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Why should I manage as if I had no power when power is the most effective way of getting things done?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m tired of hearing I should manage as if I had no power. Surely power is the most effective way of getting…
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How lean should a lean line design be?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in manufacturing engineering and have been asked to design a lean line. I’ve participated to several kaizen workshops and have some general…
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I'm all in on our lean effort but how do I get my managers to be more supportive?
Dear Gemba Coach: As a business unit director, I am fully on board with lean, do gemba walks and support kaizen projects. But I find…
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The Five Whys
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a lean coach and teach A3s in my company. Every lean book mentions “5 why,” and I can see the power…
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Part 1: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?
Dear Gemba Coach: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?
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Is There a Right Way to Teach A3?
Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve been teaching A3 problem solving to all our managers, but so far I fail to see any clear improvement of our…
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Where can I find information about visual management?
Dear Gemba Coach: I can’t find much written about visual management although it seems an important part of lean – any idea where to look?
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What is the hardest conversation you ever had during gemba walks?
Dear Gemba Coach: What is the hardest conversation that you have during gemba walks?
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What do you do when your advice is wrong?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do you handle it when you find out you’ve been wrong; when you’ve advised people to do something that you later…
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Should we do lean maturity audits?
Dear Gemba Coach: Should we continue with lean maturity audits and, if so, how often?
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How do I practice lean when I don't feel a strong attachment to my knowledge worker team?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do I practice lean consistently when I don't feel a strong attachment to my team? We do "knowledge work" and are…
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How do you suggest we should do lean in a foundry?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do you suggest we should do lean in a foundry?
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How effective is a book club?
Dear Gemba Coach: How effective is a book club? Should we invest in book clubs?
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Follow-up to your comments on the “lean is a scam” column
Dear Gemba Coach Readers: I’ve been following the “scam” discussion with interest. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. Maybe the original questioner’s…
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How is lean strategic?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been told by my senior management that there is no strategic vision in lean and they don’t see how to integrate…
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Can you help us define the role of team leader?
Dear Gemba Coach: My lean team is creating a team leader role, and we are struggling to define this function accurately, not to mention that…
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Is momentum loss normal during a lean transformation?
Dear Gemba Coach: One of our outpatient wards reduced waiting time by 75% and got an award for their lean improvement project. But then momentum…
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Method vs. Tool
Dear Gemba Coach: I think that TPM, JIT, SMED, Heijunka are methods and the 5S, VSM Kaizen are tools. Perhaps we could use the expression…
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What? My Pull System Is Supposed to Fail?
Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve given up on installing a pull system – every time we try, our on time delivery rate plummets, and we can’t…
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What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?
Dear Gemba Coach: What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?
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