Category: Gemba

Gemba

Gemba Insights: Exploring Best Practices & Success Stories

Glenn Sommerville

I’ve always loved Gemba!  Recently, I was reminded just how much I love it and why!

While engaged on a project with a client, I suggested that all the stakeholders walk the process together from the end to the beginning.  This is so everyone can “see” what is really happening from the customers’ point of view. 

It was a cross-functional team with multiple handoffs throughout the full process.  It was a great learning opportunity for everyone involved to better understand what other stakeholders did, how they did it, and what challenges they faced.  Of course, the real benefit came when they understood the challenges or problems they created for each other or how it would be much easier for the downstream process if they did things just a little differently.  All of this was great and is a great benefit of Gemba!

However, what was truly awesome, and why I love Gemba so much, were the treasures of previously unknown issues beyond the immediate process we were reviewing that the various teams were totally frustrated with and needed upper management’s assistance and support to resolve.  These were things that the team members had accepted were just the way it is and assumed upper management was fully aware of, which they weren’t.

I believe Gemba is a leader’s most powerful tool.  What I don’t understand is why so few leaders actually do it on a regular basis!  Everyone involved in a Gemba learns, and problems are identified, addressed, and resolved. 

If you’re interested in Gemba or would like to learn more about it, below is a summary and link to several of my most popular posts on the topic.

  1. 10 Important Steps of Effective Gemba Walks or “Go See”  – 10 practical tips on how to conduct an effective Gemba walk from preparing for and what to do while on Gemba.
  2. Toyota’s Worst Best Kept Secret & The Top Five Reasons For It – a brief article that explains Gemba using the letters that spell the word.
  3. The best place for a meeting…is on the roof! – a success story of using Gemba to obtain out-of-budget approval for an item of capital expenditure.
  4. Teaching your eyes to see – a success story about learning to see 1/10th of a second kaizens and techniques on how to learn to see problems and improvement opportunities.
  5. 3 Steps to Having Time for Gemba – Want to do Gemba more often?  These 3 simple tips should help!
  6. Gemba by any other name is… Go & see!  Gemba is not just for manufacturing processes! – A too common misconception is that Gemba is a manufacturing tool and not for office work.  This brief article busts this myth.
  7. Gemba Walks – Tip #1
  8. Gemba Walks – Tip #2

Leave a comment to share your Gemba best practices and success stories or click a “like” if you enjoyed these posts!

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Gemba, Lean and Continuous Improvement, Personal Development, Problem Solving

The conflicts of line trials

Glenn Sommerville

One of the things I’ve always loved is the simple kaizens (continuous improvement). I was reminded of this recently working with RAB Design Lighting when the team there was conducting some line trials. Having coached the team on the importance of detailed trial planning and real-as-possible process set-up, but also the need to be balanced with simplicity, low cost, and high flexibility, I was thrilled to see their creativity and ingenuity that met these two potentially conflicting criteria. See examples in the pictures below.


The two criteria mentioned above is important because you want a trial to simulate the real line conditions as much as possible, however, things will definitely change as you learn more. So you don’t want to invest time and money building/buying a lot of things that may not actually be used in the permanent line or that may require several iterations of changes to get just right.

When conducting line trails careful planning is necessary. Planning such as: Clearly defining the purpose of the trial is critical. Determining what are you trying to prove, disprove or discover. Setting up the line to simulate as close as possible what the actual real line will look and feel like. Protecting the trial from “noise” or other things that can negatively impact or distract from the purpose of the trial. Although some of these things maybe real, you should try and isolate them from initial trials if they are not directly related to the purpose. There is a time and place to allow real time disruptions and abnormalities but not in early trials. Identifying and defining the number of trial observers, their roles, responsibilities and tracking needs. Deciding on what metrics to track and measure throughout the trial and who is going to do that. Scheduling, taking into account breaks, lunches and shift end, is also important.

Trials are to experiment and learn. They can also be a great deal of fun along the way! 

Congratulations to Denis Arsenault, P.Eng. and the RAB Design Lighting team for the successful trial this week! I’m looking forward to the next one!

