ONE GOOD
IDEA
Get Into Gemba
by Kelly L. Allan
T
he concept of gemba provides a
unique lens through which to
view quality systems and helps
quality professionals analyze how a
particular system may fit their organi-
zations quality needs.
Gemba, which the Japanese use in
everyday speech to mean the real
place, literally means the place of
specific work. Peter Scholtes defines it
as the critical resources and sequence
of interdependent activities that add
value to the customer.1
The gemba for a manufacturing com-
pany, for example, may include prod-
uct design and development activities,
manufacturing, product delivery and
routine customer maintenance activi-
ties. For a service company, it may
include service design, development
and delivery activities. Other activities
within the organization, such as
accounting, HR and IT, are not gemba,
but should support the gemba. All are
vital to success, but the success of the
rest of the organization is measured by
how well it serves the gemba.2
Gemba helps executives choose a
quality system by simplifying the
decision making process. Making the
process simpler makes it better
because executives are often over-
whelmed by the complexity of quality
initiatives.3 They have neither the time
nor the inclination to sort through the
details when deciding whether to use
Six Sigma, Baldrige National Quality
Award criteria or lean.
According to Scholtes, Many execu-
tives have an intuitive understanding
that certain parts of the organization
are more at the heart of its success than
other parts. Gemba provides a logical
framework for that intuition and aids
in prioritization and decision making.4
Identify
When we are working with clients,
the first thing we do is meet with each
departments senior managers and
have them determine which depart-
ments form the gemba. We have them
read about gemba, and we discuss the
ramifications of the concept on their
organization. These discussions are
104 I APRIL 2004 I www.asq.org
important because people in non-
gemba departments often think, Hey,
we should be a part of the gemba, too.
This concept makes
it easier to choose a
quality system.
You cant run a company without
accounting, HR or purchasing.
Determine Status and Needs
The main criterion for choosing a
quality system is how it will serve the
needs of the gemba:
If gemba departments have opportu-
nities for further improvements in
quality, then a Six Sigma approach
can be a timely and direct way to
serve the gemba. Once the opportu-
nities have been optimized in the
gemba, the system can be expanded
to nongemba departments.
If the gemba already has reliable
and continuously improving qual-
ity, and if a holistic approach to
quality is desired, then Baldrige
could serve the gemba and the rest
of the organization.
If the gemba has reliable and con-
tinuously improving quality, and
if process documentation and
quality certification are important
to customers, then ISO 9000 may
be the right choice.
We conduct a quality assessment
and solicit input from departments
including sales, customer service,
manufacturing, quality and market-
ing. We also look at customer feed-
back. For example, rapid growth and
success of a new product at one man-
ufacturer had pulled corporate focus
and resources away from the gemba of
its traditional product lines. A poll of
the companys best customers made it
clear they were unhappy and would
soon reduce their orders if product
quality didnt improve.
Choose the Quality System
The choice of quality system is usu-
ally quite clear by this point because
the key, critical needs have been iden-
tified and prioritized. The manufac-
turer discusssed earlier chose Six
Sigma because its key decision mak-
ers had data that showed there were
further significant, time critical
improvements that could be made in
both the traditional lines gemba and
the new product lines gemba.
This client first applied Six Sigma in
its manufacturing plants (the area in
the gemba that was causing the most
problems for customers). Within three
months, significant improvements
were made in the top four customer
defined critical to quality criteria, and
customers indicated they were happy.
Productivity also improved because
scrap, rework and customer returns
diminished. Our client knew its use of
gemba was successful because its criti-
cal business needs were met by the
choice of Six Sigma.
The concept of gemba enables execu-
tives to participate in the selection of a
quality system without having to
become quality experts. Gemba makes
sense to them because the gemba
departments are central to the compa-
nys financial and operational goals.
REFERENCES
1. Peter R. Scholtes, The Leaders Handbook,
McGraw-Hill, 1998.
2. Ibid.
3. Stephen George, How To Speak the
Language of Senior Management, Quality
Progress, May 2003.
4. Personal interview with Peter Scholtes, July
22, 2003.
KELLY L. ALLAN is founder and senior associ-
ate of Kelly Allan Associates Ltd. He earned a
bachelors degree in marketing and communi-
cations from the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor and is a member of ASQ.
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