Have you taken a Gemba walk around your facility before? Gemba is a Japanese term meaning “the real place” and is an important tool for any Lean workplace. A Gemba walk is a scheduled walk that company leaders take around the facility to see processes up close and talk with frontline workers. Managers and supervisors can learn a ton from a Gemba walk by personally connecting with the work up close. It fosters communication and can lead to finding solutions or brainstorming innovations.
Because there is technically no wrong way to conduct a Gemba walk, it can seem like a daunting task to those taking their first walk. This infographic from Creative Safety Supply offers suggestions for preparing the walk, tasks to do during the walk, and how to use the findings from the walk to benefit your workplace.
Additional Resources
- What is a Gemba walk? [Lean Manufacturing Definition]– creativesafetysupply.com
- Gemba – A Powerful Piece of your Lean Toolbox– infographicsdirectory.org
- What is Gemba Kaizen?– kaizenforums.com
- Understanding the Terms of Lean– leanworkplace.com
- Planning a Kaizen Event– kaizensystem.net
- The Fourth 5S Pillar: Standardize– 5sforum.com
- Understanding Kanban vs. SCRUM– whatisengineering.org