Michael Ballé's Gemba Coach Column

Michael Ballé, PhD, is a business writer and executive coach, who has studied and guided lean transformations for 25 years. He is Associate Researcher at Télécom ParisTech's Projet Lean Enterprise and the co-founder of the French Lean Institute.

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• What do I do when key logistics employees are afraid to come to work? 
  March 23, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach, What do I do when key logistics employees are afraid to come to work?  read more »

• What should I expect as a lean manager?
  March 16, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m currently a team leader, and I’ve been offered a job as a lean manager – what should I expect? read more »

• Should I be worried that management is buying software for virtual gemba walks?
  March 2, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach: A consultant is selling us “virtual gemba walks” software to schedule gemba visits with a “leader standardized work” checklist and key indicators tracking. Management is listening. It feels wrong somehow, but anything that gets management to pay attention is a good thing, right? read more »

• Is it really necessary for a sensei to act obnoxiously? 
  February 17, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Is it really necessary for a sensei to act obnoxiously?  read more »

• My managers are focused on monthly sales and quarterly profits – how can a lean guy like me interest them in quality?
  February 10, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach,  My managers are focused on monthly sales and quarterly profits – how can a lean guy like me interest them in quality? read more »

• Isn’t the obsession with problem solving unnecessarily negative and depressing?
  February 3, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t the obsession with problem solving unnecessarily negative and depressing? read more »

• Are morning team huddles that go on forever a waste of time?
  January 20, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Our company has made morning team huddles mandatory. I don't see how that helps. On my team, huddles seem to go on forever and feel like a waste of time. Are they? read more »

• How can kanban be useful in software since we never produce the same part twice?
  January 13, 2020

  Dear Gemba Coach, How can kanban be useful in software since we never produce the same part twice? read more »

• Can a manufacturer use lean management to advance its environmental and social sustainability strategy?
  December 30, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, Can a manufacturer use lean to advance its environmental and social sustainability strategy? read more »

• Can lean management help with the start of production?
  December 9, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Can lean management help with the start of production? read more »

• Can lean management help with toxic managers?
  November 25, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Can lean management help with toxic managers? read more »

• I’ve been improving process efficiency for years with value-stream mapping, why did you write that it is misleading?
  November 18, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  In your previous column you stated that value-stream mapping can be misleading. I’ve been using VSM for years to improve process efficiency – what can be wrong with that? read more »

• Isn’t flow the ultimate aim of lean?
  November 4, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, Isn’t flow the ultimate aim of lean? read more »

• Where can I find information about visual management?
  October 21, 2019

  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? read more »

• Is my crazy new boss right that applying standardized work is the foundation of lean?
  October 7, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  My new boss is a lean fanatic crazy about standards. He’s created a new team to audit standards and is telling us that applying standardized work is the foundation of lean. It’s creating a lot of resistance, and I don’t know what to make of it. read more »

• Can 5S apply to coding?
  September 30, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, We’re exploring lean in software development. Can 5S apply to coding? read more »

• Isn’t there a better way to manage inventory than just-in-time?
  September 23, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  This is 2019. Isn’t there a better way to manage inventory than just-in-time by now? read more »

• Why implement lean when it fails so often?
  September 16, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,Is it true that lean often fails? What’s the point then? read more »

• Isn’t PDCA enough? Why do we always need to complicate things?
  September 9, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, Isn’t PDCA enough? Why do we always need to complicate things? read more »

• How can there be standards -- or kaizen -- in a service job when no two instances are the same?
  August 5, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in a service job and I struggle with the idea of standards. I read that there can be no kaizen without standards but how can you have standards when no two instances are the same? read more »

• I don’t get kanban -- I don’t work in production so how would it apply to one-off work?
  July 29, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I feel that I still don’t get kanban. I don’t work in production, and I fail to see how stock replenishment would apply to one-off work. read more »

• Can lean be used to turn around a company?
  July 22, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, Can lean be used in a turnaround situation? Does a burning platform make it easier or harder? read more »

• Should A3s be used for solving organizational or technical problems?
  July 15, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: Should A3s be used for solving organizational or technical problems? read more »

• Any advice for a team with a new boss who doesn’t know lean but wants us to switch to agile instead?
  July 8, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: We have a new boss who doesn’t know lean and is asking our lean team to switch to “agile” instead. Any advice? read more »

• Should I bother reading lean management books or rely on experience implementing lean?
  June 24, 2019

  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 other. Which ones should I start with? read more »

• How do I implement 5S when operators think everyone does things a little differently?
  June 17, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I implement 5S  in our small but growing shop where operators have the belief that everyone does things a little differently? read more »

• What are the key factors within an obeya room?
  June 10, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: On YouTube and in books there is a lot about A3 storyboards. Did you ever see them used to share people's plans and check whether countermeasures were effective? Also, what do you think are the key ingredients/factors within an obeya? read more »

• I’ve just been named team leader with zero training and my team is not co-located – where should I start?
  June 3, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I’ve just been named team leader with zero training and my team is not co-located – where should I start? read more »

• How do I know if someone is really incompetent or just struggling?
  May 27, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  How do I recognize when someone is really incompetent? Sometimes people don’t have results because they’re put in a tough spot. read more »

• Don't you use kamishibai cards; you've never written about them?
  May 20, 2019

  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 works great. You've written about standardized work and visuals but not kamishibai cards. Don't you use them? read more »

• As head of a lean office, what must I do to really walk the talk?
  May 13, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am the head of a lean office. I’d like to lead by example, but it occurs to me that we often make the very same mistakes we coach others not to do. What must I watch out for in order to really walk the talk? read more »

• Got any recommendations for applying lean in the tool and die shop to stop our dies from crashing like crazy?
  May 6, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  We applied SMED to increase the flexibility in our production cells. Now our dies are crashing like crazy and disrupting production because maintenance can't keep up! Got any recommendations or experiences in applying lean in the tool and die shop? read more »

• What should I look for so I don't get burned taking a lean director's job?
  April 29, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,I’ve been offered the job of a lean director in an industrial group. The offer sounds very attractive, and they tell me they’re serious about lean. But I’ve been burned before. What should I look for? read more »

• How can I help middle managers handle contradictory instructions from top management?
  April 22, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: As a lean coach, how can I help middle-managers who are faced with contradictory instructions from top management? read more »

• As someone who is new to lean, is there something I’m not being told?
  April 15, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, I’m new to lean, and I find it fascinating. Is there something I’m not being told? Is there an elephant in the room I should be aware of in my exploration of lean? read more »

• What's different about implementing lean in a low-volume, high-variety environment?
  April 8, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I manage a plant that makes highly engineered, low-volume products. What do I have to do differently from the high-volume guys to implement lean management concepts? read more »

• If lean is valid in all situations doesn't that make it an ideology?
  April 1, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Is lean really valid in all situations? That sounds like ideology to me! read more »

• How do I practice lean when I don't feel a strong attachment to my knowledge worker team?
  March 25, 2019

  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 rarely together in the same room.  Meetings never follow a standard format--nor regular cadence. read more »

• Why do lean practitioners use so many Japanese terms?
  March 18, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Why do we use so many Japanese terms? I guess experts really want employees and students to think about these concepts.  They make me think about Japan though. If the Japanese use their own language that means their employees don’t have to think that much about the concepts. read more »

• What topics, tools, and techniques would you include in an MBA-level course on teaching lean concepts?
  March 11, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach, I am designing an MBA-level course to teach lean concepts.  What topics, tools, and techniques would you include in a 7-week, 14-session course? read more »

• Is value engineering just about cutting costs?
  March 4, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  My boss has hired a consultant to do value engineering, who has us looking for design opportunities to reduce the costs of components and materials – is that it? read more »

• Do standards make any sense in a creative industry?
  February 25, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,Do standards make any sense in a creative industry, such as code development? read more »

• Why should I manage as if I had no power when power is the most effective way of getting things done?
  February 18, 2019

  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 things done, isn’t it? read more »

• Should we seek professional help for our sensei who talks to parts?
  February 11, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: My sensei has gone crazy; he’s talking to parts. Everyone is looking at him funny on the shop floor. What should I do? read more »

• Lean thinkers tell me not to give answers but my sensei keeps telling me what to do; which is it?
  February 4, 2019

  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, lean guys tell me I should ask questions but not give answers. Plus, I have a sensei who keeps asking me to do very specific stuff. I’m confused. read more »

• Can you implement TPS if management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of the Toyota Way?
  January 28, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: How can we implement the principles of  TPS if our management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of the Toyota Way? read more »

• How do I start to learn "real lean" when my company practices "fake lean"?
  January 21, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I understand now there is “real lean” and “fake lean.” I suspect my company has been practicing fake lean all these years. If I wanted to learn real lean, where should I start? read more »

• I'm all in on our lean effort but how do I get my managers to be more supportive?
  January 14, 2019

  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 my managers are slow to take an interest and often defend the rules of the company against new ideas from their teams. I try hard to lead by example but it doesn’t seem to work so well – what am I missing? read more »

• Should producing products with zero defects be my top goal?
  January 7, 2019

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is zero defects really the first goal? The number of defects doesn’t necessarily relate to the user’s experience with a product, does it? read more »

• What do you do when your advice is wrong?
  December 24, 2018

  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 discover wasn’t right? read more »

• We get good results with kaizen, but why don't they stick?
  December 17, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Our teams have good results with kaizen, but nothing seems to stick for long – any advice? read more »

• How can I make sure my teams do kaizen the right way?
  December 10, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  How can I make sure my teams do kaizen the right way? read more »

• How do you apply takt time to service work?
  December 3, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach, How do you apply takt time in fields like services where customer demand is not known? read more »

