1. GEMBA WALK STAGE
During the 4 stages of the Gemba Walk
2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Continuous Improvement is an approach to an organization’s long-term competitive strategy, achieved by the continuous effort to identify and remove waste to increase value delivery across all processes. Value to be delivered considers not only end customers, but also employees and society as a whole. Continuous Improvement usually follows one of the improvement cycles (see PDCA).
3. HOW TO USE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN THE GEMBA WALK
Continuous Improvement introduces the mindset that is crucial to the success of Gemba Walks and their ongoing implementation. This mindset enables and empowers everyone, from leadership to shop floor employees and across the organization, to continually seek for opportunities for improvement in processes, products and services. During the Gemba Walk, this mindset will result in a continuous search for opportunities in the light of efficiency, effectiveness and flow. Shop floor (manufacturing) and back office (finance, R&D, human resources, marketing, sales, etc.) employees are the ones who experience the processes daily and can, therefore, spot challenging areas and provide improvement solutions, while leaders facilitate, empower and support the improvement activities.
4. ROLES AND ACTIVITIES
Leader: Initiates the continuous improvement activities and assigns resources, leads continuous improvement by example, empowers employees to challenge the processes and continuously improve
Facilitator: Supports change of mindset, provides training to leaders and employees
Team member: Identifies opportunity areas and problems, carries out improvement activities, engages with experts and leaders
5. EXPECTED BENEFITS FOR THE GEMBA WALK
Empowers everyone to actively find and solve problems
Sparks the mindset of continuously changing the status-quo for good
Prepares the organization to perceive change as positive to enable the organization to evolve
Improves the efficiency and effectiveness of processes and work activities
Reduces waste across processes
Reduces rework & development times
Provides focus brought to customer needs
6. ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE IMPLEMENTED A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM
Airbus Defence and Space, Barry Callebaut, Bocar Group, CEMEX, IMC, Interface, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Swisscom and Thermo Fisher Scientific