How to Do a Gemba Walk

1. How to Do a Gemba Walk Get Your Boots on and Start Walking! Michael Bremer Author E-Book “How to do A Gemba Walk” A 2016 Shingo Research Award recipient https://youtu.be/7qLkzudtfho http://www.amazon.com/How-Gemba-Walk-Michael-Bremer-ebook/dp/B00KKPSQS8 1

2. Definition Gemba Walks Go to the source to find the facts to make better decisions, build consensus and achieve goals • Gemba means “the real place” • Go “see” first hand, with own eyes what is really happening vs. what you assume is happening • The “Check and Adjust” part of PDCA 2

3. Purpose • Learning opportunity for walker – Test actual reality against your assumptions – More deeply understand what’s really happening • Separate process & people performance – 85%+ performance problems are process issues • GWs can change the culture – People are afraid they will get blamed – Change the way you talk about improvement – Foster more critical thinking 3

4. When You See Problems • What happens? Do you… – Immediately determine countermeasures? – What impact does it have on people if leadership solves the problems? • Or do you coach the people on how to resolve? – Elite companies use Gemba Walks to drive/align accountability and to foster more critical thinking 4

5. GWs Build Relationships • Learning opportunity for people visited during the walk – Better understand why their work is important – Improve critical thinking skills & confidence – Increase trust with leadership 5

6. Learning to Observe • Takes time • Requires a quiet humility • Takes practice • Requires patience • Should be done with respect 6

7. Surface Abnormalities • Many abnormalities (exceptions) exist at start of lean journey – Early on GWs might focus on increasing process stability • Evolve standard work practices – Difficult to have effective standard work, when considerable variation exists in the way work gets done • Create environment to foster critical thinking skills and improvement action 7

8. ‘Leader Standard Work’ Type Walks • Supervisor (multiple times per day ) • Leadership team walk (2 or 3 times per day) • Value Stream walk (weekly) • Waste identification walk (a common starting point) • Executive walk (people from outside the facility - periodic) 8

9. Walks to See How Problems Handled • Check on general plant 5S conditions • Check on a production quality issues flagged by customer inquiries • Observe a huddle at a work cell closely linked to a customer service change • Check on standard work sustainment in a new or improved key process • Randomly audit team huddle boards for logical layout, info flow and corrective action • Waste identification walk (a common starting point) • Process review for uncovering improvement opportunities 9

10. Did you ever wonder why women live longer than men? 10

11. Key Activities • Prepare for the Walk • Do the Walk – Go See – Ask ‘What’ then ‘Why’ – Show Respect • Debrief the Walk 11

12. Prepare for the Walk • Define ‘purpose’ for walk – why doing it? • Define a scope for the walk – where headed? • Coach appropriate behaviors to participants: – One conversation at a time – Show respect, listen more than you talk – Make no on the spot judgments, seek to understand 12

13. Go See • Test your assumptions and learn • Do people in the organization: – Understand purpose of their work? – Follow standard work practices? – Understand performance expectations and why? – Use a scientific thought process for problem resolution? • Are people inhibited from doing their jobs by organizational support systems? 13

14. Go See #2 • Observe the 5Ms (Man, Machine, Methods, Materials, Measurement) • Observe the 3Ms (Muda, Mura and Muri) - they all deal with capacity utilization – Muda (8 Wastes) Inefficient/ineffective use of capacity – Mura (uneven) Inefficient flows and capacity utilization…sometimes too little, sometimes too much – Muri (overburden) Work exceeds the capacity - in an office administrative this looks like multi-tasking as people try to do several things at the same time • Develop a deeper understanding of value added, vs. waste, vs. non-value added but necessary to do - in the current environment 14

15. Ask What, then Why • Anyone can look around, good observations require skill • What is the work people are trying to accomplish? • What are the targets? Why is that important? • Why is performance less than desired? • Why is there backtracking, rework….? 15

16. Ask the right questions Coach employees on more critical thinking skills • What type of a problem were you trying to solve? • How did you become aware of the problem? • What did you (the team) change? • How did this improvement affect business results? • What is your next improvement? Reinforce lean concepts • How do visual management tools help you? • How do you know when there is a problem? 16

17. Current Target Current State Desired Improvement Any Obstacles What was Learned Next Steps At Gemba Seek Understanding Coach Critical Thinking Align Support Systems Show Respect Provide Positive Reinforcement

18. Walker’s Seek to Understand • Future state targets for area observed (what is it, why is that the target?). • Current state (what is the current reality, the current condition, the amount of variation) of the process(es). • What improvement is being worked to close the gap? • Is it done in a scientific fashion following some type of Plan/Do/Study/Adjust methodology? • What obstacles hinder progress • What was learned from improvement experiments? • What are the next steps? 18

19. Show Humility and Respect 19

20. Show Respect • Ask open-ended questions • Listen more than you talk • Create a safe environment for people to talk (it pays considerable dividends) • Always jump to the 5 Whys, never the 5 Whos • Don’t remove problem ownership, trust people to act when they learn to ‘see it’ • Help them learn to see it and gain confidence 20

21. Debrief the Walk • What was done well? • What could be done better? • Do questions asked build associates self esteem and knowledge? • Did the questioner remain humble? • Did the questioner keep problem/opportunity ownership with associates? • Do walkers seek to understand where management support systems are dis-aligned? Close the debrief by asking these questions: • Did we make any decisions during the walk today? • If yes, how are we going to communicate that decision? • How are we going to follow-up on progress? 21

22. Sustain the Gains • Follow-up on discussion items from past walks • Align support systems (they often inhibit new behaviors from becoming a norm) • Learn how/if good ideas are replicated across the organization • Coach other Gemba Walkers to become better walkers and coaches 22

23. Takes Practice to Perfect • Don’t try to do too much on one walk • Learn how to effectively coach people – Seeing issues – Clearing them – Finding root causes – Solving them • Institute cycles of experimentation, learning and doing 23

24. Some Things Never Change 24

25. What can go wrong? • If the leader lacks humility it can be a challenge to do • Don’t teach people too many things in one setting. • Remember, when you give a CEO type leader, an idea, it’s like launching 1,000 ships, be careful with what you recommend • Make certain coaches also ask open ended questions rather than giving the coachee the answer or telling her what to do Don’t try to change the world with a single Gemba Walk! 25

26. How To Do A Gemba Walk • 2016 Shingo Research Award recipient • More information available, along with host of questions for different types of walks in the e-book on this subject. Only $6.99 U.S. https://youtu.be/7qLkzudtfho • http://www.amazon.com/How-Gemba-Walk-Michael- Bremer-ebook/dp/B00KKPSQS8 • Interested in learning about your experiences with GWs, insights learned, how it changed perspectives and how (if) it improved your culture. Please let me know…thanks. • You are welcome to use this material, would appreciate your honoring our contribution by referencing the materials came from the Cumberland Group. 26

27. Contact Info • Michael Bremer • The Cumberland Group and • Chicagoland Lean Enterprise Consortium • Hinsdale, IL 630-235-4210 • michael@cumberlandchicago.com • www.cumberlandchicago.com • “How to Do a Gemba Walk” http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KK PSQS8 • https://youtu.be/7qLkzudtfho • “Escape the Improvement Trap” http://tinyurl.com/44osfyu