because it made the presentation, the A3, much better for anyone to understand it without a lot of words. Just one small example really.

I would say this. Technology is secondary at Toyota. And recently, I read or saw an article that’ll express this much better than I do. But again, it’s a tool and they’re not interested in what’s the latest and greatest. Technology needs to support the people, and it needs to be proven before you implement it. An example is in five years after we had opened up the first plant, Phase 1, we built a second plant, okay, double the capacity of the plant. And I was part of the team responsible for getting all of the test equipment, all of the end-of-the-line complete vehicle testing equipment. I was part of the team to pick who provided it, what was provided, etc.

Well, we’d go to the local Detroit manufacturers who supplied Fords and GMs. And they’d want to sell us on all the latest technology that everyone was using. And we were like, “No, we don’t want that. We want this old stuff, because it was proven,” and that we knew it was reliable and we knew it would work. So it was very interesting. It was like, “Why aren’t we using the latest and the best now?” It wasn’t the case.

And I think, again, there are some things that the technology made the parts of the tools of TPS work, like making Single Minute Exchange of Die, requires a great deal of technology to make that happen, okay? But you don’t need to automate everything. The assembly process was virtually un-automated. And then even since I’ve left, I know that they have gotten away from even putting too many robots in the body shop, because they have more flexibility with people. So again, lot of words to say. It’s secondary. It’s not all about robotics. It’s not all about the latest technology.

Again, teamwork, 5S, continuous improvement, it’s just the way you work. Teamwork is used sometimes as a positive as well as a pressure, right? It’s peer pressure also. You have teams where you have on-the-line groups, where you have five or six team members and one team leader and you don’t have a replacement pool. So there is a team, and we all work as a team. But it’s also if someone’s not there, right, someone else in the team, like the team leader, has to fill in for them. And that puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team. So it’s a combination of, “Okay, we’re one group. We understand each other’s work. We have good cross-training.” But it’s peer pressure also to come to work and be on time and do your job properly.

The Toyota training process is . . . I witnessed many different evolutions of it and many examples of it. When I first joined Toyota as a engineer, a salary employee, I was sent to Japan for four weeks and received extensive training there. Then again, when I came back to the U.S., I had my sensei. I had my coordinator with me for six months, who was full-time, right? Well, that was just that first year when we got started. Later on, of course, we didn’t have the resource to have that kind of training.

But I heard stories about how when the salary employee in Japan was hired, the first thing they would do is go six months, they would go door-to-door and sell Toyotas, right? How incredibly powerful is that to have to go and sell the vehicle? And then when they would come back from that, they would go and work on the shop floor for six months, right? The most we could ever do training like that was for a couple of days to get an engineer out there. And in a union facility like General Motors, of course, we couldn’t do that at all. But I tell you what, you gain respect for what the people are doing.

Now, regards to how training evolved at Georgetown for the hourly workers, at first, we would have two weeks of training, and you were on the line. Well, what happened? We ended up with carpal tunnel, a lot of problems with that. And now again, I left 12 years ago. How they do it now, I’m not sure. But it ended up being a six-month program where, hire, you would have classroom training, what’s Toyota production system. But it was also exercises and stretching and strength so that you could go to the line and be able to do the job. Again, mainly is a response to so many carpel tunnel issues.

So it was a demonstration really of continuous improvement. They started out. They hired a lot of young kids from high school. And everything was fine. But five years into it, wow, everybody’s got carpal tunnel. So what do we do? And they learned and expanded the training program.

What is Toyota’s greatest strength? To be honest, it just comes back to discipline and hard work. They took great ideas. Some of them they developed their own. Of course, some they took from Deming, some they took from Ford Motor Company. But they had the discipline to say, “We are embracing these ideas, and we’re really going to do it. And it’s not just today, and it’s just not tomorrow. It’s continuously having the discipline to follow those rules, those tools, that culture, okay? And it’s hard work. I mean it is a lot of work through the work ethic.

I teach people that the Toyota production system, you can use it in any culture. There’s no reason one culture is more able to implement it than another. However, the work ethic in Japan was much different. There, someone to work 12 hours a day as a salary employee was the norm and expected, okay?

