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Gemba Walks Paperback – January 1, 2011

by James P. Womack (Author), John Shook (Foreword)

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The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge." So writes Jim Womack, who over the past 30 years has developed a method of going to visit the gemba at countless companies and keenly observing how people work together to create value. Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean Community through a monthly letter. With Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and re-organized his key letters, as well as written new material providing additional context. Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect. Womack explains: * why companies need fewer heroes and more farmers (who work daily to improve the processes and systems needed for perfect work and who take the time and effort to produce long-term improvement) * how "good" people who work in "bad" processes become as "bad" as the process itself * how the real practice of showing respect comes down to helping workers frame and solve their own problems * how the short-term gains from lean tools can be translated to enduring change from lean management. * how the lean manager has a "restless desire to continually rethink the organization's problems, probe their root causes, and lead experiments to test the best currently known countermeasures" By sharing his personal path of discovery, Womack sheds new light on the co

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348
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English
Publisher

Lean Enterprises Inst Inc
Publication date

2011
January 1
Dimensions

5.0 x 1.1 x 7.3
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ISBN-10

1934109150
ISBN-13

978-1934109151
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lean Enterprises Inst Inc; 1st edition (January 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1934109150
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1934109151
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.05 x 7.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #826,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,486 in Business Management (Books)

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4.4 18 ratings

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James P. Womack

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Management expert James P. Womack, Ph.D., is the founder and senior advisor to the Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., a nonprofit training, publishing, conference, and management research company chartered in August 1997 to advance a set of ideas known as lean production and lean thinking, based initially on Toyota’s business system and now being extended to an entire lean management system.

The intellectual basis for the Cambridge, MA-based Institute is described in a series of books and articles co-authored by Womack and Daniel Jones over the past 20 years. The most widely known books are: The Machine That Changed the World (Macmillan/Rawson Associates, 1990), Lean Thinking (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Lean Solutions (Simon & Schuster, 2005), and Seeing The Whole Value Stream (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011). Articles include: "From Lean Production to the Lean Enterprise" (Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1994), "Beyond Toyota: How to Root Out Waste and Pursue Perfection" (Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1996), “Lean Consumption” (Harvard Business Review, March-April, 2005).

Womack received a B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1970, a master's degree in transportation systems from Harvard in 1975, and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT in 1982 (for a dissertation on comparative industrial policy in the U.S., Germany, and Japan). During the period 1975-1991, he was a full-time research scientist at MIT directing a series of comparative studies of world manufacturing practices. As research director of MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Program, Womack led the research team that coined the term “lean production” to describe Toyota’s business system.

Womack served as the Institute's chairman and CEO from 1997 until 2010 when he was succeeded by John Shook.

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Richard L. Bubb II

Page after page of wisdom

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2011

Verified Purchase

If you buy any Lean manufacturing or process improvement book this year, it should be this one, or at least buy it before others on Lean. An easy read, easy to understand, well thought out, clear explanations, and contains years of (full-length) essays in one volume.
This book could have been called, "The Wisdom of Gemba Lean", by one of the wisest writers on Lean.
This book has exceeded _all_ my expectations, and without reservation, I recommended my manager buy a copy for each of his direct reports. He agreed with that opinion on the spot.

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Douglas Collins

A great book for anyone who wants to renew their spirit of inquiry

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

Gemba Walks is ostensibly about lean -- where the lean movement has been, where the lean movement stands today, and where the lean movement might go in the future. Womack makes Toyota the pacesetter point of reference in this thread.

More important than the historical context, however, is the thread of the joy of inquiry -- observation, discovery, making meaning, and experimenting -- that runs through the articles that comprise the book. It's this thread that makes Gemba Walks worth reading as one might consume a good detective novel in an evening. Good stuff. Good stuff.

Doug

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Graeme W. Royerson

One chapter is worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2013

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read page 259 and the following two chapters.

The true confessions of the mistakes allow for a fresh look on lean.

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2013

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A series of journals through the author's journey about the lean community. I started this book as a requirement for my class but actually found it enjoyable. It is am easy read for readers as well.

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

Can't tell you enough how excited this makes me as a new CI Manager starting out at a company that needs some serious work. Very inspirational and helpful in getting us started on the right foot.

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016

Great!

Gemba Walks is a must if you want Go See, Ask Why, and Show Respect

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2011

I just finished reading Gemba Walks, Jim Womack's newest book from LEI. In Gemba Walks, Jim Womack a pioneer in bringing Lean to the world, shares a decade of learning that will have a deep resonance for both the Lean community and for anyone seriously engaged in improving any value-creating activity.

The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the Gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge.

Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean community through a monthly letter. In Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and re-organized his key letters, as well as written new essays providing additional context.

Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value.

The most productive way to walk is to follow a single product family or product design or customer-facing process from start to finish. As you do this you look at each step with the eye of the customer and from the perspective of creating values and asking how this can be done with less. This process Jim summarizes by the phrase "Go see, ask why, show respect."

In one of his newly written sections Jim reflects on a decade of walking by sharing lessons he has learned from all these Gemba Walks.

Lesson 1: The critical importance of the simple act of walking. When you get bogged down, distracted, or even discouraged rediscover the power of going to see.

Lesson 2: Never walk alone. What is the benefit if only you see the current state and think of a better way to create a future sate? Always walk the value stream with the people who touch it. It will be their efforts who are needed to improve it.

Lesson 3: Expand your focus. Many look primarily at the steps in the value stream and ask how to remove the waste. You must ask about the support processes to get the right people to the right place in the value stream at the right time with the right knowledge, materials, and equipment.

Lesson 4: Reflect first on the purpose of the process. Focus on what problem the customer is trying to solve and ask whether the existing process, now matter how well, run, can effectively address their problem. Pay special attention to the way people are engaged in the operation and its improvement.

Lesson 5: Make work fulfilling. There is nothing worse than seeing good people trapped in an unfulfilling process that they lack the power to improve.

Lesson 6: Stability before full panoply of lean techniques. The process must be capable (able to produce good results every time) and available (able to operate when it is needed).

As John Shook says in the introduction Jim has a remarkable ability to frame issues in new ways, asking why things are as they are, causing us to think differently. Something he referred to as "intense noticing". Jim inspired all of us by simply seeing and communication lean best practices. He encouraged others to try new things or to try old things in different ways. Offering others the courage to try truly embodies showing respect for people.

I recommend Gemba Walks to anyone serious about making improvements where humans create value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect.

Originally posted on A Lean Journey Blog

2 people found this helpful

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S&K Bell

The best Lean starter book for executive leadership

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2012

This book is a collection of essays written by Jim Womack, packaged as easy to read and digest stories about what it really means to lead a Lean enterprise. Chapters are grouped by essential subjects: Purpose, Process, People, Management, Transformation, Diffusion; followed by some interesting topical discussions: The Great Recession, Misunderstandings, Misadventures, The Great Chase, and History That's Not Bunk.

Organizational transformation is hard. So much of what we learn, and what we choose to do, is influenced by a great story, something that resonates with us, that we can identify with. That is the essential value of this book, to help us understand our own situation. The Lean spirit of respect for every individual, establishing a shared purpose, and the creation of a learning organization, shine through in every page.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the LEI Faculty, and while I have no financial stake in this book, I do recommend it to all senior leaders as an introduction to what it means to be a "Lean leader". I often suggest a newcomer read just a chapter or two, targeted at a specific issue or concern they have, and invariably they come back and tell me they "couldn't put it down" and read the entire book.
Steve Bell

One person found this helpful

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