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Lean thinkers tell me not to give answers but my sensei keeps telling me what to do; which is it?
Dear Gemba Coach: My experience is that if you want to get anything done you have to ask very specifically and follow up thoroughly. Now,…
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A Lean Leap of Faith
Michael Ballé reflects on a core assumption of Lean that is often disregarded and explains why it is worth taking a lean leap of faith.
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Don't you use kamishibai cards; you've never written about them?
Dear Gemba Coach: We use a kamishibai board along with standardized work and visual management to sustain our lean efforts on the factory floor. It…
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What Role Should a Quality Department Play in a Lean Organization?
Dear Gemba Coach: How can you improve quality overall while reducing the number of people who are developing policies, supporting training, and doing their best…
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What is the lean approach to quality – is that what six sigma is all about?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a frequent reader of your columns and you always seem to emphasize quality first, but I can’t find many books detailing…
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How do we ensure sustainability of a successful lean effort?
Dear Gemba Coach: We used training and workshops to roll out a lean program with good early results – what do we need to do…
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My managers are focused on monthly sales and quarterly profits – how can a lean guy like me interest them in quality?
Dear Gemba Coach: My managers are focused on monthly sales and quarterly profits – how can a lean guy like me interest them in quality?
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Should I bother reading lean management books or rely on experience implementing lean?
Dear Gemba Coach: Should I bother with reading lean books, or just work from experience? There are so many, and they seem to contradict each…
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How is lean different from Taylorism?
In a special column, Michael Ballé breaks from his standard practice of answering readers’ questions to weigh in on the controversy comparing lean management to…
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Why does my team resist multi-skilling?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m trying to introduce multi-skilling in my team but am surprised by the amount of resistance I encounter from my team members.…
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How Do I Tell Good Obeya Rooms From Bad?
Dear Gemba Coach: Obeyas are popping up everywhere in our organization, and I don’t know what to look for to distinguish good from bad obeyas.
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How can I estimate the savings from using visual management boards?
Dear Gemba Coach: I work on a lean team and I was asked to estimate the savings from using visual management boards. The current estimate…
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Rather than narrow problem solving, shouldn't we look for disruptive breakthroughs?
Dear Gemba Coach: How can a narrow focus on problem solving help us to find innovative solutions? Shouldn’t we be looking for disruptive breakthrough instead?
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If lean is valid in all situations doesn't that make it an ideology?
Dear Gemba Coach: Is lean really valid in all situations? That sounds like ideology to me!
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What I Could Only Learn from a Sensei
Some aspects of lean can be learned through experience, but other aspects can only be taught by an experienced sensei. Michael Balle reflects on some…
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What does customer focus really mean?
Dear Gemba Coach: We’re discussing improving our customer focus, but we’ve realized we’re not quite sure what the phrase really means. Any pointers?
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Why Toyota is Still My North Star
"In the past five years the local lean engineering community has gained a deeper hands-on appreciation of how intermeshed product and processes are," writes Michael…
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What's the difference between a sensei and a consultant?
Dear Gemba Coach: Is there a difference between a sensei and a consultant? Beyond the way they market themselves, don’t they do the same thing?
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Managing Suppliers
Dear Gemba Coach: We've done a lot of kaizen work in production and have something of a pull system running. We've started measuring on time delivery…
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What can we do to instill some passion in leadership about our lean implementation?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in a company that is trying to implement lean but sees it simply as a series of rote steps to iterate…
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