Several times I have been approached or have approached someone to talk about the importance of devoting the maximum time possible in gemba. To be present where things actually happen, lets develop the ability to see waste in various production processes. The gemba is where the work happens and genbutsu is how it actually happens. Both these words are of Japanese origin "genchi" and "genbutsu". It is no exaggeration to say that everyone knows the real meaning of these terms and that they also know the importance of being in the gemba, this word has also become popular in our environment. What I want to get to here as we shift from knowledge to attitude, a gemba genbutsu. attitude
The spirit of "go and see" ensures that supervisors, managers and directors are in constant contact with members of their teams, promotiong align expectations and behaviors. If to a supervisor the organization of the environment, safety, production monitoring framework and the general state of the machines are important, and through his gestures, he shows it to his subordinates. The gemba is used by examples.
Being in gemba will not add value if the direction to see the Genbutsu is not appropriate. I really like a phrase adopted by Mercedes in its axle plant in Brazil: "Do not just watch, you have to see," this is the real spirit of the gemba genbutsu, must see. How many of us were surprised when someone pointed to us a security risk in producing seemingly easy viewing, but even running through it several times a day, we were unable to see it; needed someone to show us the problem with eyes calibrated to Genbutsu. Why does this occur? When we are at gemba, rare are the times we cut ourselves off from our routine to look at an activity with a critical eye, whether involving security issues, process, quality, 5 S, TPM or any other. This also applies to administrative activities and offices. I know many people who spend much time at gemba, but are committed to resolving a specific problem or to speak to someone executing some work, or they are at gemba to take or seek information or to follow some process. I've never met anyone in production or in the office, when asked about what he was doing, saying: "I am testing this activity to see how it really works, I want to see the wastes." The only exceptions are the safety inspections and when we follow a consultant.
To facilitate the understanding of the topic, we will work with an administrative example: it is not unusual to receive complaints from employees about transportation offered by the company, or any strange conduct in the driver, the route established or lack of compliance schedules passing through bus stops. This is typically a service responsibility of the Human Resources and often the problem is presented in a meeting with those responsible for transport, by an email or a phone call. If someone join the employees, randomly, for a few days to see what the facts actually are, that person would have a gemba genbutsu attitude.
We are taught that it is possible to administer supported by complex systems that inform us through reports on the computer screen as in production or service, we even have the technology to receive these data directly in our cellphones, hourly, from shift to shift or daily. I see this as a real trap. I never use only the reports when I have to make a decision or make a kaizen plan - this does not mean that people are malicious and that the information is incorrect - being at gemba allows to me to visualize beyond the notes made in the reports and graphs. If you go to the workplace with a gemba genbutsu attitude, you will find that your productive capacity, performance, opportunities 5S and safety are far greater than you could imagine. I admit there is a tremendous progress as we make our operational plans, but most of the time, we still base on historical and / or challenges that we have experienced in order to reach a final number with spreadsheets filled by supervisors, managers and controllers. We still have few experiences with a gemba genbutsu attitude to know whether the number reported reflects the true limit. It would be challenging from a vision "come and see". The following text is from the book "The birth of lean" (ed. Bookman-2010), the authors Koichi Shimokawa and Takahiro Fujimoto, are two testimonies about the importance of gemba to Taiichi Ohno, creator of the Toyota Production System.
“I've never seen papers on Ohno-san's desk. This is no exaggeration. Literally no documents. The only documents that he actually devoted his attention to were the records of production and sales results: things like the number of vehicles sold yesterday, the number of vehicles produced yesterday, the operating speeds and so on. These numbers were records of actual results and therefore unquestionable facts. Ohno-san did not have slightest interest in any other written material. He trusted only the things he could confirm with his own eyes.”
“The gemba genbutsu was absolutely essential in the Ohno-san approach. He never made a judgment based solely on what he heard about something. He always insisted on going to the local and seeing. The times when we asked his opinion, he said: You are the one who saw how things were. You know better than me. How could I talk about something I've never seen?”
The last paragraph of the narrative about Mr. Ohno is what strikes me most, he says something real about gemba genbutsu attitude. If you are in the place where things happen, you will always be the greatest expert of this process, no one knows more than you. Thus, your next kaizens will be born. I know some leaders who say they do not know anything about the lean, but they know more than many who consider themselves experts. The common behavior of these leaders is a healthy resistance to the use of computerized systems and preferably to gemba, the result: their departments are very organized and their indicators, the best. It may seem contradictory, but I'm not condemning the use of systems, like everything in life, there has to be a balance.
I am very proud to be part of a team that has evolved over the lean concepts, especially to be able to contribute with some inheritance. I think we have a highly trained staff on this subject. From now on forwards, what will make the difference? The behavior and attitude. Most times that I come across with wastes or opportunities in manufacturing processes or administrative, the biggest barrier is not knowledge but the behavior and the desire to want to change for something better. The gemba genbutsu, combined with some technique, will help in the formation of a new way of acting and making decisions.
I hope that the time I stole from you to read this text can be reversed in many benefits through direct observation where the work actually takes place. Be in the office or at production, lets develop a gemba genbutsu attitude.
Portuguese source: Lean Institute Brasil
What are other ways to use the concept of Gemba in IT? Click here to see an example.