• Review: Designing the Future
  November 27, 2018

  In his review of the new book Designing The Future, Michael Ballé points out that it “makes clear the central lean concept in product development: distinguishing what is fixed and what is flexible in new product design.” read more »

• I have years of experience in operational excellence but if I were to start lean where should I start?
  November 12, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I have years of experience in operational excellence and have always assumed that lean is just a more gemba-focused way of improving processes. You seem to think that lean and operational excellence differ widely. If I were to start lean, in your sense, where should I start? read more »

• How do we get our boss to stop confusing inventory management with lean?
  November 5, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,Our new boss is a lean supporter and had us reduce drastically all inventories. Now we have missing parts all over the place and are late on delivering to our clients. I fail to see how this is going to make us more productive. read more »

• Should we do lean maturity audits?
  October 29, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  Should we continue with lean maturity audits and, if so, how often? read more »

• There are so many lean management principles to know and tools to master at the start – is there an easier way to begin?
  October 22, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,Isn’t there an easier way to start lean? For a beginner, it seems like such a mountain to climb – all these things to know, tools to master, counter-intuitive principles to grapple with. Can’t we make access easier? read more »

• What can we do to instill some passion in leadership about our lean implementation?
  October 15, 2018

  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 without the sort of passion by leadership inherent in a successful journey. What can we do to instill some passion? read more »

• Is agile project management simply lean thinking applied to software development?
  October 8, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: You seem to distinguish between agile and lean, but to my understanding, agile is simply lean thinking applied to software development. Am I missing something? read more »

• Factory physics was once the rage, but I don't hear about it any more -- was it wrong?
  October 1, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: What happened to factory physics? It used to be all the rage some years ago, but we hardly ever hear about it these days. Was it wrong? read more »

• Will changing the standard for supervisors' morning gemba walks make them pay more attention?
  September 24, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  We have a standard gemba walk for supervisors to check their areas every morning. I’ve noticed that after a while, they tick the box without really looking. Should I change the standard? read more »

• Does it matter if we call lean "lean"?
  September 17, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: If it works, why worry if it’s called lean, operational excellence, or the company’s excellence system? As long as we get results, what does it matter? read more »

• We're working hard on problem solving so why don't I see any improvement in our problem-solving capability?
  September 10, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  We're working hard on problem solving, asking "why" repeatedly, and looking for root causes, but I'm afraid I fail to see any improvement in our problem-solving capability or why looking for hidden causes should help. read more »

• Why does visual management at a Toyota plant look so much different than at ours?
  September 3, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  We have been deploying lean visual management in my company for a while now, and I am troubled because I finally visited a Toyota plant and found far fewer boards and papers on the walls than we use – we seem to cover every surface. It made me wonder whether we’re doing this right. read more »

• What is the hardest conversation you ever had during gemba walks?
  August 27, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  What is the hardest conversation that you have during gemba walks? read more »

• We mapped a process, improved it, but six months later, performance is as bad as it was before – what are we missing?
  August 20, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  We’ve drawn the value-stream map of one of our complex production processes (17 steps), identified the key bottlenecks and improved the process. Yet, six months later, the performance is just as bad as it was before – what are we missing?  read more »

• What's your definition of lean?
  August 13, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  My company is adopting lean, which has so many definitions that I find it confusing. What's your definition and why can’t all these lean experts agree? read more »

• What personal qualities should I work on to improve my practice of lean?
  August 6, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: What personal qualities should I work on to improve how I practice lean? read more »

• Why haven't lean tools changed our culture?
  July 30, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I’m part of a team that has been tasked to implement lean tools across the company to drive continuous improvement actions, and yet I see little overall change in our culture. I read about cases where lean works and wonder what we could be doing wrong. read more »

• I'm thinking about outsourcing some administrative activities to be more flexible, but what does lean say about outsourcing?
  July 23, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: Financial results do not allow me to have excess people. After two years of struggling, I'm thinking about outsourcing some administrative activities to be more flexible, but it does not feel right from a lean point of view. What does lean say about outsourcing? read more »

• Is lean problem solving different from regular problem solving?
  July 16, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: How is lean problem solving any different from regular problem-solving? read more »

• As a business unit manager who is new to lean, what is the one thing I must know to get it right?
  July 2, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach,  I’m a business unit manager new to lean, and our CEO has decided to embark us on a lean transformation program. What is the one thing I need to know to get it right? read more »

• Do I have the right attitude during gemba walks?
  June 18, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I know if I have the right attitude during gemba walks? We’ve started doing those systematically, but I realize how many of our managers add to the pressure on associates rather than make things better, and maybe I do too. Any help? read more »

• What is your psychology of change?
  June 11, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: Do you have a psychology of change? And if so, what is it? Where should we start? read more »

• Can I change a company's attitude that people can't be trusted to do their jobs unless they are scared into complying?
  June 4, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: A major assumption in lean thinking is that people genuinely want to do a good job, and the only thing standing in their way is a poor system. But some organizations act on the assumption that you can’t really trust anyone to do their job unless they are constantly controlled and scared into complying. It’s hard for me to see how lean can help any org without changing this assumption first … or? read more »

• Why don't I see any significant performance improvement from obeya rooms?
  May 22, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve deployed obeyas all across our organization, but I can’t see any significant improvement in our results. We can better see which teams perform and which don’t, but the good teams stay good and the poor ones poor and I’m not sure the increased performance is worth the effort. Are we doing something wrong? read more »

• Any thoughts about lean and Industry 4.0?
  May 14, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: What about lean and digital? Any thoughts? And on Industry 4.0? read more »

• Why does no one ask about production flow anymore?
  May 7, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: As I read lean posts and papers, no one seems to have problems like this anymore, but I am trying to convince my manager that we have a bottleneck in the production process and that we should have two work stations in parallel to improve the flow. What would be the lean argument for doing that? read more »

• Toyota chief engineers have no power? Really?
  April 30, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: We often hear that Toyota chief engineers have no power. Really? So how does that work? Why such an organization? What problem does it solve? read more »

• As CEO, how do I get my management team to support the lean effort?
  April 23, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: As a CEO, lean has enabled me to renew our company’s profitable growth, so I love it. But getting my management team on board is a daily struggle. Thoughts? read more »

• What's wrong with taking a tools approach to lean management?
  April 16, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: I keep hearing that a tool approach to lean is wrong, but tools deliver results – how can that be wrong? read more »

• How effective is a book club?
  April 9, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: How effective is a book club? Should we invest in book clubs? read more »

• How do I know people are displaying the right visual information in an office?
  April 2, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve been quite successful with lean in our operations, and I’ve been tasked to bring it to headquarters. We’ve set up obeyas and stand-up meetings in all departments, and people are putting all sorts of information on the wall. However, I’m not sure we’re looking at the right things – any advice? read more »

• Why do you keep referring to Toyota; does it still matter?
  March 26, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach:  I’m very interested in lean, but fail to see why you guys keep referring to Toyota. What does a Toyota plant look like and why should it still matter? read more »

• Is kanban relevant to office work?
  March 19, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: I understand that kanban is an important part of lean, but I work in an office environment, and it’s hard to see how production orders on cardboard cards relate to improving project management – what am I missing? read more »

• I read everywhere that in lean we should focus on process over results – does that mean we ignore budgets?
  March 12, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: I read everywhere that in lean we should focus on process over results – does that mean that we need to ignore budgets altogether? read more »

• If lean is all about people, why are the discussions impersonally cold and rational?
  March 5, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: Lean thinkers say it’s all about people, but the debates are then all so cold and rational. Where are the emotions and the effects that real people have at work? read more »

• Any advice for someone (me) in sales who fails to see how lean can help?
  February 26, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our company has a long history of lean in manufacturing, but I work in the sales department. We have our own sales improvement method, and I fail to see how lean could help, but I’m under pressure to comply and participate in the lean program. Any advice? read more »

• How do I fix our main delivery processes -- again?
  February 19, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m part of a large logistics organization and our on-time-delivery is simply disastrous. We’ve done a first value-stream map to improve our main delivery processes, and it surfaced so many issues. We had projects to fix some, but things seem worse. We’re about to start again – any ideas on how to get it right? read more »

• But when should we use design thinking or lean thinking?
  February 12, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: I read your latest and very interesting Gemba Coach column comparing design thinking and lean thinking. But when should we use each? read more »

• Are Design Thinking and Lean Thinking the Same?
  January 29, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: As a practitioner and advocate of design thinking, I’ve been curious about lean, but it seems to me we’re talking about the same thing: essentially developing a PDCA mindset in people. Isn’t that the case? read more »

• What would "process points" be in software development?
  January 8, 2018

  Dear Gemba Coach: Thank you for your previous column that has raised profound questions for me to work on with my software development teams. For example, what are our "process points"? How do we as lean managers enable thinking deeper together about them? What are the behaviors that encourage "better people to work better with each other to create better processes"? read more »

• How Do I Tell Good Obeya Rooms From Bad?
  January 3, 2018

  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. read more »

• If lean really is about innovation, why does so much of it seem to be about logistics?
  December 11, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: If lean really is about innovation, why does so much of it seem to be about logistics, with truck preparation areas, leveling boxes, small trains, kanbans and so on? read more »

• What does “separation of human work and machine work” mean?
  November 29, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been trying to learn more about Jidoka and I keep coming across references to “separation of human work and machine work” but I’m not sure what this means – any pointers?  read more »

• When should we do an A3 or use a different problem-solving tool?
  November 12, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I would really appreciate your perspective on the following: (1) When should we do an A3 for something vs. when would it be appropriate to just use an idea board? (2) What is the difference between a problem and an idea? read more »

