Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn We went to Costco last weekend and there was a demonstration for Blendtec Blender – you know, those Blendtec “Will it Blend” viral videos on YouTube with that white-coat crazy scientist Blendtec founder blending everything from brooms to the iPhone. As a side-note: [...]
Genchi Genbutsu – Go and See
Taichi Ohno, creator of the Toyota Production System is credited, perhaps apocryphally, with taking new graduates to the shopfloor and drawing a chalk circle on the floor. The graduate would be told to stand in the circle and to observe and note down what he saw. When Ohno returned he would check and if the Graduate had not seen enough he would be asked to keep observing.
Ohno was trying to imprint upon his future engineers that the only way to truly understand what happens on the shopfloor was to go there. It was here that value was added and here that waste could be observed.
Genchi Genbutsu is therefore a key approach in problem solving. If the problem exists on the shopfloor then it needs to be understood and solved at the shopfloor.
This attitude of Genchi Genbutsu is also called Gemba attitude. Gemba is the Japanese term for “the place” in this case ‘the place where it actually happens’. Since real value is created at the shopfloor in manufacturing, this is where management need to spend their time.
The following articles explain the concept of Genchi Genbutsu and how this important aspect of Lean Manufacturing might be applied in healthcare, service operations, restaurant operations, manufacturing, software development, and in the public sector.
Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn I write that title with tongue-in-cheek. But, in some cases, corporate leaders act as if employees are inmates and being seen with and talking with them is not good. This idea runs completely counter to the principle and practice of Genchi Genbutsu. We finalized [...]
Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn The final aspect of Genchi Genbutsu I’d like to discuss is how it helps us accomplish the following: Genchi Genbutsu helps us to develop other people. Involving people in understanding the problem and at arriving at solutions is a powerful countermeasure to resistance; [...]
Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn When we make decisions, cast judgments, or form an opinion without having observed, talked with, or experienced the situation first hand, it leads to poor decisions. In this article on Genchi Genbutsu, I’ll discuss the following aspect of Genchi Genbutsu: Genchi Genbutsu helps [...]
Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn In general, most conflict is based on different perspectives. In business, this means that people see the problem differently. Because people don’t understand the problem the same way, there are arguments and disagreements on the solution. Have you ever experienced this? Genchi Genbutsu [...]
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