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Gemba

The Different Types Of Gemba

Glenn Sommerville

Are there different types of Gemba?  Yes!  The fundamental reasons of Gemba remain the same, but there are at least 5 different types of Gembas each serving a different purpose.  Do you know what they are?

A leader needs to stay connected and engaged with what is going on, or not, as the case maybe, in their areas of responsibility.  In a previous post Toyota’s Worst Best Kept Secret & The Top Five Reasons For It, the top 5 reasons for Gemba were discussed, and even though these reasons more or less stay the same there are at least 5 different types of Gembas.   Gemba is NOT just for manufacturing processes!  Gemba is also a very powerful leadership tool regardless of the type of work, industry, or level of leadership you are in.  Office, logistics, laboratory, health care, customer service, construction, etc, gemba works the same and is just as beneficial as in a manufacturing or factory environment.

Gemba or “Go & See”

Personal Gemba –  A personal gemba is where the leader goes to one or more of their areas of responsibility by themselves.  They may go with a specific topic, concern, waste stream, check, audit, confirmation in mind, or just go and see.  Of course they should engage with their team along the way, but the point is these are unplanned and impromptu conversations and engagements with them.  These gembas are a great way for a leader to observe things without preparations by the team and in areas they otherwise may not be taken.  When visiting a building, I typically conduct a personal gemba first thing by walking the parking lots, lunch rooms, rest rooms, and other nooks and crannies before reviewing the main operations as it gives a leader an overview state of the business, how things are being managed, and the culture within the facility.  Another purpose of a personal gemba is to go and see by yourself before setting a new target or challenge to your team.  By observing for yourself, you will be better able to determine where the team needs to focus, what are challenging but achievable targets, observe abnormalities, or periodic work, or to confirm for yourself, without bias, what the current condition really is.

Leadership Gemba – A leadership gemba is when several members of a senior leadership team conduct a go & see together.  This is powerful because they observe together seeing and hearing the same things.  This is an opportunity for senior leaders to engage with operators through to middle management to provide coaching, mentoring, redirection, provide resources and assistance, and to recognize the teams.  A leadership gemba can be a confirmation walk of the actual conditions, observe problematic processes, see the results of a recent kaizen or continuous improvement project, provide recognition, or to engage with the teams on a specific topic.  Leadership gembas are usually scheduled and the general agenda agreed upon by the levels of leadership.

Daily Gemba – A leader’s core responsibility is to remove barriers and help our teams achieve the organizational goals.  The best way to do that is to demonstrate our actions being louder than words and daily gemba is an excellent tool for this purpose.  Daily gemba is done at the same time each day with all department leaders following a predetermined standard path.  The path may very day by day, but the point is to visit the key areas on a regular frequency.  During the gemba, the teams would provide an update on key metrics and performance from the previous day, recent trends, and identify any current challenges, concern, or barriers which is impeding their performance or attainment of a target.  The leaders can then assist with removing these barriers.  Daily gemba also ensures that everyone knows, understands, and is aligned to the top priorities for that day.  Daily gemba should be short and very focused, targeting 30 minutes and no more than 45.  The challenge is usually to avoid problem solving during gemba.  Daily gemba should also be a key part of Leader Standardized Work.

Impromptu Gemba – An impromptu gemba is used when discussing a specific situation or topic in an area physically removed from the point of discussion, and a spontaneous decision is made to go and see at the actual location or process under discussion.  This is done to assist in and align understanding, to problem solve and determine root cause, discuss counter measures, ask questions of the operators or those involved, or discuss next steps.  Often in meetings it takes a great deal of time for everyone to understand an issue and even after explaining, some may not actually get it.  They think they do, but they really don’t.  By going and seeing, problems can more rapidly be understood, necessary resources and actions agreed upon, and the issue resolved.

Scheduled Gemba -Some disagree with this type of gemba, but I do believe it serves a couple of important purposes.  This type of gemba, is simply scheduled in a calendar like any other meeting.  It can be a reoccurring scheduled event, or a one time occurrence on specific topic scheduled gemba.  In some environments or with some leaders, going and seeing seems to becomes the lowest priority and as a result, doesn’t happen.  Unless that is, they schedule it like any other meeting.  This reduces the likelihood that other meetings will be scheduled over top, or getting caught up in other things and not making it out to gemba.  The one time occurrence gemba is used when there is a need to have several leaders attend.  In these situations, it is important that everyone sees and hears the same thing so scheduling the gemba is usually necessary in most environments to ensure attendance.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Gemba must be priceless!