• Why don't people learn from experience?
  November 5, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: On the gemba, we have many problems to manage every day. People don’t seem to learn from their experience. Is there any way to teach the people when they don’t learn from their own experience? read more »

• How do we ensure sustainability of a successful lean effort?
  October 25, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: We used training and workshops to roll out a lean program with good early results – what do we need to do to ensure sustainability? read more »

• What do you recommend -- clarify roles and responsibilities first or reengineer the process first and then define R&R?
  October 16, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: What do you recommend – clarify roles and responsibilities first or reengineer the process first and then define R&R? read more »

• How big should my lean promotion office be?
  October 9, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: How large should my lean promotion office be if I want to achieve quickly a lean culture change? read more »

• As a facilitator, how much do I have to know about an area targeted for improvement?
  October 2, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: As a lean "facilitator" in my organization, how important is it to gain a deep understanding of the "area" that is being analyzed. Do you spend a lot of time just becoming familiar with the area so that you can do experiments, etc.…? read more »

• Is the digital revolution a more important business development than lean?
  September 25, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach, Isn’t the digital revolution, especially in services, a more important business development than lean? read more »

• Is lean different from creating a culture of problem-solving?
  September 18, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m an OD coach interested in lean, and wonder how lean is different from creating a culture of problem solving? read more »

• Is a lean team leader a manager?
  September 11, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: How is a team leader not a manager? read more »

• What lean concepts are most difficult to teach?
  August 28, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: In your experience of teaching lean, what do you find most difficult to teach? read more »

• Why Visualize?
  August 14, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you insist so much on visualizing information? read more »

• Why do lean management experts differ on how to apply lean principles?
  August 7, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve worked with several managers who worked at Toyota or Toyota suppliers who were considered experts in the company’s management and production systems. Each seemed to have a different approach to applying lean principles. What’s going on? Why aren’t they all on the same page? read more »

• Any advice for how to implement real pull across the company?
  July 31, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: My boss, the operations VP, has asked me to implement a pull system across the whole company. I’ve practiced lean for many years and am a division lean officer, but not fully comfortable about real pull – would you have any advice? read more »

• Why don't you use plain English instead of confusing Japanese terms such as “monozukuri” or “hitozukuri”?
  July 17, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you keep using confusing Japanese terms such as “monozukuri” or “hitozukuri” rather than plain English? Isn’t that what professionals do when they want to obfuscate and befuddle clients? read more »

• Our hoshin plan failed. What do we do now?
  July 11, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do we deal with hoshin kanri when things don’t work out as planned? read more »

• Will a real andon system bring the factory to a full stop?
  June 26, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: What would happen if we practiced andon for real – wouldn’t the factory simply stop? read more »

• How can I tell good lean consultants from bad?
  June 19, 2017

  If lean’s not a scam – but there are scammers -- how can I distinguish good lean consultants from bad? read more »

• Follow-up to your comments on the “lean is a scam” column
  June 5, 2017

  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 use of “scam” was a bit of an exaggeration. read more »

• Isn’t lean just a scam to squeeze teams for more production?
  May 22, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Lean is a scam. People like you who write about “respect” are pushing a smoke screen that allows consultants to just squeeze teams for more production without ever resolving the company’s deeper problems. read more »

• How can we tell if gemba walks by our CEO are actually improving the business?
  May 14, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re instituting a program of gemba walks by our CEO. How will we know if we’re progressing? read more »

• Shouldn't lean focus on solutions, rather than problems?
  May 4, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why is lean so focused on problem solving? Isn’t seeing everything as a problem negative? Shouldn’t we focus on solutions instead? Wouldn’t that be more positive and more creative? read more »

• What’s your opinion on setting specific criteria before brainstorming countermeasures?
  April 24, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: What’s your opinion on setting specific criteria before brainstorming countermeasures? read more »

• Isn’t lean all about culture?
  April 17, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t lean all about culture, really? read more »

• What do you mean by developing people?
  April 10, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: What do you mean by developing people? read more »

• What do you think are the pros and cons of merging lean and TOC?
  March 30, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: In the DevOps movement, the amalgamation of agile, lean, and IT service management practices, there is a new entry that is making a big impact. This is The Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu Goldratt. Many believe that combining the thinking of Ohno and Goldratt can produce amazing and sustainable results far easier and faster than either can separately. Have you considered the pros and cons of lean and TOC or merging them? read more »

• How do we deal with a command-and-control boss?
  March 27, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our boss always says, “It’s not my job to tell you how to do yours!” But then he tells us what to do all day long. How do we deal with this? read more »

• Is there a lean way of delegating?
  March 3, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m an entrepreneur and I used to micromanage everything, quite successfully. Now the firm has grown and I’m trying to delegate. How do I stop myself from cutting in when the actions my department heads want to take are plain silly, or not very creative? read more »

• We meet daily to examine a new customer complaint. What do we do next?
  February 27, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re a start-up and have taken your advice: we now have a customer wall and we meet daily to look into a new complaint. What do we do next? It’s hard to know what to do or how that helps? read more »

• What's the lean take on learning?
  February 21, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our previous CEO used to preach “servant leadership,” but now’s he’s left and the new style is far more traditional command and control. I’m personally interested in learning leadership and wondered what the lean take on it would be? read more »

• Does lean change how you think about business?
  February 13, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I can see that lean changes how one thinks about business, but can’t quite put my finger on it. If you had to sum up the main changes in thinking, what would they be? read more »

• Is "lean" now just an over-hyped word that is losing its value?
  January 30, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have spent the day with a group of people in the LeanIT, Agile, ITSM, IT4IT, DevOps, etc. worlds.  We were all more or less saying the same thing; using the same words. In your opinion, is "lean" now just an over-hyped word losing its value? read more »

• Should value-stream mapping come before 5S?
  January 19, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Shouldn’t VSM come before 5S so we see the whole picture first? read more »

• Is promising that lean will make work more meaningful disrespectful to people?
  January 16, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can lean really make work more meaningful for everybody? Isn’t this overpromising to workers and disrespectful to them because management really can't deliver on the promise? read more »

• What kind of conversation should I expect during a gemba walk?
  January 9, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coach: What kind of conversation should I expect during a gemba walk? read more »

• What are your three most important problems?
  January 3, 2017

  Dear Gemba Coacg: What should I look for during a gemba walk? read more »

• Does implementing lean mean creating a lean management system?
  December 19, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: My understanding is that implementing lean means setting up a lean management system. You seem to disagree. Would you explain? read more »

• Why does my team resist multi-skilling?
  December 12, 2016

  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. What am I missing? read more »

• Do andons apply to software development?
  December 6, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I work in software development, and I really don’t see how andon applies – what am I missing? read more »

• Does a Lean Company Need Explicit or Implicit Leadership?
  November 28, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Explicit leadership or implicit leadership? Does an explicit style sustain a lean organization? read more »

• Does lean have an ethical perspective other than goal-oriented efficiency?
  November 14, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: As a follow-up to your previous column on the question of whether lean has a spiritual dimension, does lean have an ethical perspective other than goal-oriented efficiency? read more »

• Is there a spiritual dimension to lean?
  November 7, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is there a spiritual dimension to lean? read more »

• What's the difference between a sensei and a consultant?
  October 31, 2016

  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? read more »

• What should I know about lean management that I won’t find in books?
  October 21, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m new to lean and reading all I can find about it, but is there something specific I need to look out for; is there something I should know that I won’t find in the books? read more »

• Our new boss doesn’t 'get' lean; what can I do to convince him?
  October 6, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve had spectacular lean results with our old boss, but our new boss doesn’t get it. He’s already cut his gemba walks from weekly to monthly and doesn’t see the point of kanban. What can I do to convince him? read more »

• How can kanban or lean possibly apply in an office?
  October 3, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: You often say that one can’t do lean without kanban, and that continuous improvement without kanban is fine, but not lean. My team works on projects in an office, I fail to see how kanban  applies. Are we barred from lean forever? read more »

• What are the elements of knowledge-based product development?
  September 26, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach, What would be a knowledge-based approach to product development? read more »

• Does respect for humanity mean the same as respect for people?
  August 30, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Does respect for humanity mean the same as respect for people? I hear that the literal translation of the Japanese phrase “respect for people” is really respect for “humanness” – whatever that means? read more »

• Guest Post: Insights on Daily Problem Solving
  August 29, 2016

  In this guest post, Joe Lee, a sensei at Lean Enterprise China and former manager at Toyota affiliate Kuozui Motors, LTD, describes his key takeaways from Michael Ballé’s recent column on daily problem solving read more »

• Does a lean transformation boost a company's stock price?
  August 22, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: You’ve worked with a lot of different companies in the public and private sectors. How have the stock prices of the public companies done? read more »

• What is leader standard work?
  August 15, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is there such thing as a leader standard work, and, if so, what is it? read more »

• Do we need more research to understand what works and what doesn’t when implementing lean healthcare?
  August 1, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: There are controversies over whether lean/TPS works in healthcare or not. Authorities in lean practice suggest conducting research that compares outcomes with lean and without. I feel like we are stuck proving wasteful activities are still valid when we run to research. read more »

• How do we pass the baton from one lean leader to the next?
  July 25, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: What are your thoughts about ensuring that a lean transformation persists past a leader’s tenure at an organization? read more »

• We’re installing an andon system – what should we expect?
  July 18, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re installing an andon system – what should we expect? read more »

• What does “daily problem solving” really look like in practice?
  July 11, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I hear the phrase “daily problem solving” a lot. But what does it really mean in practice and how does it work? read more »

• Why does kaizen feel like chaos?
  June 27, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why does kaizen always feel so destabilizing? read more »

• How can I keep our lean management effort from becoming bureaucratic?
  June 14, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t there a risk that all these lean tools in the workplace turn into yet more bureaucracy? read more »

