by Norman Bodek

The Gemba Walk
Better quality may be just a short walk away.

This editorial is adapted from Norman Bodek’s soon-to-be-published book. Gemba is a Japanese term meaning factory floor.

During a trip to Japan, Ryuji Fukuda took me to the Meidensha Electric plant outside of Tokyo and introduced me to the plant manager.

At 11:00 a.m., he sat near the window in the center of the room to be able to observe everyone else. He asked me to join him on his daily walk, which he told me was the most valuable part of his job.

The plant manager said: “Norman, I select a different theme for every walk, and this morning I’m going to look at the quality charts to see if they have a real purpose for the company and for the employees, to see if people are keeping them up to date, how they’re used, who looks at them and when they’re looked at. I want to find out the real value of those quality charts.”

As we walked over to the first department in the plant, the supervisor came over to meet us. The plant manager then inspected the quality charts up on the wall. All were current.

The plant manager then asked a series of questions to the supervisor about the usefulness of the quality charts, including:

Who’s responsible for updating them?

Do the other employees look at the charts? How often?

What value do the charts have for the employees?

Do our customers ever look at the charts? Do our suppliers?

Do you think the charts have an effect on the overall quality of the parts being produced?

You could see the excitement on the face of the supervisor as he answered the questions. I learned there’s enormous power in the leader asking questions and then just listening carefully, not judgmentally.

When the plant manager looks at something with real interest, the people in the plant are interested in supporting the plant manager. They think, “If those charts are important to our plant manager, then they must be important for us to keep them up to date on a regular basis.” When the reverse is true and the plant manager shows no interest in something, there is often a tendency for that to just fall apart. They think: “We have so many other things to do. If the plant manager doesn’t look at those charts, they’re probably not very important.”

There was real learning going on as the supervisor was explaining the importance of the charts and how they played a vital role in the whole quality movement. To the supervisor, the charts were like a scorecard at an athletic event. Imagine going to a basketball game in which there is no score being kept. You would probably leave after a few minutes. In the plant, we need both targets to shoot for, and we also need to know the score to see if we’re meeting or exceeding those targets.

I could see the real power in this walk; it was a learning experience for the manager to be educated by his supervisor and employees. By selecting a different theme for every walk, he would eventually cover all of the important aspects of running a plant. By asking questions, he encouraged his employees to understand the importance of their work. In reality, he was letting them run the plant--his job was to be the reminder, the catalyst, to see that everything was being kept up to the highest possible standard.

As the leader, the plant manager sets the tempo and sets an example for the plant. It’s up to the supervisor to follow the plant manager’s example when he/she talks to the employees--to ask them questions and not always give the answers.

This gemba walk was a great communication device, and I could see why the plant manager considered this the most important part of his job.

After we completed the entire walk, which took about one hour, we came back to the office area. Because there was a lot of learning, and the first departments didn’t receive feedback from the latter departments, the plant manager wrote a summary memo to post on the bulletin board to share everything he learned with all the employees.

Not everything was perfect. There were a number of problems to solve and new things to consider, and he included those in his memo and left it up to each supervisor and the mployees to find a way to get those new things done.

The power in the gemba walk lies in:

Selecting a theme for each walk

Questioning the supervisors

Listening attentively. This is a learning exercise for the manager.

Sharing what you learned as you walk through the plant

Writing a short memo on what you learned and posting it for others to see

Following up to monitor progress

About the author

Norman Bodek has translated and popularized many of the Japanese quality tools, techniques and technologies that transformed U.S. industry in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Bodek’s first book was The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen (PCS Press, 2002). Bodek is scheduled to present a one-day workshop by the same name, which is advertised on pages 37 and 66 of this issue. Find out more about the workshop from QCI International at www.qci-intl.com/GeneratorWorkshop.htm.