Applying Lean Thinking: The Art of Going to Gemba

Do you know where all of the improvement opportunities are in your company? Do you know how the Seven Deadly Wastes are consuming your valuable resources and preventing your company from being the best it can be? If you don't know the Art of Going to Gemba (the place where work is done) you can't answer those questions with an emphatic "YES!" In this series of eBooklets, Applying Lean Thinking, we provide the means for you to: identify waste; learn how to measure success; define the value streams of information and materials that will create flow; go to Gemba to "see" improvement opportunities, and much more. This is not a self-help series, but rather a means for Lean practioners to ensure a self-perpetuating continuation of their current Lean journey. In this eBooklet we provide a means for you to test your Gemba skills through three videos of actual processes. View the videos again and again to hone your Gemba skills. Spending quality time in Gemba doesn't mean the typical cursory walk-through that you probably do multiple times a day. It means a deliberate observation of the work place from a strategic spot where you can see all of the exchanges of materials and information. Quality time in Gemba is at least 30 minutes in one location observing and absorbing all of the activities that are taking place. Going to Gemba is not about fixing things "on the spot" it is about noting all of the opportunities for improvement, and prioritizing them for your team to improve.