The Gemba Walk^[1]

By Norman Bodek

During a trip to Japan, Dr. Ryuji Fukuda took me to a Meidensha Electric plant^[2] outside of Tokyo, and introduced me to the plant manager. At 11:00AM, the plant manager got up from behind his desk. He asked me to join him on his daily walk; in fact he told me that he walked the plant twice a day every day and that it was the most valuable part of his day.

… it was the most valuable part of his day.

The plant manager said, “Norman, I select a different theme for every walk and this morning I am going to look at the quality charts to see if they have a real purpose for the company and for the employees; if people are keeping them up to date; to see how they’re used; and to learn who looks at them and when they’re looked at. I want to find out what is the real value of those quality charts.^[3]

It was a large manufacturing plant making electrical power equipment. 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^[4] to see which ones were being displayed and if they were being kept up to date. All of the charts had current dates on them.

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

1. Who’s responsible for updating the quality charts?
2. Do the other employees look at the charts?
3. How often do they look at them?
4. What value do the charts have for the employees?
5. Do our customers ever look at the charts?
6. Do our suppliers look at the charts?
7. Do you think the charts have an effect on quality?

The plant manager asked those questions and you could see the excitement on the face of the supervisor as he was answering the questions. I learned that there’s enormous power in the leader asking questions and then just listening – yes; this is the key to ask the question and then to just listen 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 the charts are important to our plant manager then they must be important for us to keep them up to date.” Well, the reverse is also true and when the plant manager shows no interest in an item, 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 moments. I saw a football game recently and the score was 28 to 4; people lost interest and started to leave the stands. It is the same in the plant and at work; we need both targets to shoot for, and we 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. Imagine after one year the manager could do over 400 walks a year: safety, cost savings, people development, quality, reducing the time line, eliminating wastes, etc, and nothing would be ‘lost within the cracks.’ By asking questions and not telling, 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 catalyst, to see that everyone was being motivated to keep to the highest possible standard.

My head was already spinning with a great many thoughts as I recognized how empowering this experience was for this plant. I also knew that I had to change the way I managed my company.^[5]

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.

Then we walked to the next department to meet with another supervisor. Since this was done every day at a specific time, the supervisor was prepared and waiting for us to come by. The plant manager repeated the same series of questions to this supervisor and listened. Now, after he listened to this second supervisor he was able to share some of what he learned from the first supervisor. He was careful not to criticize the second supervisor and he was careful not to compare the first department with the second department. He shared with sensitivity some of the new things he observed and learned.

First we saw that all of the charts were kept up to date, and had real meaning for the workers in helping them sustain their quality efforts. I fully realized the real power in the Gemba walk:

1. When the manager shows an interest in something like quality charts, he is demonstrating that he feels they are important. Workers in the plant then ensure they are used and kept up to date.^[6] If the plant manager does not show interest in them, workers have a tendency to stop keeping them up to date. “We have plenty to do to just do our job.”
2. By questioning the supervisor, there was an exchange of ideas on the subject. This was a learning experience for both the plant manager and the supervisor.
3. The plant manager now shared what he learned from the first department with the supervisor of the second and subsequent departments. “Wow.” 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.

I was very impressed. What a way to run a plant!

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

Not everything was perfect, and there were a number of problems to solve, and new things to consider. He left it up to each supervisor and their employees to find a way to get these things done.^[7] The steps of the 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 that progress is made.

Norman Bodek was instrumental in finding, translating, and publishing the works of the great manufacturing management geniuses of the past thirty years who brought us The Toyota Production System (Lean manufacturing), Total Quality Management (TQM) and other powerful tools and techniques. You may learn more about Norman Bodek and his recent books at: www.leanaffiliates.com/idea_generation.htm.

[1]Gemba means factory floor, and walking around the plant could be the most important part of a manager’s job. Instead of feeling that you must lead others, your real strength is bringing out the best from others, letting them develop their talents and letting them run the business for you. As you learn from the workers your job is to then disseminate your learning with everyone else – others in the plant and also sharing the power of this learning with your bosses.

[2]Meidensha Electric is a manufacturer of electric power equipment for the electric generation industry. 

[3]How many companies have quality charts up on the wall but no one really looks at them or knows how to really use them?

[4]At those American plants I had earlier visited I hardly saw anything displayed on the walls to inspire people to improve. Here in Japan almost every square inch of wall space was used to communicate some information to the worker: quality charts and statistics, ideas from the workers, safety figures, pictures of problems to be solved, certificates of courses taken by the individual workers, description of poka-yokes and change-over times, etc.

[5]Not always easy to do.

[6]Once in Scotland I was in a bottle manufacturing plant looking at the TPM charts. We had run an event three months earlier. Not one chart was kept up to date. The plant manager and the workers loved the training but without the plant manager following up people would just go back to their old ways of doing things – and TPM gets neglected.

[7]Another key is to empower the employees in the improvement process. If you make them responsible and then carefully follow up, a lot more power is given to the process.