So the second part of it, discipline was the hard work. I mean it really was hard work. There was no magic. There was no just these are great ideas, or we just easily design great vehicles, and they go together easily. It was a lot of hard work. So really, discipline, hard work, that they apply to all of the good thinking methods that they have.

The post Toyota A3 Report Example [video] appeared first on 6sigma.

The Gemba Dojo

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:01:37 +0000

The Term “Gemba Dojo” is not used often. When I have heard it used, it demonstrates a powerful visual connection and practical application. Let me explain.

In my Wing Chun training, my Sifu emphasizes the “learn as you go” philosophy — that is, I learn the material slowly, but my way of learning is also emerging — that is my capability to learn gets better and my capacity to learn increases. This notion is very much what I also experienced at Toyota and, might help to explain, why so many companies outside of Toyota are now trying to adopt The Toyota Production System — from healthcare to government to ecommerce (such as Amazon.com — Jeff Bezos is a Lean Manufacturing fanatic). Today, I want to explicate on the Toyota notion of how the Gemba is the Dojo.

Let me first explain Gemba and Dojo, before explicating how one relates to the other…

What is The Gemba? What is The Dojo?

Gemba is the Japanese word for “the actual place” or “the place where virtue or truth is found.” In a business setting, Gemba is often referred to “the place where value is added.” For example, in a factory, the production floor is where value is added.

The Dojo is a place of training. The Dojo is formally a place where martial arts is taught, but generically refers to any place where teaching and learning happens. Historically, the learning and teaching had to do with more holy or spiritual teaching.

The Gemba is the Dojo

Unlike most companies, when an associate begins at Toyota, most often the first thing the associate does is actually go out on the factory floor and begin working — without much training, except for the safety module — in other words, the first place of training for a new associate is the Gemba.

This is quite unusual — but there is a reason: the new associate needs a fertile heart and mind to become teachable — there is no better way to achieve that than to humble the new associate by throwing them on the production line, allowing them to struggle, be scared, be lost, and wish they had some training. From my experience, Toyota allows the new associates to go through this experience for about 1 hour during their first week, prior to entering the Dojo.

After the “trial by fire” exercise, the humbled associates’ heart and mind are ready to be taught. The formal teaching happens in what is called the Dojo. The Dojo is a training location that has miniature production lines, video cameras, and nurturing teachers — but very tough teachers. The new associates go through formal training, where the training is by example and practice: the teacher teaches by example and the practice is repetitive, wherein the associates are also video-taped and, in formal feedback sessions, the teacher compares the new associate against a seasoned associate in a side-by-side video, focusing on the finer points of body mechanics, flow, and motion.

The Way

Excuse the spiritual overtones, but they are almost inescapable when speaking of Toyota — The Toyota Production System is, at bottom, rooted in the philosophy and spirituality of the East.

As part of my Wing Chun training, I am reading the Chinese Classics, beginning with Confucius. I finished reading “The Great Learning”, written ~500 BC. In that text, Confucius says the following:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

If you follow the 5-Why’s on Confucius’ logic above, you get the following:

[Investigating All Things] leads to [Extension of Knowledge]
[Extension of Knowledge] leads to [Becoming Sincere in Thought]
[Becoming Sincere in Thought] leads to [Rectifying Your Heart]
[Rectifying Your Heart] leads to [Cultivation Of Your Person]
[Cultivation Of Your Person] leads to [Regulation Of The Family]
[Regulation Of The Family] leads to [Order Well Their States]
[Order In The State] leads to [Virtue Throughout The Kingdom]

The Gemba is the Dojo — precisely because the heart and mind need to be ready for teaching; the student must be humble enough and teachable enough to be taught.

The post The Gemba Dojo appeared first on 6sigma.

Lean Software Development: Seeing the IT and Software Development Gemba

admin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:21:45 +0000

This article explains Kanban Software Development Gemba and why you should care. It’s a guest post from Jason Yip.