There are several types or slightly different gembas, beyond the above, but the most essential point is that leaders need to invest quality time at the gemba, or going and seeing.  If a picture is worth a thousands words, Gemba must be priceless, because it allows everyone to see the same thing first hand; the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com 

 

Gemba, Lean and Continuous Improvement

Toyota’s Worst Best Kept Secret & The Top Five Reasons For It

Glenn Sommerville

Toyota’s secret to the long term success of their Toyota Production System (TPS) is actually pretty simple!  It’s not even a secret.  It’s also really straight forward.  It’s captured in a single word.  Know what it is?

During and since working at Toyota, I’ve been asked many times what the secret sauce is that makes Toyota and TPS such a long term success!  It’s absolutely true that TPS is a comprehensive multi-dimensional system or mechanism about which many books have been written explaining it in great detail.  There is no doubt many powerful principles and tools within it.  It is built on the fundamental principles of respect for people and continuous improvement.  My intention is not to diminish the integration or thoroughness of TPS, but my single word response to the secret sauce question is,

GEMBA

I wholeheartedly believe in respect for people and have a huge passion for continuous improvement, and the best way to create, drive and sustain both is by Gemba!

In addition to providing a means to achieving the principles of respect for people and continuous improvement, the top 5 reasons for conducting gemba are revealed in the spelling of the word itself and are:

 

Go See tLetter Ghe actual condition – in similar fashion as the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, seeing is believing!  Gemba allows all participants to see the same thing firsthand.  The good, bad and the ugly!  This is powerful because there is nothing left to someone else’s interpretation and/or communication.  There is no opportunity to hide, exaggerate, or underestimate the conditions or impact through misunderstanding, poor communication, or lack of familiarity of the process.  Gemba also provides alignment of what is happening or not happening.

 

Go and see is so powerful, I once scheduled a meeting with the President of Toyota, on the roof!

Letter EEngagement – Gemba is an incredible way to engage openly between all levels.  Asking questions to understand surfaces issues, barriers, abnormalities, ideas, and potential solutions.  It provides opportunities for operators to voice their opinions and become directly involved in being part of a solution.  Gemba facilitates clarity of leadership direction, and teaching and learning opportunities of all involved.  It is an effective way to follow-up on previous actions and their effectiveness.  Gemba also is a great time for leaders to challenge, encourage, motivate, and of course recognize the efforts and results of their teams.

 

 

Letter MMan, Machine, Material, Method (4Ms) – Gemba allows teams to focus their attention on the 4Ms to identify barriers and wastes impacting the operation or process.  The focus of a Gemba could focus on all the 4Ms, several, or a specific one depending on the desired intent or the situation.   The focus on the 4Ms helps train and develop the team on waste identification and is the engine of continuous improvement.

 

 

Letter BBarriers – Another reason for gemba is to identify barriers either creating a form of waste in the process, or impacting the completion or desired impact of identified actions and solutions.  This is very important in order to first identify necessary actions for improvement, and then when reviewing previous actions to demonstrate support to the team, speed up progress, and keep the team motivated by reducing frustration.

 

 

Letter AAction– Gemba must result in some kind of action.  To me this is not only a must, I believe it is unavoidable.   When everyone sees the same things creating impact, questions are inevitable, followed by the generation of ideas to resolve the issues. This occurs by default.  Prioritization and elimination of the identified actions need to happen next.  Once the immediate actions are determined and agreed upon, ownership and completion dates are imperative.  Timely follow-up of all actions is very important to drive urgency, identify barriers and where help or clarification is needed, and provide additional opportunities for all aspects of engagement.

 

So not only are the reasons for Gemba hidden in plain sight of the letters of the word, the reasons for Gemba also propagate the entire philosophy of continuous improvement by naturally creating a never ending cycle of Gemba.

Are all Gembas the same?  “Follow” my website, to receive the next post, “The Different Types of Gemba”.

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com 

 

* Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

 

Gemba, Lean and Continuous Improvement

See More Going Backwards!

