How to carry out Gemba Walk?

Gemba is a Japanese term means "the real place".   In manufacturing the gemba refer to factory shop floor.  It is also the place of construction, work office, sales office or customer service area.  In lean manufacturing, the best improvement ideas came during gemba, where all the error or problem could be easily seen during surveillance walk at gemba site.   Gemba walk is an activities where management or front lines look for Muda or any opportunities for improvement.

Gemba means if problem seen during gemba walk, an engineer or maintenance section will be called to check and review the situation, start the improvement program.

During Gemba walk, it is common to ask series of questions about the work or production that going on for the day such as:

1. Who responsible for the job?
2. How often does QA check the part?
3. What value the work does to the process?
4. Do you have idea to make the job faster? Easier?
5. How does the job affect the quality?

The focus of Gemba walk is to improve process quality as well as reducing the waste in production.  On top of that, by having management and front liner to make a special trip down to production floor or back end office will definitely increase the morale of the workers. 

During the gemba walk, nobody expect to find a perfect process in order.  There is a always issue to address,   new improvement or initiative to consider.  Either way, gemba walk help reduce mis-communication and a great practice for audit.

Steps for Gemba walk:

1. Select a theme for each walk.
2. Question the supervisors.
3. Listen attentively.  This is a learning exercise for the manager.
4. Share what you learned as you walk through the plant.
5. Write a short memo on what you learned and post it for others to see.
6. Follow-up to see the progress is made.