I’m pleased to present this guest post from Jason Yip, a respected thought-leader on Agile and Lean Software Development. Jason Yip is a Principal Consultant for ThoughtWorks, a global IT consulting firm. You may learn more about him through his blog and by following him on twitter @jchyip. In this post, Jason Yip will discuss the concept of the “Gemba” and what it means in the context of software development. For example, he will consider the following question: How does one exactly “see” to “go the actual place” when software development is in large part virtual? Read to learn how.

One of the strongest messages in Lean is to go and see. Get out from behind your desk, go to the gemba, and look.

But what I deal with are software development and IT support organisations. This is knowledge-based work. The work items are all virtual. What does it mean to see in this context?

Let’s imagine that I drew a circle in the middle of the office and stood there until I could identify opportunities for improvement. What might I see?

I might notice that the cubicle walls prevent everyone from seeing each other. I might notice that no one ever leaves their seat unless getting a drink, taking a washroom break, or heading out to lunch. I might notice that everyone is wearing headphones. I might notice that at no point in the day does the team ever physically get together. I might notice that other stakeholders rarely visit the team nor does the team visit them. Every so often I might notice some senior stakeholder drop by, disrupt the team with some request, and leave.

The last thing I might notice is what I can’t see… Who’s working on what? What is the most important thing to do at the moment? What are the current problems? Is the current system build working? How is the overall project / operation doing?

How sure are we that everyone in the team, never mind other stakeholders, know the answers to those questions?

Let’s imagine that I now close my eyes and listen. What might I hear?

Silence… no, not quite… people hitting keys on their keyboards… someone starts playing music to fill the silence… but no talking… no, not quite… Every so often I might hear the team leader direct a team member to work on this or that…. and there’s scattered conversation… but never about the work, never about coordinating, never asking for, or offering to, help.

Now I need to leave the circle because in our world, at the end of the day there are things you can’t see unless you’re at a computer…

So I sit with each of the team members and observe… he’s unfamiliar with the editor shortcuts even though another person on the team knows them better than I do, she’s making assumptions rather than validating with the subject matter expert, he’s repeating the same task that could easily be automated with a simple script, everyone seems to do the same task in a completely different way.

I look at other things . . . alert logs: It seems that most alerts are ignored and resolve themselves without intervention… ticketing systems: A significant number of tickets are over 1 year old… the source code: Significant amount of duplication, unclear naming, no tests
And that might be it for the first day or two.

What does it already tell us about opportunities for improvement?

The IT and software development context is different from physical manufacturing in many aspects. But there is still something definitely in common . . . get out from behind your desk, go to the gemba, and look.

The post Lean Software Development: Seeing the IT and Software Development Gemba appeared first on 6sigma.

Lean Manufacturing Concepts: The Gemba

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:24:55 +0000

Publishers send me a lot of books, magazines, etc., and I’m thankful for all of it. Understandably, I can’t and won’t read everything I’m sent. From time to time, I do receive a book for which I’m excited. This is one of those times.

Last week, my copy of Jim Womack’s Gemba Walks arrived at my house. I’ve read through some of it already and I am really enjoying it. I highly suggest this book to the lean practitioner, learner, and newcomer.

As a reminder, I wrote an article about 4 years ago that explains a little bit about what “Gemba” means in the context of lean manufacturing entitled The Gemba is the Dojo.

John Shook, the current CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, provides a great introduction to the book, which I cite here:

“The first time I walked a gemba with Jim was on the plant floor of a Toyota supplier. Jim was already famous as the lead author of The Machine That Changed the World; I was the senior American manager at the Toyota Supplier Support Center. My Toyota colleagues and I were a bit nervous about showing our early efforts of implementing TPS at North American companies to “Dr. James P. Womack.” We had no idea of what to expect from this famous academic researcher.