• How important is it to consider differences in roles between our current project manager and a chief engineer?
  June 6, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Management wants us to start lean in product development, but refuses to consider the difference in roles between our current project manager and a chief engineer – how important is that? read more »

• I’m struggling to understand exactly what people mean by a “lean system”?
  May 30, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m struggling to understand exactly what people mean by a “lean system”? read more »

• How do I implement standard work in an office environment?
  May 23, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I really enjoyed reading your article on the difference between standard work and procedures back in December. It really helped clarify the differences. Can you explain further how to implement in an office environment? read more »

• Our technical guys are really resisting the idea of standard work. What should we do?
  May 16, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our technical guys are really resisting the idea of standard work. They believe they each have their own way of working and don’t want to share. What should we do? read more »

• Any step forward in a lean transformation is a good step -- right?
  May 2, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Surely a step forward in a lean transformation is a good thing, even if it’s not completely in the right direction? read more »

• What do you think about a new boss who wants us to use A3s to solve problems rigorously?
  April 25, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: My new boss wants us to use A3s to “teach us how to solve problems rigorously” – her words. I find the process cumbersome, it goes against everything I know about creative problem solving and, personally, I resent the idea that my boss wants to teach me how to think. What’s your take on this? read more »

• Why won't operators use andons?
  April 18, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re struggling with andons. We’ve set up a button for operators to press and call for help, but they’re not using it as much as we hoped, and we don’t know how to make it work properly. Any thoughts? read more »

• Rather than narrow problem solving, shouldn't we look for disruptive breakthroughs?
  April 11, 2016

  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? read more »

• What are the pitfalls of implementing hoshin kanri?
  March 28, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve heard of hoshin kanri, and I’d really like to try it in my company – what should I keep in mind? read more »

• How do I introduce kaizen to IT?
  March 14, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Based on your experience, what is the best strategy to introduce kaizen as social, ongoing events without start and end dates in a service industry, specifically IT services? read more »

• How is lean different from Taylorism?
  March 7, 2016

  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 “Taylorism” triggered by the recent story “Medical Taylorism” in the . read more »

• Does lean apply to sales?
  February 27, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: Does lean apply to sales? We’re trying to introduce lean thinking throughout the company and have found very little on how to lean the sales department. read more »

• What does “separating human work from machine work" mean?
  February 15, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: What does “separating human work from machine work” mean? How does it matter? read more »

• What is the best way to start gemba walks and keep them focused ?
  February 15, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: We are looking to implement gemba walks in our facility. This is new to everyone including myself although I have been exposed to them in the past.  What is the best way to get started and keep them focused? read more »

• What is your opinion about transformation process steps?
  February 8, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is your opinion about transformation process steps? First we choose a problem and start problem-solving processes (A3 or 8-step methods) and after the steps create our first standards; OR first write down the processes as they are now and choose problems to solve by measuring the gaps between first standards and our goals? read more »

• How do I convince management to run to takt time, not as fast as possible?
  January 31, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have always struggled with convincing management about the importance of running to takt time, since the mindset is typically run as fast as possible.  How would you address this issue with management? read more »

• How does continuous flow apply to healthcare or other service industries?
  January 25, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: I work in healthcare and I struggle with how the concept of flow, which I can well understand in production, applies in service? read more »

• How do I quantify kaizen's small improvements?
  January 18, 2016

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I quantify kaizen's small improvements? read more »

• What is the difference between standard work and procedures?
  December 28, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is the difference between standard work and procedures? read more »

• How do you introduce visual management into a product development facility?
  December 21, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: What steps do you start with to introduce visual management into a product development facility? read more »

• What is the lean approach to quality – is that what six sigma is all about?
  December 7, 2015

  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 a lean approach to quality – is this what six sigma is about? read more »

• How can I speed up my team’s lean learning?
  November 30, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How can I speed up my team’s lean learning? read more »

• Why you can't convince your boss to support lean activities, unless ...
  November 16, 2015

  Dear Gemba  Coach: I work as a deployment champion in a manufacturing company, but I don’t have the support of my managers because they don´t believe in the lean methodology. Which lean tools can be used to help them believe? read more »

• Why are there so many different opinions about what lean management is and isn't?
  November 2, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have attended several lean conferences and am deeply interested in the topic, but puzzled about the diversity of viewpoints. Any advice on how to make up my own mind about what “lean” really is? read more »

• How do I reconcile the lean healthcare goal to organize around the patient with management demands to cut costs?
  October 13, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m the lean director at a hospital where the board keeps investing and then asking us to cut costs. I understand lean aims for better patient care and reduced lead times, but I’m having trouble reconciling this with my CEO’s demands. Any advice? read more »

• How and Where Should I Start Using Andons?
  October 5, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I understand the andon is an essential part of a lean system, but it seems very far from our work culture and I do not know where to start. Any advice? read more »

• Is your obeya room used for real learning or as a glorified action plan?
  September 28, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How can I use an obeya for learning rather than for project management? read more »

• Is there a way to define standard work for senseis?
  September 21, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach, I’ve been working on lean projects for years and my CEO has now asked me to act as the lean sensei for our company. Is there a way to define standard work for senseis? read more »

• Gemba, workplace, genchi genbutsu, go-and-see ... What’s the difference?
  September 14, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is there a difference between “gemba” as used in lean texts and “genchi genbutsu” as they appear in Toyota literature? read more »

• Is a lean CEO's job different from a traditional CEO?
  August 31, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How does the role of CEO in lean management differ from that in traditional management? read more »

• Does being “sensei-ed” show respect for people?
  August 17, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: If lean is based on respect for people, why are sensei gemba visits reputed to be so tough? read more »

• What the heck is a dojo?
  July 27, 2015

  ear Gemba Coach: What is a “dojo”? I hear about it but don’t find it referenced in the lean tools. Is it important? read more »

• Am I doing lean right? How can I tell?
  July 20, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m spending a lot of time at the gemba, but how do I know if I’m doing lean right? read more »

• My CEO, who supported lean, has left and been replaced by a pure finance guy. It doesn't look good for the lean effort. What should I do?
  July 13, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO, who supported lean, has left and been replaced by a pure finance guy. It doesn’t look good for the lean effort. What should I do? read more »

• How can I tell if people “get” lean thinking; what signs should I look for?
  June 29, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been training teams to do lean, intensively at first, and with paced-out coaching later. How do I know if they “get it”? What should I be looking for in behavior change? At what point should they be autonomous? read more »

• Two managers I relied on a lot are still fighting a two-year-old pull system and creating a lot of conflict on the team. Is this normal?
  June 18, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m two years into establishing a pull system through my plant and two of my key managers are still fighting the system and creating a lot of conflict on the team. Is this normal? read more »

• Could hoshin kanri be too bureaucratic for my small tech company?
  June 9, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I get frustrated with being the only one seriously concerned with experimenting and learning new systems, so I implemented hoshin kanri to get others on board. I'm getting a lot of pushback. Is this normal resistance? read more »

• My management team feels tense and pressured about going to the gemba. Is this normal?
  May 28, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve decided to take my management team to the gemba to get them to solve real problems but this is creating a lot of tension and they complain of the pressure. Is that to be expected? read more »

• I've had visible results with lean but my corporate colleagues want to force their ERP and purchasing practices on my division. Any advice?
  May 11, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m the head of a business unit and have had visible results with lean. Yet, my corporate colleagues refuse to acknowledge this and want to force their ERP and purchasing practices on my division. This is very frustrating – any advice? read more »

• How is leadership engaged and trained in lean?
  May 4, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How is leadership engaged and trained in lean? read more »

• How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts?
  April 20, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts? read more »

• How Do I Measure People Development?
  April 6, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is the metric for people development? read more »

• Why do we hear less and less about lean in manufacturing?
  March 30, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why do we hear less and less about lean in manufacturing? Is it that most companies have implemented lean successfully or at least elements of lean? read more »

• What does customer focus really mean?
  March 16, 2015

  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? read more »

• How demanding can a lean leader be while remaining respectful of staff?
  March 9, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How demanding can a lean leader be while remaining respectful of staff? read more »

• Is there a difference between executive coaching and lean coaching?
  February 23, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is there a difference between executive coaching and lean coaching? read more »

• After improving processes with help from a consultant, how do I sustain kaizen in my department? My teams are hard to motivate.
  February 17, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I sustain kaizen in my department? We’ve had a consultant help us with workshops, and we did improve our processes, but I struggle with moving to continuous improvement, as my teams are hard to motivate on this. read more »

• How can I estimate the savings from using visual management boards?
  February 9, 2015

  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 is that we save about 5% of people’s time as a result of realigning resources and driving performance. Would you know of any studies in this area? read more »

• How Do You Spread a Lean Transformation from One Site to Many?
  February 2, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO has asked me to spread lean to 30 other sites. How should I go about it? read more »

• In IT, can we do virtual gemba walks?
  January 27, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am part of an IT creation and support organization. How do you do a gemba walk, initially or afterwards, when management and the business customer are in one country, IT development in another, and IT OPS is in another? read more »

• Is there a lean strategy?
  January 18, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: My team demonstrated the benefits of kaizen to the CEO who then asked us what our strategy was. Is there a lean strategy? read more »

• How do I set up an obeya room?
  January 12, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’d like to set up an obeya room – where should I start? What’s the simplest way to do it? read more »

• Any tips for conducting daily stand-up meetings with my team?
  January 5, 2015

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been told I should conduct daily stand-up meetings with my team to solve problems collaboratively. I’m not sure how to do it — any tips? read more »

• I’m not sure I understand solving problems one by one.
  December 19, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m not sure I understand solving problems one by one. I thought listing problems and pushing hard to get them solved faster would improve my operations faster – am I missing something? read more »

