About Gemba (The workplace)

Assistant Professor Takeshi Kawase of Keio University writes in
Solving Industrial Engineering Problems (published by Nikkan Kogyo
Shinbun in Japanese, 1995):

"People within a company can be divided into two groups: those who
earn money and those who don't. Only those frontline people who
develop, produce, and sell products are earning money for the
company. The ideal company would have only one person who does not
earn money – the president – leaving the rest of the employees
directly involved in revenue-generating activity. The people who do
not earn money are those who sit on top of the money earners – all
employees with titles such as chief, head, or manager, including the
president and all staff, and spanning areas that include personnel,
finance, advertising, quality, and industrial engineering. No matter
how hard these people may work, they do not directly earn money for
the company. Fort his reason, they might be better refereed to
as "dependents." If money earners stop work for one
second, the company's chances of making money will be lost by one
second.
The trouble is that non-money earners often think that they know
better and are better qualified than money earners because they are
better educated. They often make the job of the latter more
difficult. Non-money earners may think, "Without
us, they cannot survive," when they should be thinking, "What can we
do to help them do their job better without us?"

Golden Rules of gemba Management

Staying in close contact with and understanding gemba is the first
step in managing a work site effectively. Hence the five golden
rules of gemba management:
1)When a problem (abnormality) arises, go to gemba first.
2)Check the gembutsu (relevant item).
3)Take temporary countermeasures on the spot.
4)Find the root cause.
5)Standardize to prevent recurrence.

In this article, I will elaborate on the first item of the golden
rules.

Go to gemba
Management is responsible for hiring and training workers, setting
the standards for their work, and designing the products and
processes. Thus, management sets the conditions in gemba, and
whatever happens there reflects upon management. Managers must know
the conditions at the plant; thus the axiom "Go to gemba first." As
a matter of routine, managers and supervisors should immediately
go to the site, stand in one spot for five minutes, and attentively
observe what goes on. One can learn a great deal in five minutes.
After developing the habit of going to gemba, the manager can easily
identify abnormality whenever it happens, and address such problems.
When you are in gemba, what you see is the real data. When you have
a good look at what has happened, chances are that you can
solve the problem right there on the spot, and do not need any
report. Most managers prefer their desk as their workplace, wish to
distance themselves from the events taking place in gemba. Most
managers come into contact with reality only through their daily,
weekly, or even monthly reports, or other meetings.

Kristianto Jahja, a kaizen consultant who worked for the joint
venture in Indonesia between the Astra group and Toyota Motor
Company, recalls the first time he was sent to Toyota's plant in
Japan for training. On the first day, a supervisor
who was assigned as his mentor took him to a corner of the plant,
drew a small circle on the floor with chalk, and told him to stay
within the circle all morning and keep his eyes on what was
happening.

So, Kristianto watched and watched. Half an hour, an hour . . . as
time passed, he became bored as he was simply watching routine and
repetitive work. Then, he became angry, and said to himself, "What
is he trying to do? I am supposed to learn something here, but he
doesn't teach me anything. Does he want to show his power? What kind
of training is this?" Before he became too exhausted, though, the
supervisor came back and took him to the meeting room.
There, Kristianto was asked to describe what he had observed,
together with questions like "What did you see there?" and "What did
you think about that process?" When Kristianto could not answer most
of the questions he realized that he had missed many vital points in
his observations. There, Kristianto was asked to describe what he
had observed, together with questions like "What did you see there?"
and "What did you think about that process?"
When Kristianto could not answer most of the questions he realized
that he had missed many vital points in his observations.

The supervisor patiently explained to Kristianto the points he
failed to answer using drawings and sketches on a sheet of paper, so
that he could describe the processes more clearly and accurately. It
was at this point that Kristianto understood
his mentor's deep understanding of the process and realized his
ignorance.
Slowly, but steadily, his mentor's lesson became clear: gemba is a
source of all information. Then, his mentor said that to qualify as
a Toyota man, one must love gemba, and that every Toyota employee
believes gemba to be the most important place in the company.

Says Kristianto, "Definitely, this was the best training I ever had,
as it helped me to truly become a gemba man, and this gemba thinking
always influenced me throughout my career. Even now, every time I
see a problem, my mind immediately shouts out loud and clear: Go to
gemba first and have a look!"
This is a common training method in Japanese gemba. Taichi Ohno is
credited with having developed the Toyota Production System. When
Ohno noticed a supervisor out of touch with the realities of gemba,
he would take the supervisor to the plant,
draw a circle, and have the supervisor stand in it until he gained
awareness. Ohno urged managers to visit gemba too. He would say, "Go
to gemba every day. And when you go, don't wear out the soles of
your shoes in vain. You should come
back with at least one idea for kaizen."

One of the best ways to stay in close contact with gemba is to live
in gemba, namely, to move ones desk to gemba.

Many Japanese companies have introduced "resident engineers." These
are engineers who have been relocated to gemba so that they can
promptly answer technical questions asked by gemba people or make
some technical changes without going through red tapes. Often, the
engineering department is moved to the plant site
from the ivory towers of the head office. Managers should be
encouraged to go to Gemba

Source:
KAIZEN Institute, Ltd.