What Leaders Should Do on the Gemba

摘要

Many manufacturing leaders are quick to admit they spend too much time in meetings and in front of the computer, and not enough time on the factory floor. Those spreadsheets and dashboards may provide an overview of operations but they also can diminish the first-hand experience of seeing how plant operations are functioning. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower put his finger on the problem, Eric Lussier told attendees at the IW Best Plants Conference in May, when he wrote: "Farming is easy when your pencil is the plow and you're 1,000 miles from the field." Lussier, vice president, Operational Excellence at Handy &Harman Ltd., is a strong proponent of gemba walks-going to "the real place," as the Japanese word means, and very purposefully observing what is going on on the factory floor.