Gemba Kaizen

• Gemba (現場) in Japanese means “the actual place” or “the real place”
• Kaizen (改善) in Japanese means “improvement”

In business, Gemba refers to the place where value is created and the general notion is that the best improvement ideas will come simply from going to the Gemba (‘bottom-up’ vs. ‘top-down’)

The ‘Gemba Walk’ is an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste and opportunities a.k.a. to practice Gemba Kaizen which is similar to the “western” concept of MBWA (Management by Walking Around)

The term Gemba Kaizen was then further promoted by another rivalry, that between Toyota and Nissan. Nissan has a history of attempting to avoid the use of any term for management concepts known to have been popularized by Toyota. For example, the term ‘Just in Time’ is linked to Toyota. Therefore if you ask a Nissan executive ‘do you use Just in Time’, the unwary might be surprised at the readiness of the negative answer. ‘No we do not’. What do you do in its place? ‘We have a concept called ‘stockless production’. Nissan call such teams 'gemba kaizen activities'. Simple, but true.

Gemba Kaizen activities change not only the systems and processes, but also peoples’ mindsets about the organization and how they view their job. Transformation into a Lean Enterprise requires changes in the “way we do things”. The aim of Gemba Kaizen activities is to build a company culture of daily improvement. Kaizen does this through:

Ongoing organizational learning

Emphasis on action

Team-based activities

Focus, rapid improvement

Employee empowerment

Sources: http://sites.google.com/site/kaizenmcc/home/lean-concepts/gemba-kaizen

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