“My boss was one of Toyota’s top TPS experts, Mr. Hajime Ohba. We rented a small airplane for the week so we could make the most of our time, walking the gemba of as many worksites as possible. As we entered the first supplier, walking through the shipping area, Mr. Ohba and I were taken aback as Jim immediately observed a work action that spurred a probing question. The supplier was producing components for several Toyota factories. They were preparing to ship the exact same component to two different destinations. Jim immediately noticed something curious. Furrowing his brow while confirming that the component in question was indeed exactly the same in each container, Jim asked why parts headed to Ontario were packed in small returnable containers, yet the same components to be shipped to California were in a large corrugated box. This was not the type of observation we expected of an academic visitor in 1993.

“Container size and configuration was the kind of simple (and seemingly trivial) matter that usually eluded scrutiny, but that could in reality cause unintended and highly unwanted consequences. It was exactly the kind of detail that we were encouraging our suppliers to focus on. In fact, at this supplier in particular, the different container configurations had recently been highlighted as a problem. And, in this case, the fault of the problem was not with the supplier but with the customer – Toyota! Different requirements from different worksites caused the supplier to pack off the production line in varying quantities (causing unnecessary variations in production runs), to prepare and hold varying packaging materials (costing money and floor space), and ultimately resulted in fluctuations in shipping and, therefore, production requirements. The trivial matter wasn’t as trivial as it seemed.

“We had not been on the floor two minutes when Jim raised this question. Most visitors would have been focused on the product, the technology, the scale of the operation, etc. Ohba-san looked at me and smiled, to say, ‘This might be fun.'”

It’s a great book to add to your lean library. Go get it. Here’s the book’s official description:

The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge.

So writes Jim Womack, who over the past 30 years has developed a method of going to visit the gemba at countless companies and keenly observing how people work together to create value. Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean Community through a monthly letter. With Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and re-organized his key letters, as well as written new material providing additional context.

Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect.

Womack explains:

why companies need fewer heroes and more farmers (who work daily to improve the processes and systems needed for perfect work and who take the time and effort to produce long-term improvement)

how good people who work in bad processes become as bad as the process itself

how the real practice of showing respect comes down to helping workers frame and solve their own problems

how the short-term gains from lean tools can be translated to enduring change from lean management.

how the lean manager has a restless desire to continually rethink the organization’s problems, probe their root causes, and lead experiments to test the best currently known countermeasures

By sharing his personal path of discovery, Womack sheds new light on the continued adoption and development of the most important new business system of the past fifty years. His journey will provide courage and inspiration for every lean practitioner today.

The post Lean Manufacturing Concepts: The Gemba appeared first on 6sigma.

Before Checking Email, Go To The Gemba

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:09:05 +0000

At work, before you do anything else, go see your customer (internal or external), go see your team or staff – see how they are doing, go see and spend time where the work is done.

Guess who benefits the most when you do this? That’s right, you. By practicing “go and see” (genchi genbutsu) at “the place where value is added” (gemba), you learn empathy, you demonstrate trust and care, and you become informed, which helps your judgment as a leader.

Most, or some of us, who find home in an office or a cube and also on the factory floor or some other hands-on setting, are tempted to check email or voice mail when we first get to work. Fight the temptation – before checking your email or checking your voice mail, Go to the Gemba.

For you, this might mean:

If you’re doctor, go see your patients first.
If you’re a consultant, go see your clients first.
If you’re a manager in a factory, go see the people at the factory floor first.
If you’re an emergency room nurse, go see the folks in the emergency room first.
If you’re an executive, go see your staff or team members first.
If you’re like the rest of us and, just plain normal and nothing special, think about your customer – probably not the end customer, but most likely your downstream customer. Are you meeting their needs? Quit playing Farmville, Mafia Wars, or Frontierville – get up and talk to your internal, downstream customer – are you meeting their needs?
If you’re a customer service agent, go and see your co-workers and see what the customer’s are calling about. What’s the current pulse of the customer?
If you’re a marketer, go and see how your team is doing; how are your products and services doing? are they meeting the needs of your customers?

Here’s the point:

Before you get too comfortable in that ergonomic chair, dual monitor screens, spend time where the value is added. That usually means spending time where the work is truly done and with the people who are doing it. And, that usually doesn’t mean, in your cube or office.

The post Before Checking Email, Go To The Gemba appeared first on 6sigma.