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The Lean Post / Articles / What do you actually do on the gemba?

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Operations

Line Management

What do you actually do on the gemba?

By Michael Ballé

November 4, 2014

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

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Dear Gemba Coach,

What is it you actually do on the gemba?

Good question — and hard to answer when not on the gemba. If I had to sumarize it in one point, I’d say that I try to see through the lens of the seven wastes at work level to the larger customer and capital wastes beyond. The following paper published in Industrial Engineer captures this quite well:

www.iienet2.org/uploadedFiles/IIE/Author_permissions/IEOct14Balle.pdf

(© 2014 by the Institute of Industrial Engineers. All rights reserved.)

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Written by:

Michael Ballé

About Michael Ballé

Michael Ballé is co-author of The Gold Mine, a best-selling business novel of lean turnaround, and recently The Lean Manager, a novel of lean transformation, both published by the Lean Enterprise Institute. For the past 25 years, he has studied lean transformation and helped companies develop a lean culture. He is…

Read more about Michael Ballé

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