Tag Archives: gemba

Don’t Ignore Customer Complaints

I find Paul Graham’s ideas very useful. I disagree with his recent tweet though. Update: See note at bottom of the post – Paul tweeted that his original tweet was wrong. Base your assessment of the merit of an idea … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Out of Touch Executives Damage Companies: Go to the Gemba

When your customer service organization is universally recognized as horrible adding sales requirements to customer service representatives jobs is a really bad practice. Sadly it isn’t at all surprising to learn of management doing just that at our largest companies. … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Out of Touch Executives Damage Companies: Go to the Gemba

Poor Results Should be Addressed by Improving the System Not Blaming Individuals

My response to: Where is the Deming study that asserts most errors are in organization or process? There is no such study, it is based on Dr. Deming’s experience as I discuss in 94% Belongs to the System (improve the … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Customers

Customer focus is critical to succeed with management improvement efforts. Few argue with that point, though my experience as a customer provides plenty of examples of poor systems performance on providing customer value (usability, managing the value stream well, etc.). … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Touring Factories on Vacation When I Was Young

Growing up, occasionally, a family vacation would include a factory tour related to my Dad’s work. He was providing some management or engineering consulting and took the opportunity to check in on progress and visit the gemba. Here is a … Continue reading

Posted in Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Why Lean is Different

[the broken link to the embedded video was removed] Short webcast by Michael BallĂ© discusses what makes lean manufacturing different: going to where the work is done, standardize processes (from the gemba view), practice respect for people and continually improve. … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Good Process Improvement Practices

Good process improvement practices include: standardized improvement process (pdsa, or whatever) Going to the gemba – improvement is done where the work is done. You must go to the where the action is. Sitting in meeting rooms, or offices, reading … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, quote, Respect, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center

Photo of Jeff Bezos during the 2005 O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference by James Duncan. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, is working for a week in Amazon’s Kentucky distribution center. I hope, and based on his past, I believe, that he is … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

CEO Flight Attendant

Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue by Norm Brodsky. The Jet Blue CEO works (once a month he estimates) as a flight attendant. He interacts directly with customers in real world situations (not just talking to travel managers in his office). … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Management, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments