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A Gemba Walk Example
August 6, 2007

This is from a blog reader, Mike, in response to an earlier question about the role of senior leadership in a Lean effort. I'm posting this with Mike's permission to get your feedback and comments.

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In our facility, the most senior person with an office here is a Vice President. He takes the walk every morning at 9:00am (he will miss some now and then if he's on a customer call, out of the office, or has activities led by our Corporate office - located in another state). He is joined on the walk by our Manufacturing Manager, National Sales Director (when in-house), Inside Sales Manager, Production Managers of the Lean areas (that we have started to-date), Shipping Manager, Production Planner, Purchasing Manager, HR Manager, and the in-house Lean group. If someone is unavailable, he or she will send a representative. While this may sound cumbersome, it is a prime opportunity to have all the people necessary if there is a problem.

Each stop on the walk is centered around a "production" board. The walk starts in Sales, proceeds to Shipping, then one Assembly cell, one Product Line cell, followed by a Kaizen board, the Scheduling board, and concluding with the Purchasing board. If any discussion at a board lasts longer than 3 minutes, the group assigns someone responsible to coordinate a meeting/initiate a review of the issue. All parts of the organization are in the loop and all can provide input to issues as they arise, rather than after the fact. Operators at each location participate and all discussion is as equals. As the Lean Coordinator in the plant, I act as "referee" concerning the time spent and the equal opportunity of the discussion.

As a result, our direct lines of communication have increased immensely. That "soft" value is immeasurable. When we have customers or Corporate dignitaries in, we still follow the same routine. Our customers are often impressed with the ability of anyone on the walk being able to describe the situation at any board (that knowledge is shared via simple metric presentations at the boards, consistent themes from board to board, and regular involvement of everyone to truly understand the flow of products and information.) This walk happens regardless of who is absent. Those available just move forward.

Is this unique or common? Would other companies shudder at the dollar value of salaries involved in this 25 minute exercise daily? Is this "wasteful" in the eyes of others? I can tell from experience, the impact this has on the plant is significant - as described in my response to the reader question about Plant Management participation in the Gemba.

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What feedback or advice do you have for Mike and his company? Click "comments" to chime in.

I think that it's very much in keeping with Lean principles for the VP (and the other leaders) to take part in the 25 minutes of "gemba" time every day.  It sounds like the walks are focused on communication (two way) and on identifying problems.  As with any Lean practice, we shouldn't go a gemba walk for the sake of doing gemba walks.  As Dr. Deming said, "management by walking around" is not effective if we're flying through so fast that we never talk to anyone or understand anything about the work that is being done.  Gemba walks are not an opportunity to just shake everybody's hand. 

Gemba walks are an opportunity for many constructive things:

1)  See what is happening -- what problems can you see visually?  what Lean methods are working well or not working well?  how are the areas performing in terms of posted metrics?
2)  Instill disclipline -- Lean is about discipline and showing that you, as management, have enough discipline to follow this "standard work for leaders" sets a good example.  It gets frustrating to see Gemba walk routines start to fall apart after a few weeks.  This isn't an effort for those who are going to be distracted into the next fad after they get bored with the gemba.
3)  It's a chance to talk with employees, to hear what problems are not getting solved.  You can use that as an opportunity to coach ("what do you think we should do?") or to take actions (or delegate them to your staff).  Back to discipline, if problems are NOT being solved after being identified, you're more likely to get honest feedback at the gemba rather than relying on management status reports.
4)  A chance to emphasize safety and quality.  The things you ask questions about send a very powerful message to the employees.  Don't ever allow shortcuts on safety and make sure you're demonstrating good safety practices (that should go without saying, but you can't walk the gemba without your safety glasses or PPE).

One final thought -- in an earlier post, Mike said that the VP was sometimes asked by employees, "Why are you spending your time out here?" as if they thought he was too important to spend time there or he should be working on more important things.  The VP's answer was, "because I have standard work, as you do, and my standard work says to do this."  That answer's OK, but you really should be able to give a better (or more inspiring) reason than "because I have to."  Talk about how valuable it is to see what's really happening and reference some of the above points.  It's actually a sign of a positive work culture that people feel comfortable to ask their leaders "why?"

Posted by Mark Graban on August 6, 2007 | Comments (0)