Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management

Excerpts

Workers had a much clearer understanding of management expectations and of their own responsibilities in the whole kaizen process. The resulting constructive tension on the work floor made the work much more challeng- ing in terms of meeting management expectations and giving workers a higher sense of pride in their work Page 39

Maintaining gemba at the top of the management structure requires committed employees. Workers must be inspired to fulfill their roles, to feel proud of their jobs, and to appreciate the contribution they make to their company and society. Instilling a sense of mission and pride is an integral part of management’s responsibility for their gemba Page 39

The people who do not earn money are those who sit on top of the money earners—all employees with titles such as chief, head, or manager, including the president and all staff, and spanning areas that include personnel, finance, advertising, quality, and industrial engineering. No matter how hard these people may work, they do not directly earn money for the company. For this reason, they might be better referred to as dependents. If money earners stop work for one second, the company’s chances of making money will be lost by one second. The trouble is that non–money earners often think that they know better and are better qualified than money earners because they are better educated. They often make the job of the latter more difficult. Non–money earners may think, “Without us, they cannot survive,” when they should be thinking, “What can we do to help them do their job better without us?” Page 41

An observant gemba management expert can determine the caliber of a company in five minutes by visiting the plant and taking a good look at what goes on there, especially in regard to muda elimination and 5S. A lack of 5S in the gemba should be considered a visual indicator of inefficiency, muda, insufficient self- discipline, low morale, poor quality, high costs, and an inability to meet delivery terms. Page 44

Kristianto Jahja, a kaizen consultant who worked for the joint venture in Indonesia between the Astra Group and Toyota Motor Company, recalls the first time he was sent to Toyota’s plant in Japan for training. On the first day, a supervisor who was assigned as his mentor took him to a corner of the plant, drew a small circle on the floor with chalk, and told him to stay within the circle all morning and keep his eyes on what was happening. Thus Kristianto watched and watched. Half an hour and then an hour went by. As time passed, he became bored because he was simply watching routine and repetitive work. Eventually, he became angry and said to himself, “What is my supervisor trying to do? I’m supposed to learn something here, but he doesn’t teach me anything. Does he want to show his power? What kind of training is this?” Before he became too frustrated, though, the supervisor came back and took him to the meeting room. There, Kristianto was asked to describe what he had observed. He was asked specific questions, such as, “What did you see there?” and “What did you think about that process?” Kristianto could not answer most of Page 47

the questions. He realized that he had missed many vital points in his observations. The supervisor patiently explained to Kristianto the points he had failed to answer, using drawings and sketches on a sheet of paper so that he could describe the processes more clearly and accurately. At this point, Kristianto understood his mentor’s deep understanding of the process and realized his own ignorance. Page 48

When he first began introducing just-in-time concepts at Toyota, Ohno encountered resistance from all quarters. One source of strong opposition was the company’s financial people, who only believed written financial reports and often did not support allocating resources to gemba-related kaizen because doing so did not always yield immediate bottom-line results. To soften this opposition, Ohno urged accountants to go to the plant. He told them to wear out two pairs of shoes per year just walking around the site observing how inventory, efficiency, quality, and so on were improved and how the improvements contributed to cost reductions that ultimately produced higher profits. Page 48

I once traveled to Central America and visited a branch of Yaohan, a Japanese supermarket chain headquartered in Hong Kong, whose stores span the globe. I asked the general manager, who had his office in the corner of a warehouse, how often he went to the gemba (at a supermarket, the gemba is the sales floor, warehouse, and checkout counter). The manager answered very apologetically, “You know, I have an assistant who is in charge of the gemba, so I don’t go there as often as I should.” When I pressed him to tell me exactly how often, he said, “Well, I must go there about thirty times a day.” This manager felt apologetic about “only” going to the gemba 30 times a day! Page 49

It is an integral part of a kaizen-driven manager’s work to constantly challenge employees to find better ways to do the job than the last time. Page 69

When a newly hired employee is assigned to a workstation without proper training to handle the equipment, the consequent delay in operation may be just as costly as if the equipment were down. Page 70

The simultaneous realization of QCD is the task that the kaizen-minded manager must tackle in today’s competitive environment. At a time when customers are demanding ever-better QCD, management must emphasize the proper priority to achieve all three: Quality first! Resist the temptation to cut costs at the expense of quality! And do not sacrifice quality for delivery! Page 72

However, Shima found that after these standards were put into practice, they were not always usable. In order to remain practical, they had to be reviewed and upgraded constantly. Thus the journey to quality improve- ment at the company meant a never-ending review of existing standards. Page 80

The plant manager should set up a contest among the workers; the manager then can review the state of 5S in each gemba and select the best and worst gemba. The best can receive some award or other recognition, whereas the worst receives a broom and a bucket. Page 99

the company developed the following three principles of air-less engineering:

1. Do not transport air. 2. Do not store air. Page 109

3. Eliminate space that does not create added value. Page 110