A gemba walk is the term used to describe a walk where employees go to observe work at the gemba, which is where the work is done.  The idea is to go and see for yourself at the actual or "real place" of work.  During a gemba walk participants should:

1. Go and See (observe for themselves the place of work).
2. Engage, with the purpose of understanding more about where value is being created and issues or opportunities that might be present.
3. Muda, Muri and Mura - Discover forms of waste.  The gemba walk however is not the time to solve or make drastic changes.  
4. Be respectful of the people at the gemba.  Look for opportunities to hear their thoughts and reflect on ideas with them.
5. Analyze, Assess and Action!

  The vision of an organization is a compelling image or inspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish. It is a forward looking and inspirational idea of where you would like to be.  The vision guides the decisions of the current and future activities of the organization.  

 What does a vision do?

• A vision should drive the development of specific behaviors, actions and tactics that support the goals and or objectives of the vision.
• It should unify people towards a common goal.
• It should describe what you ultimately are trying to achieve.
• The vision should help customers (internal and external) understand how value is created and their connection to that creation.

  Hoshin Kanri is a method used for strategic planning.  The term refers to "policy deployment" or "directional deployment."  The process of hoshin kanri aligns an organization vertically as well as horizontally .  In general there are 7 steps to the hoshin or directional planning process.  

1. Establish Vision.
2. Assess current state.
3. Set annual objectives.
4. Build a plan for implementation.
5. Execute your plan.
6. Review, evaluate and adjust as necessary (Monthly).
7. Repeat (annually).

  The deployment of Hoshin Kanri will often start as a top - down process but as the organization reaches the second and third phase of hoshin planning it should become a top - down and bottom - up process that involves management, project teams and other resources to align resources and gain consensus of the direction.  This process is often referred to as catchball, nemawashi or our own personal ©Vision methodology.  Hoshin Kanri strives to get every employee pulling in the same direction at the same time. It achieves this by aligning the strategic goals of the company with the tactical plans of middle management and the work performed by all employees.

  Strategic drivers are the forces or factors that are influential in an organizations strategy. 

  A constraint is any factor or element such as cost, schedule and scope that prevents a system from performing at the highest level possible in relation to its objective.  There are many types of constraints that prohibit performance.  Continuous Improvement strategies such as: Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints are effective ways to reduce or remove constraints.

Examples:

1. Cost/ Resources
2. Schedule/ Time
3. Scope/ Quality
4. Physical
5. Policy or Procedure

  Block Scheduling is a scheduling technique where "blocks of time" are set aside to different tasks or projects, such as:

• A few minutes.
• An hour.
• A week.
• A month.

While block scheduling can be quite effective if your time is spread over many different projects it often extends the time required for tasks/projects to be completed.

Have you tried block scheduling?
  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

  A cell, cellular layout or work cell is a close arrangement or setup of people, machines or workstations. The purpose of a cellular layout is to fulfill a processing sequence while simultaneously reducing wait times, transportation and other forms of muda.  In addition to removing various forms of waste cells are very effective add promoting and facilitating effective flow.  Cells can be in many different shapes and attempt to spread work evenly amongst the resources.  

  The balanced scorecard shows key metrics on a dashboard which provide key performance indicators and insight regarding four main areas of an organization: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Processes and Learning and Growth.  The balanced scorecard is used in strategic planning and management in a wide variety of industries.  For more in depth study of the balanced scorecard we recommend reading Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton's book titled The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action.

A standard that is set to monitor sales data for specific items in forecasting models. The standard is usually set to be tripped or triggered when the demand for a period is different from the forecast by more than some number of mean absolute deviations.

  A Kaizen blitz is a rapid improvement event.  It is designed to make a fast improvement or impact to an opportunity or an issue.  A blitz will usually take place over a 1 to 5 day period, but could be as quick as a few minutes.  This gives teams an opportunity to make rapid, quick improvements.  A kaizen blitz may follow the 4 steps outlined in the PDCA cycle:

1. Plan the event.
2. Do the blitz.
3. Check or study the results of the blitz.
4. Act on any adjustments, activities or actions that may have been discovered in checking and studying to fully implement the agreed upon blitz objectives.