A Gemba Walk is a crucial process in lean manufacturing, but do you know how to complete one?
The word “Gemba” comes from Japanese and translates into “The Real Place”. The “Gemba” is the most significant place for a group of people and where the most important work takes place.
In a Gemba Walk, a leader walks to the workplace to see what is working on first-hand and if there is any room for improvement and/or streamlining.
What Is The Purpose Of A Gemba Walk?
A Gemba Walk looks at employees and their tasks and finds productivity gains. The Gemba Walk looks at where productivity happens and aims to make a workplace or shop floor more productive.
The process can also help with environmental impacts, factory floor efficiency and generally encourage process improvement.
One must remember that a Gemba Walk is not a performance test and should not be treated as one.
How To Do A Gemba Walk
A Gemba Walk may seem like a daunting process, but it doesn’t have to be to enhance lean management. So here’s a brief Gemba Walk checklist to help you streamline your business, increase value stream and answer the right questions.
A Gemba Walk process starts with determining where a problem area is and what you want to focus on to improve. It also finds the root cause of whatever has gone wrong. An effective Gemba Walk also improves work processes and allows continuous improvement.
Some of the Gemba Walk questions you can ask to include the following and the main navigation could be:
- Are task goals and priorities clear and well-defined? This eliminates confusion.
- Did you come across any obstacles or stumbling blocks? Finding pain points early solves them quickly.
- Are shift changeovers smooth and smooth? You can work out where time can be saved here.
- Are there any health and safety concerns? Where applicable, is PPE readily available, and is the workplace clean and tidy, without hazards?
- Do team members have general repercussions? Can they see anything to improve?
- Also ask your team how they are. This builds trust.
You can also use the five W’s (and H) in a more journalistic approach to answering team members’ questions. So you can ask questions beginning with who, what, where, when, why, and how?
The above Gemba checklist shows you how to complete a successful Gemba Walk. You can find more checklist templates and free checklists online, but this is an ideal starting point. These checklist questions are just a starting point and you can add to them.
Is a Gemba Walk Efficient?
Gemba Walks are one of the most efficient ways to strengthen a company or team. It reduces wasteful activities in the workplace and allows for even more problem-solving and improvement opportunities across the board.
Not only does a Gemba Walk help with workplace efficiency, but it also improves trust, problem-solving, and collaboration, as well as allowing you to see where actual work gets done.
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