• How Do Lean Concepts Apply in an Office Environment?
  December 15, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: How does lean apply in an office environment? I’m excited by the ideas but can’t figure out "learning to see" when there’s nothing to see. read more »

• Is lean just another word for productivity?
  December 8, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t lean about productivity before all else? read more »

• Is momentum loss normal during a lean transformation?
  November 25, 2014

  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 was lost and waiting time is now worse than it ever was. Is this loss of momentum normal? read more »

• How do we solicit feedback from the shop floor without being overwhelmed by the enormous amount of ideas?
  November 19, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I think we all know that the "suggestion box" has gone by the wayside.  How do we solicit feedback from the shop floor without being overwhelmed by the enormous amount of amazing ideas that we're asking for? read more »

• Can creative people, like product developers, follow such a structured method such as lean?
  November 7, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: For product development you need creative (maybe even chaotic) people. Are those people suited to follow such a structured method as lean? Like trying to achieve one-piece-flow in product development? read more »

• What do you actually do on the gemba?
  November 4, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is it you actually do on the gemba? read more »

• My boss has asked me to take on the sensei role for the company. What does that mean?
  October 28, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I become a sensei? My boss has asked me to act in the sensei role for the company but I’m not sure what that means – any advice? read more »

• How is standardized work different from the Taylorist one best way?
  October 19, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: How is standardized work different from the Taylorist one best way? read more »

• How can I train technical experts who know more about the work than I do?
  October 6, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I understand I have to train people, but I work in a very technical area and they all know far more about their jobs than I ever will. How can I train them if they know more than I do? read more »

• I’m a six sigma black belt and have now been ask to do lean. I’m not sure where to start with my team. Any advice?
  September 29, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach,I’m a six sigma black belt and have now been ask to do lean. I’m reading the literature and there’s a lot to absorb. I’m not sure where to start with my team. Any advice? read more »

• How should I accelerate my own learning?
  September 22, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: How should I accelerate my own learning? read more »

• Would you have a fresh perspective on 5S to make it more motivating?
  September 10, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m the manager of a plant that has changed hands (again). The new corporate team finds my 5S insufficient (again) and want me to make a 5S drive (again). Would you have a fresh perspective on 5S to make it more motivating? read more »

• I fail to see the difference between hoshin kanri and the strategic planning we used to do. What am I missing?
  August 18, 2014

  Dear Gemba Cocah: My boss has hired a consultant to take us through the Hoshin Kanri process. So far, I fail to see the difference with the strategic planning we used to do. What am I missing? read more »

• What does developing people mean?
  August 7, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach,Are people tools? Should bosses use people? What does development mean? How should we think about it? read more »

• What's new in your new novel "Lead With Respect"?
  July 29, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I see that you have a new lean management novel out called “Lead With Respect.” What's new in it? read more »

• What? My Pull System Is Supposed to Fail?
  July 11, 2014

  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 let customer service suffer more than it already does. We’re doing a lot of A3 problem solving – isn’t that lean enough? read more »

• Am I doing PDCA correctly?
  June 30, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I know if I’m doing PDCA correctly? read more »

• We found your visit rather challenging ... does “real” lean have to be such a struggle?
  June 12, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: The question I’m facing internally is whether “real” lean needs to be that challenging or is there an easier way to do lean projects without questioning as much what has been done in the past?/p> read more »

• Are computer screens okay for visual management?
  June 4, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can I use computer screens for visual management or is that a big no-no? read more »

• Could you clarify the difference between cause and root cause?
  May 29, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Could you clarify the difference between cause and root cause? read more »

• What's the main quality I should look out for in hiring a lean coach?
  May 14, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in the process of hiring a Lean Coach for my team and I wondered if there was any one quality I should look out for? read more »

• I want to apply lean to engineering. Any thoughts?
  May 4, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am the regional manufacturing VP of a large industrial company. After the latest reorganization, engineering now comes under me. I’ve had good success with lean in manufacturing and want to apply it to engineering. I plan to get engineers to solve production problems faster. Any thoughts? read more »

• Why do you lean guys always focus on shop floor processes? The lack of clarity and focus at headquarters is far worse!
  April 21, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you lean guys always focus on shop floor processes? The lack of clarity and focus at headquarters is far worse!  read more »

• What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?
  April 10, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba? read more »

• We’re being audited on five levels on fifteen topics. I feel that if we actually worked on all these items, the plant would just stop working. Am I missing anything?
  March 27, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our facility is being rated on a “lean maturity” audit. We’re being audited on five levels on fifteen topics, each having multiple sub-topics. I feel that if we actually worked on all these items, the plant would just stop working. Am I missing anything? read more »

• Why do the characters in your books struggle a lot with lean?
  March 18, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m new to lean and I’ve just finished reading “The Gold Mine” and “The Lean Manager” and enjoyed them thoroughly – thank you. I do have a question: the characters seem to struggle a lot, and there’s a lot of conflict. Is that always the case or is it in there to make the books more interesting? read more »

• I’ve heard you say the quality department is the worst enemy of quality. I find this offensive.
  March 3, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in the quality department of a large company and I’ve heard you say quality is the worst enemy of quality. I find this offensive, but I’m willing to keep an open mind. How would you back up such an outrageous statement? read more »

• If I turn off MRP in favor of kanban, will the factory collapse around us?
  February 24, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our sensei wants us to turn off MRP and work with kanban cards. I’m really nervous about this. We’ve been doing a lot of problem solving, but I’m not sure we’re ready. Any insights? read more »

• I don’t find much about lean strategy in the literature. Where should I look?
  February 10, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been tasked to come up with a presentation on what is a “lean” strategy to our Strategic Planning Group. I don’t find much about lean strategy in the literature and am stumped. Where should I look? read more »

• In TPM, Isn't it needlessly costly to replace parts that are working fine? What do you think?
  January 28, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have a question about Total Productive Maintenance. My management has hired a TPM consultant who makes us systematically replace certain parts in our equipment even though they’re working fine. This seems needlessly costly. What do you think? read more »

• Why do you lean experts still revere the Toyota Production System? Hasn't any one come up with something better?
  January 22, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach,Since Toyota formulated TPS 50 years ago, many other companies have come up with their own business systems – I have been taught the Nissan Production Way. Why do you lean experts still revere the Toyota Production System? Hasn't any one come up with something better? Is this just conservatism or ideology or do you actually have a reason to stick with TPS? read more »

• We struggle to set target conditions. Is there a system to do so?
  January 14, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: We work with Toyota Kata, which we find very helpful, but we struggle to set target conditions. Is there a system to do so? read more »

• How does lean fit together with Lean Startup concepts?
  January 6, 2014

  Dear Gemba Coach: I work in IT and discovered lean through the Lean Startup movement. Now, as I read more about it, I find that lean is about the complete elimination of waste. How does that fit together with  Lean Startup concepts? read more »

• What Exactly Is - or Isn't - a Lean System?
  December 20, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m confused as to what a “lean system” is or should be. Could you clarify? read more »

• Is there such a thing as lean manufacturing engineering?
  December 4, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I keep reading about lean engineering and lean design. Is there lean manufacturing engineering? read more »

• My CEO would like to install a lean culture and has asked me to specify a few basic lean values we need to implement. Where should I start?
  November 21, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO would like to install a lean culture in our company and has asked me to specify a few basic lean values we need to implement. Where should I start? read more »

• How do I re-size supermarkets when demand changes or to keep pace with seasonality?
  October 28, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I calculate re-sizing supermarkets when demand changes or to keep pace with seasonality? read more »

• Fighting fires vs. problem solving: what's the difference?
  October 20, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I hear that lean is about less fighting fires and more problem solving but I am unsure of how one differs from the other? read more »

• Product and Process Lean
  October 8, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Lean product development guys tout the gospel of product focus as core to lean success. No argument from me. But … how, if the customers are famously wrong about what they really want, do we focus on the product and still give them what they really need? It feels like we're running on two different tracks. read more »

• Why is it still so hard to convince executives to adopt the lean spirit?
  September 13, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why, in your experience, after all these years of preaching lean, is it still so hard to convince executives to adopt the lean spirit? read more »

• Can a pull system with zero stock make the company more fragile?
  September 10, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can a pull system with zero stock make the company more fragile? read more »

• How do you define respect for people?
  August 27, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can you be more specific about “respect” in lean? The term is being used in our company but I fear it sounds just like “motivation,” “everyone has to be a leader,” and the rest of management speak. read more »

• Why reduce inventory further?
  August 7, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach,We have a lot of machining operations in our process, and we carry inventory. What is the best way to show employees the value of reducing inventory—and how this relates to the need for continuous improvement? Our employees believe that some level of inventory is necessary to keep parts flowing, and that they’re already good at what they do, so there is no need to aim for better. read more »

• Should I use an A3 report to kick off a problem-solving effort?
  August 1, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Should I use an A3 report to kick off a problem? I encourage my managers to tell me about their problems on the shop floor. They always pull something out of the air and say ‘lets work on this...’ What I would really like is for them to create some kind of A3 report that explains why this problem is happening. Any advice? read more »

• Does quality really come first?
  July 22, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been practicing lean for many years and have learned to create flow and one-piece-flow. However I still struggle with quality problems. I hear that quality comes first, but face many challenges trying to put this phrase into practice. What’s your take on this? read more »

• Can lean go wrong?
  July 15, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can lean go wrong? Can the ideas be misused and can the outcome be bad for the company? Is there any way to prevent this? read more »

• Why aren’t the laws of lean articulated?
  June 19, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Aren’t there laws of lean, just as there are laws of physics? And why aren’t these clearly articulated yet? read more »