Glenn Sommerville

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, we can see more by going backwards!  Our natural instinct is to start at the beginning and move forward towards the end.  This makes sense as time and our lives move forwards, but if you truly want to see, try going backwards starting at the end.

I suppose this advice could be applicable to evaluating your life too!  You know starting at the end and envisioning your final moments and then working backwards from there to the present, and using this visioning to make changes in your life today.  But that’s not my field.  I’m talking about process reviews and gemba.  Sorry!

When reviewing an entire process or supply chain, it’s very important to start the review from the end and work backwards.  This maybe the end of final test, the end of the manufacturing line, or the loading dock.  Sometimes, right from the customer.  The reason for this is to be able to understand the upstream processes from the downstream “customer” perspective.  By walking the process backwards, you will learn and understand the critical or key points required for the downstream process and be more attuned to look for the success attributes and negative impacts when you get to the upstream process.  You can compare the expected condition to that of the actual condition to identify potential issues and then be prepared to look for and identify potential causes of these abnormalities when you move to the upstream process.

Process vs gemba flow

Walking a process backwards can be very enlightening and usually opens your eyes to many improvement opportunities.  These findings can be of safety, quality, productivity or cost in some manner or another.  The reverse perspective is eye opening!

I recall working with a leader that was trying to improve the cycle time of a process.  After a period of time and several process improvements, although they had improved the cycle time, there remained significant variation in the results and on occasion the cycle time was not achieved.  They found that the main part of the process was being completed within the cycle time.  So during their investigation, they skipped this part of the process as it was obviously working well.  The problem was that the carts containing the completed product were being misplaced.  Time searching for the carts in the next process step resulted in the overall cycle time sometimes not be achieved.  Efforts had then been put towards making the carts more easily recognizable from other process carts and improving the visibility of them.  So together we walked the process in reverse.

Walking the process backwards, we asked the operator in the downstream process where they obtain the carts from the upstream process.  They were fully aware of where it was and gladly took us there.   So far so good!   As we walked to the location, they advised us that the carts are rarely found there.  When we asked why, they said it was because the other operators would drop the carts closer to the lunch room out of convenience when going for break.  So typically they would just go there and start looking for the carts.  When we arrived at the designated location, it became a little more clear what was going on.  The 5S was horrible.  The lines to indicate where the carts should be parked were worn out and worse, the bar codes to which the operator was to scan the carts into were worn out as well.  Other carts and equipment that were not supposed to be located there were taking up space designated for these sub-assembly carts.

We then spoke to one of the downstream operators and asked them how they scan the carts into the designated locations when the bar codes were damaged.  They showed us the small bar code cards they had made up and carried with them!  Problem solved!  What this meant is they could very easily scan the bar code at any location regardless of  where the cart was physically.  Of course this wasn’t the intent, but…  that’s what happened.  Further questioning of the operator indicated that they really didn’t have a good understanding of what the bar code was for and that the location of the cart was critical to their downstream internal customer.  Most operators have the best of intentions, so because the space was occupied with “other stuff”, the operators thought it was a good idea to scan their portable bar code cards and drop the carts at another similar process where carts were placed.  It was coincidence that this was close to the path to the lunch room.

Sure, these issues could have been identified by walking with the process flow, however, with the walking backwards perspective, your questions are different and the answers come from the downstream customer who views things from a different perspective than the operator in the previous process.  This allows you to determine the key points and success factors much faster and more efficiently.  Using the example above, for sure the poor 5S and worn out bar codes would have been found walking with the process.  However, it is very possible that the issue would not have been resolved because we may not have determined that the operators had the portable bar code cards, or learned that they really didn’t understand the intent and criticality of scanning and placing the carts in the designated location, and may also have assumed it was poor operator behaviour of dropping the carts on their way to lunch.  A lot of time and frustration could have easily resulted and the root cause not determined.

If you don’t already walk the process backwards, try it next time and leave a comment as to whether you found it beneficial.

Other Related Posts:

10 Important Steps of Effective Gemba Walks or “Go See”

Gemba Walks – Tip #1

Gemba Walks – Tip #2

4 Necessities for Smooth Flow

Teaching your eyes to see

 

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com