• Why don’t middle managers practice A3 thinking? (Part 2)
  June 3, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a lean consultant, and have been hired by a large service organization to develop an A3 problem solving training program for their middle-management. Why is it so hard to engage middle-managers in rigorous analysis? It’s not that they don’t understand the concepts or that they don’t feel it could help. They often just don’t seem to get it. How can I do my work here? read more »

• Why don’t middle managers practice A3 thinking?
  May 28, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a lean consultant, and have been hired by a large service organization to develop an A3 problem solving training program for their middle-management. Why is it so hard to engage middle-managers in rigorous analysis? It’s not that they don’t understand the concepts or that they don’t feel it could help. They often just don’t seem to get it. How can I do my work here? read more »

• Why Are There So Many Points of View About What Lean Is?
  May 4, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been interested in lean for over two years now, and can’t quite understand why after 20 years there are still so many points of view, and no apparent single message under the lean banner. What are your views on this? read more »

• Why Does Our Recognition Program Just Feel So Bad?
  April 25, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: My company has put an employee of the month program and other related efforts to reward good behavior. So why does it feel so bad? read more »

• Operator morale has suffered terribly since we implemented cell manufacturing, and the ideas that kaizens generate have been weak. Would you please share your insights on this situation?
  April 18, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Operator morale has suffered terribly since we implemented cell manufacturing, and the ideas that kaizens generate have been weak. Would you please share your insights on this situation? read more »

• Part2: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?
  April 2, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach,   What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want) read more »

• Part 1: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?
  March 26, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)? read more »

• How do we get started with lean tools in new product development?
  March 8, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: My company already has a deep rooted lean culture.  However, it would seem that the next evolution would be in my department, Research & Development.  Do you have any suggestions on how to take lean tools from process improvements such as kaizen, 5S, etc. to new product development? read more »

• How do we get started with standard work?
  February 27, 2013

  How do we get started with standard work? The literature seems to say there can’t be meaningful kaizen without standards, but although we have procedures for everything, they seem very far removed from “standards.”  I think I see what we need to do but the job seems daunting! read more »

• Why haven't kanban and value-stream mapping improved delivery from a low-volume/ high-mix process?
  February 21, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach,We work in a low-volume/ high-mix process with component machining and assembly. Our OTD is somewhere between 70% and 80%. We’ve invested heavily in value-stream mapping and kanban, but can’t seem to improve our delivery. Any advice? read more »

• My CEO has asked me to take a hard look at the lean program at our hospital – where should I start?
  February 11, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am ops director of a large hospital. We have been doing lean for several years now, with a lean office of 10 people involved in many projects improving 5S, finding beds, test circuits, and so on, but lean doesn’t seem to “take,” and our financial situation is not improving. My CEO has asked me to take a hard look at the lean program – where should I start? read more »

• Would you have a few tips about coaching on the gemba?
  January 28, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Would you have a few tips about coaching on the gemba? read more »

• How is lean strategic?
  January 21, 2013

  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 the lean initiative to the strategic plan. I’ve not found any reference to lean and strategy in the literature. Any advice? read more »

• Why won’t senseis ever give a straight answer?
  January 13, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why won’t senseis ever give a straight answer? read more »

• Why audit standard work? And what is the best approach?
  January 1, 2013

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can you help me determine the best way to conduct audits of standard work (SW)? The Toyota Way Fieldbook describes a layered SW auditing system. Team Leaders audit their five-member team once per hour (40 audits/shift).  A group leader may audit one of these teams once per hour (8 audits/shift). The frequencies follow suit as you go up the organizational hierarchy.  What auditing frequency have you seen to be most effective? read more »

• Why isn’t there more emphasis on lean engineering?
  December 17, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why isn’t there more emphasis on lean engineering? read more »

• How do I convince senior management to visit the shop floor?
  November 30, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I convince my senior management to get interested in our kaizen projects? In fact, how can I simply convince them to visit the shop floor? read more »

• How can we reconcile the lean principle of respect for people with our disrespectful atmosphere?
  November 26, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: My company's lean program stigmatizes competent people as “concrete heads” for disagreeing with the lean coaches, even when the coaches' prescriptions make no business sense. What used to be a good work atmosphere is now poisoned by resentment and distrust. How can that be compatible with the “respect for people” message that you say is so central to lean? read more »

• How do we mid-level managers convince the CEO and senior management that adopting lean practices is worthwhile?
  November 2, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: The recent webinar on the business case for lean was particularly useful for us because it raised many questions and provided a lot of common sense insight.  I'm an administrator taking lean certification training at a primary care network. How do we as mid-level "operators" convince our CEO and senior management that adopting lean practices and thinking are worthwhile? read more »

• What would a lean transformation mean for the IT Department? What benefits would it create for the company?
  October 28, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve asked our IT department to be involved in kaizen events several times, but it is always very slow to deliver on what is asked.  What would a lean transformation mean for this department? What benefits would it create for the company? read more »

• Do lean-minded finance professionals make a difference in appraising lean initiatives?
  October 19, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I would like to ask lean-minded fellow finance professionals if they make a difference in appraising lean initiatives from other investments in their companies,  e.g. different project and investment appraisal techniques, hurdle rates, etc.? read more »

• Why do we need to discuss making the business case for lean?
  September 28, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach,I saw the invitation to your October 10 webinar on Making the Business Case for Lean.  I wonder why we even need such a discussion. Isn’t making the business case a fundamental competency for any manager or executive leading a lean transformation? Why do you even need to discuss it? read more »

• How Do the Problems of Continuous Improvement Professionals Differ from Those of Line Managers
  September 7, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do the lean-related problems or responsibilities of ci professionals differ from those of line managers or business unit managers? read more »

• How Should We Relate Lean Projects to KPIs in a Large Company?
  July 26, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: We have started a continuous improvement process with dedicated lean experts at each site. Until now our focus was on training. We link projects to a site impact-priority matrix. Management wants the improvements projects to be linked to key performance indicators (KPIs) such as on-time delivery and cost of quality. They want these KPIs identified, and progress reported on how the projects impact the KPIs monthly. Could you guide me on how this can be done? read more »

• Are Lean Managers Teaching Or Just Controlling?
  July 18, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I hear what you lean guys are saying about, learning, “kata” and the role of managers as teachers. But in my years at Toyota I was never taught much. I learned a lot, but what my manager would mostly do is check the details of what I did and ask a lot of questions. I felt that it was very controlling. read more »

• Can Lean Boost Sales?
  July 11, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Every one says that lean is not just about cost cutting. But I fail to see how lean techniques can influence the top line. How can lean help in this area? read more »

• How Can Our Back Office Sustain Lean?
  July 3, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: The improvement program at the back office of the bank where I am a lean facilitator is slipping. For several years, we have improved operations by visualizing daily performance, conducting daily briefs, and teaching team leaders to solve problems. We have progressed visibly in quality and productivity. But our progress is harder to sustain. Teams that were doing great slip back and we must constantly regain lost ground. Is there a way to make lean more sustainable? read more »

• Can you help us define the role of team leader?
  June 19, 2012

  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 we are having trouble finding our places. Any advice? read more »

• Kaizen and Innovation
  June 12, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can kaizen stifle breakthrough innovation? read more »

• Real lean vs. fake lean
  June 6, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am a lean consultant who is totally dedicated to applying the lean principles. Unfortunately most lean gurus who I encounter seem to look down on our work. They argue that consultants like me don’t do “real” lean.  Where do you weigh in on this? Are they being too snobby? Should I work to be more authentic in my practice? read more »

• How do you suggest we should do lean in a foundry?
  May 22, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do you suggest we should do lean in a foundry? read more »

• It seems that lean these days is all about learning and coaching. What about the good ol'-fashioned just-in-time stuff of the earlier days?
  May 2, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: It seems that lean these days is all about learning and coaching. What about the good ol'-fashioned just-in-time stuff of the earlier days? read more »

• What's the difference between model lines and kaizen events?
  April 26, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: We used to do six sigma and are new to lean. Some consultants talk to us about model lines and others about kaizen events. Can you clarify the difference? read more »

• Management has a bad case of investment loss aversion. What can I do?
  April 18, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been asked to take over the corporate lean program but the company’s investment plan favors large high-speed equipment, which I’ve come to see as one of our biggest roadblocks to leaner processes. But I’ve been told in no uncertain terms by senior management that I can’t denigrate past investment commitments or cast doubts on those which are currently planned. How do I respond to my superiors? read more »

• Should I Use Lean for Headcount Reduction?
  April 10, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: My company wants to reduce its fixed costs. And as part of this my management has asked me to apply the lean techniques we’ve implemented in production to reduce headcount in engineering. I’m uneasy about doing this and wondered where I can find out more about lean in engineering departments. read more »

• How Do I Address Resistance From Middle Management?
  March 27, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why does middle management resist lean transformations; how can they be brought on board? read more »

• How Do I Reduce Buffers To Zero?
  March 20, 2012

  Dear Gemba CoachI run an assembly line for service station equipment. Our product is customized for each customer so we have a huge variety of options. My line is organized in segments (hydraulic assembly, wiring, etc.) with a buffer between each section of the line. I’ve long tried to reduce these buffers but haven’t found any good way to do it. Our lean consultant wants me to reduce the buffers to zero so that we have true one piece flow – should I do it? read more »

• Why Is It So Hard To Sustain Lean Gains?
  March 13, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Why is it so hard to sustain lean gains? read more »

• Can Hospitals Reap the Deeper Benefits of Lean?
  February 29, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: As Health Systems globally wrestle with skyrocketing healthcare costs, many hospitals are jumping on the lean bandwagon, hoping this will be the silver bullet that delivers improved outcomes at lower cost. Is this a valid justification for implementing lean in hospitals, or is the cost-saving rationale as a driver of the process doomed to failure? read more »

• Lean and Forecasting
  February 22, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in charge of the forecasting department in my company. My colleagues in production have been doing lean for several years and complain about my forecasts, particularly when it comes to what they call leveling. I have come across your column on lean.org and wondered if you could help out with some advice on how to forecast in a lean way? read more »

• How should I assess the success of our lean progress?
  February 14, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: My management is asking for an assessment of our lean progress. How should I do this? read more »

• Five Whys
  February 7, 2012

  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 of it in theory but I struggle with it in practice. Any tips? read more »

• Gemba and Quality
  February 1, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve made good progress on quality with Six Sigma, but we’ve reached a plateau. I’ve met a lean consultant who tells me I should spend more time on the shop floor, but I fail to see how it would improve quality? read more »

• Which is best for a lean environment, a U-shaped cell or assembly line? Why?
  January 25, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Which is best for a lean environment, a U-shaped cell or assembly line? Why? read more »

• Should we plan according to what we can do, or the other way around?
  January 18, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: Should we plan according to what we can do, or the other way around? read more »

• How Do I Plan for the Long Term?
  January 11, 2012

  Dear Gemba Coach: I don’t know how to plan for two or five years out. As a plant manager, my requirement is to be able to look at the next 12 months. And to do this I rely on guidance from a familiarity with lean policy deployment. Yet I worry that my skills in leadership are lacking because I don’t have a clear sense of how to conduct this long-term planning. How do I look ahead for the long term? read more »

• How Do We Sustain A3 Thinking in our Organization?
  December 12, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: My firm has been investing a lot of time and energy this year in teaching A3 thinking to our staff.  The workshops have been going great, but how do we keep this work going when people return to their daily work? How can we “pull” A3 thinking through the organization after the formal training is over? read more »

• Is There a Right Way to Teach A3?
  November 8, 2011

  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 problem solving ability. Is there a right way to teach A3? read more »

• Engineering Checklists
  October 20, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do I apply standardized work to product development? read more »

• Are lean principles universal?
  October 3, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can we really consider Lean principles as Universal? I am currently working on a case study about the tea industry. What we have is a very seasonal, perishable product supposed to be available in various format (tea bags, caddies, pouches). The suppliers being all in Asia the lead times are what they are and I do not even talk about EU regulations imposing all kind of constraints. read more »

• Should we have our own TPS "house"?
  September 21, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: My management wants to build our own version of the TPS (Toyota Production System) house in order to standardize our lean approach. Do you have any advice on how to do this? read more »

• Why Create Poka-yokes—and Why Disconnect Them?
  September 7, 2011

  I’m a manufacturing engineer and since I have started participating in kaizen workshops, I have noticed that production supervisors tend to disconnect some of the poka-yokes we’ve put in place in the machines. When I challenge them about this they argue that operators can’t run production and cope with ... read more »

• How Can Lean Take Root in a Crappy Culture?
  August 31, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I've done a lot of working with lean, and recently started my first coaching/consulting gig. And while I'd love to help by introducing people to flow, takt time, pull, and all the nifty lean tools and ideas, the most striking thing I've learned is how much hostility and mistrust exists among people. How can I help lean take root when the biggest problem turns out to be a crappy culture? read more »

• Takt Time Thinking for a Low-Volume High-Mix Company
  August 23, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our company produces custom products that cannot be easily forecast in terms of when they will be ordered, and in what format. How can a company facing high-mix, low-volume, and unstable demand establish a production system that uses takt time? read more »

• Why Is Failure Key to Lean Success?
  August 10, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am a LSS black belt working with a sensei to improve our performance. We conduct many workshops that get results, but the sensei focuses on only what we didn’t achieve. Although I understand the logic, I find this tiresome and difficult to explain to the teams. Many people have invested significant time and effort in improving things and end up feeling let down. How do I help the group deal with this? read more »

• Method vs. Tool
  August 2, 2011

  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 “solutions” to include both methods and tools? Where do you stand on this? read more »

• Performance versus costs, part 2
  July 22, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve read your recent column on performance versus cost with great interest, as I believe we’re currently having a similar discussion at management level. Would you clarify further the difference you see between performance management and cost cutting? read more »

• Problems First and Positive Thinking
  July 12, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t always focusing on problems discouraging? My people feel that they’d like to be recognized for their successes and resent the negativity of looking at the half-empty glass. Is there a positive way of doing lean? read more »

• Performance Versus Cost
  July 5, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am the continuous improvement director of a large hospital. We invested two years ago in a central machine to perform all the blood tests. Unfortunately, we have many technical issues with the equipment and we don’t know how to get the manufacturer to solve the problems. The wards complain about our lack of responsiveness as well, and I don’t know where to start. What would you suggest? read more »

• How Often Should We Change Takt Time?
  June 3, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: How often should we change takt time? read more »

• Standards vs. Standardization
  May 25, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re often told that “there can be no kaizen without standards.” But when do you start when there are no standards? How do you standardize? And how about “just do it” kaizen? read more »

• How Do I Change the Culture?
  April 29, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I come from a company quite advanced in lean and I’ve joined a new firm as technical director. I’d like to apply lean concepts to the way we invest, but every one tells me I’d have to change the entire culture of the place, which I find daunting. Is that really the case? Any advice on culture change? read more »

• Why is Flow Easy, and Quality Hard?
  March 4, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: My lean team has become proficient at teaching flow but it's not gaining traction when it comes to quality issues. Do you have any recommendations? read more »

• Are You Pulling?
  February 25, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach:  We’ve made a substantial effort in training all our operators to standardized work (SW) by deploying Training Within Industry(TWI) principles across all our sites. While we’ve had some good results, the level of discipline on SW is disappointing, and many cells are producing well below target cycle time. Do you have any pointers for us? read more »

• Properly Applying Auto-Eject Isn’t Automatic
  February 3, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m working on improving the design of our machines for lean manufacturing, and hear that an auto-eject feature can support this work. If this is so, can you clarify how? read more »

• The Trouble with Lean Experts
  January 26, 2011

  Dear Gemba Coach: I run a Lean Promotion Office (LPO)  and my team mostly conducts kaizen events across the company. We are usually seen as successful in getting results and are well supported by our senior management. One problem is that middle-managers often complain about how individual LPOs go about effecting change. Have you come across situations like that? read more »

• How Do We Manage Our Stock to Be Lean AND Responsive to Varied Customer Demand?
  December 22, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re a tier two supplier and we’re trying to implement a pull system. We’re leveling our production schedules, but our customer’s variation in the demand for products immediately makes us miss shipments. Our OTD is not getting better. Although production runs more smoothly, people are getting frustrated. Where would you start? read more »

• Leveling to Build Capacity and Flexibility
  December 14, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: We manufacture a seasonal product and are working on leveling, but are having a tough time. Our peak sales occur in a four-month time frame, but we need to use year-round production for capacity. Any advice on how to level what feels to us an impossible cycle? read more »

• LEAN = TPS {KAIZEN + RESPECT}
  November 22, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: In the webinar, you’ve defined LEAN = KAIZEN + RESPECT. Isn’t it simplistic? Is that all there is to it? What about TPS? read more »

• How Do I Lead An Existing Lean Initiative as a Newcomer?
  November 17, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: The head of the lean initiative in our company has left and they gave me the job. I’ve been asked to review our current approach and propose a way forward. I’m a gemba gal and not sure about how to go about it. Would you have any suggestions? read more »

• How Do We Help Our Plant Managers Want to Do Lean?
  October 25, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: We've just changed our divisional general manager and the new boss wants our lean approach to be less directive and more participative. That is to say, our plant managers should want to do lean instead of feeling that they are being forced to. This is a big change from our previous boss. Any advice on how to handle this transition? read more »

• How to Use Red Bins
  October 14, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach,We’re having an internal debate about how to involve the quality department and how to use “red bins.” Any advice? I’d have to know more about the specifics of your company to write a meaningful response, but I can share a gemba story of a plant that… read more »

• Role of the Sensei
  September 29, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I often wonder how senseis skip to new areas--from the shop floor to the back office, or to healthcare. Is this leap something that makes experience a handicap? Or, at least, something that neutralizes experience because of the different environment? read more »

• Do We Need a Truck Preparation Area?
  September 15, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: As logistics manager, I disagree with our lean expert who insists we should have “truck preparation areas” in the shipping hall. It adds more handling and goes against the lean principle of touching every container the least possible. Is our lean expert just following the dogma? read more »

• How Does Pull Relate to Problem-Solving?
  September 9, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been following the exchanges on The Lean Edge with great interest, and all the lean authors seem to focus on problem solving. In our company, lean has essentially been about implementing pull across the plants. Which way should we go? read more »

• How Can One Be A Better Sensei?
  September 2, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach,Our operations VP is disappointed with our lean program. Despite his close personal involvement with the program, it is not delivering the level of results he expects. How can he be a better sensei? Is this even the right question to ask? Both of your recent books stress the… read more »

• How Do I Clarify Lean Roles and Responsibilities?
  August 22, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can you provide some guidance on splitting roles and responsibilities amongst the various hands-on leaders of the lean implementation (lean support group, operations managers, team leaders) in order to get the best mix of engagement and proper process? read more »

• Standardized Work in Business Processes
  August 11, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: How about standardized work in a business process environment? For example, in a procurement process or supply chain processes? There are not many books/articles on standardized work in a transactional environment. Please help to shed some light on how we should approach standardized work in business processes. read more »

• Standardized Work in Machine-Intensive Processes
  August 4, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach,Most lean literature and case studies to date focus on assembly type manufacturing which utilizes very people-intensive operations. This is not the case in the machine-intensive process industries and therefore has major implications on the format of standardized work. Can you shed some light on what standardized work should look like in the process industries? read more »

• Making People Before Making Products
  July 26, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I keep hearing about “making people before making products” but I have a hard time visualizing what this means in practice. Would you be able to shed some light on this practice? read more »

• What Should I Be Looking For?
  June 30, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve just started working with lean with my team, and we’re doing a value-stream mapping project with a consultant. While this has been challenging, and eye-opening, and a great motivator for going to the “gemba,” I must confess something. I still don’t seem to see anything—at least anything deeply important. How can I adopt lean glasses? read more »

• How Do I Lead Change Without Discouraging Employee Engagement?
  June 22, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: How do you balance the sometime conflicting practices of gaining employee engagement while ensuring that everyone remains faithful to known lean tools and principles?  read more »

• Where to Start in Engineering
  June 15, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in charge of the engineering department in our company and the CEO has asked me to start with lean. I’ve been reading the books and it seems very complicated and geared towards much bigger outfits than ours. I’m at a loss as where to start in practice – any advice? read more »

• Standards at workstations
  June 3, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: Our corporate production system asks us to post standard work at workstations, but we feel that the paperwork clutters the stations and operators tell us they don’t use it in any case. Should standards be posted at the workstation? read more »

• How can we remain positive?
  May 25, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am a kaizen coach in a large company, and it never seems to get any easier. We’ve been doing kaizen for several years but people seem just as resistant, the problems we face are just as huge, and our sensei is never satisfied. I find it hard to remain positive, and am not the only one in our group who experiences this sense of discouragement. Do you have any advice? read more »

• How lean should a lean line design be?
  May 19, 2010

  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 ideas about how to go about it, but I’ve also heard many horror stories of lines that were designed so “lean” they can’t run in practice. Any ideas as to how lean should lean be? read more »

• When should I push and when should I praise?
  May 12, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am in charge of a service activity and have started a lean approach with a sensei. In our last gemba tour, one of my staff got very upset about the fact that we seem to point out only the negatives and never recognize all the good work they do. The area was a mess, and most of the discussion was with her direct manager, but I feel she’s got a point. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the matter. read more »

• Should I pursue waste elimination or lead-time reduction?
  May 6, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: We’re having a heated debate in our company over whether to pursue cost reduction through waste elimination by accelerating kaizen events, or whether to focus on lead-time reduction by implementing a pull system. It appears to me we’re not clear on the link between waste and lead-time. Could you help us clarify this? read more »

• How Do You Find - or Develop - the Right Sensei to Lead Lean?
  April 14, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: We have become skilled at indicating what goes wrong, but solving the problems is not our strength. Making the transformation to problem solving and kaizen feels like a challenge of leadership—how do we make this happen? read more »

• How Do I Keep My Lean Team Motivated for the Long Term?
  April 5, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: My team often feels that they are alone in their improvement efforts. Even after all our work we continue to encounter resistance from other functions of the company, who do not see the value of our lean efforts. So how do I maintain the motivation of my team? read more »

• Is Toyota No Longer a Guiding Light?
  March 9, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I'm the lean manager of a mid-sized company, and have been getting teased by many folks about Toyota's troubles. It's mostly good-natured, but I fear the public flogging gives nay-sayers an argument for not doing lean. So I am unclear about how to respond to these critics. What advice do you have on what I should tell my employees who are doing lean work? read more »

• How Does Lean Apply In a Job Shop?
  February 25, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: In our job shop we make high precision modules and tools, work that involves a great deal of variety and very little repetition of products or processes. How can we apply lean principles in an environment like ours? read more »

• Lean in the IT Department
  February 17, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: My company has been doing lean for a while now, and I've been asked to start lean in the IT department. I've read the books and gone to the conferences, but most of what I see is very focused on manufacturing. I'm unsure about where to start - would you have a few pointers? read more »

• The Business Case for Kaizen
  February 11, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I can see the benefits kaizen has brought our company, but find it hard to formulate the argument persuasively. Is there a powerful way to make the business case for kaizen? read more »

• Freedom
  February 5, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I work for a large governmental organization that has decided to do lean. I have been interested in lean for some time, yet am concerned about the current program: it appears as if our leaders intend to conduct across the board cost-cutting workshops to eliminate waste. This certainly does not seem to be the right way to do lean, but I have very little freedom to change their approach. What can I do? read more »

• How Can I Convince My CFO?
  January 29, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: Is there a way to put a dollar value (cost savings) on these types of improvements? We have trouble gaining CFO support for a process improvement that reduces WIP time for one specific option by one day, mainly because it doesn't provide him any way to sell our product at a lower cost. read more »

• Can Great Lean Companies Develop Great Lean Managers?
  January 18, 2010

  Dear Gemba Coach: I know that not everyone can fulfill the lean ideal—but shouldn’t the system of managing folks who fall short be more consistent with lean principles? read more »

• Is Lean Scientific?
  December 28, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I often hear that lean is like the scientific method. As a lean consultant, I facilitate kaizen events, and find it hard to see the parallels. Could you clarify what people mean when they say this, and how it applies to our work? read more »

• What Role Should a Quality Department Play in a Lean Organization?
  December 16, 2009

  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 to help the folks who are on the shop floor doing the work? What IS the relationship between the quality department, the quality management system, and overall quality? Does the quality management system even have a place in a lean organization? read more »

• How Come Toyota Veterans Don’t Use a Roadmap?
  December 9, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: Recently I spent a few months working with Toyota veterans at an automotive supplier. I was surprised at their approach. I expected them to start with what I understood as the basic sequence outlined in books showing the TPS House. The actual approach they took couldn't have been more different. They just went to the shop floor and started right in by tackling problems in very mundane, every day situations. What should I think of this? read more »

• Why does one-piece-flow matter?
  December 3, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: Recently, during a plant visit, our sensei made a big fuss because there were three parts between two operators and he insisted on one or zero. Why the big difference between three parts and one part in the process? read more »

• What Does Problem-Solving Look Like? Part 2 of 2
  November 18, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: Thank you for explaining the different types of problem-solving that distinguishes lean. But how can I tell that we really are learning the best way to deal with problems? What are the signs of progress when it comes to problem solving? read more »

• What Problems Are Lean Practices? Part 1 of 2
  November 11, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I keep reading that lean is about solving problems. But that's exactly what I already do in my job. So how is lean different? read more »

• Do Managers "Get" Lean?
  November 5, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: You mentioned during the webinar that plant tours reveal how well managers 'get' lean. Can you be more specific? read more »

• How can firing people be part of developing people?
  October 28, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: Can you explain how you reconcile the principles of "developing people" and "firing people," especially in light of the challenges illustrated in your book The Lean Manager? Why, on the other hand, does Toyota try to keep its employees as long as it can? read more »

• Where do I start?
  October 21, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I'm the operations manager of a healthcare training company. We conduct technical training to nurses in hospitals. We've had some inquiries about "lean healthcare," so the president and I are investigating the topic. She's reading The Lean Manager and I attended your webinar. It sounds very good, but very manufacturing oriented. Where should I start? read more »

• Lean and Financials
  October 14, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: During the webinar, you mentioned the importance of quantifying the financial impacts of lean efforts before introducing the system. This is a very common obstacle. Please go into more details about how to do this. read more »

• How Do I Convince People to Practice Lean?
  October 7, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have previous lean experience, and have now joined a large bureaucratic organization. I’m trying to apply the lean approach, but the management team and business culture remains stubbornly public sector in their thinking. Any advice on how to crack this issue? read more »

• Kaizen is Fun? Really?
  September 30, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have been learning lean for three years now. My question to you: How is Kaizen 'fun'? Doing lean shakes people out of their comfort zone and challenges everything they believe about their work. Kaizen demands that they constantly improve what they do, and by implication, challenges how well they are working now. I find doing this on a daily basis to be extremely taxing. What advice do you have for me? read more »

• How Can I Address the Conflict that Lean Creates?
  September 28, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach, I have just finished reading The Lean Manager, and I was very taken by the chapter on teamwork. I am a lean officer in a bank and have been working with back-office processes for the past two years. We have had good successes on the sites, but the general feeling is that lean has… read more »

• Managing Suppliers
  September 16, 2009

  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 at every step of the process, and it appears that suppliers account for a large part of our instability. Should we extend the kanban to the suppliers? Is there a lean way to rank suppliers? read more »

• Signs of Progress
  September 9, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: We've been doing lean for several years now, and the program has had its ups and downs. What are the signs that one should look for that indicate progress on lean work? read more »

• How Do We Reduce Costs with Lean?
  September 1, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I have been asked to reduce the cost of a product by a significant amount. I believe that lean is the way to go. What are the steps and the sequence that must be taken to start down the road of reducing cost? read more »

• How Much Control Do I Need (and Need to Give Up) to Lead?
  August 26, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I am interested in setting up a team for implementing lean. So far I have been trying to make changes on my own, but find that without support from others I have little time to implement new practices or conduct root-cause problem-solving. Doing so keeps me from running the daily operations of the fabrication and large machining departments. To be an effective lean leader, do I need to let go of the control of the daily operations and concentrate on being the lean manager? read more »

• Who To Move?
  August 19, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach:  "Kaizen Express" landed on my doormat this morning. While reading through I noticed that it states that if you get an operator saving through a kaizen you move the best, most experienced operator out of the team.  Has anyone had any success with this? read more »

• 5S Again and Again and Again
  August 7, 2009

  Dear Gemba Coach: I've just inherited responsibility for our 5S efforts in our company. Any suggestions for how I can get the program back on track? read more »