Gemba Walk

What is Gemba?

Gemba is a term meaning “the real place.” In Lean Manufacturing, the idea of Gemba is that the problems are visible, and the best improvement ideas will come from going to the Gemba. In business, Gemba refers to the place where value is created, in manufacturing the Gemba is the factory floor. It can be any site, construction site, sales floor or where the service provider interacts directly with the customer.

Gemba Walk

Gemba walks denote the action of going to the see the actual process, understanding the work, ask questions, and learn. It is known as one fundamental part of Lean Management philosophy.

Taichi Ohano, an executive at Toyota, led to development of the concept of the Gemba walk. The Gemba walk is an opportunity for staff to stand back from their day-to-day tasks to walk the floor of their workplace to identify wasteful activities.

What is Gemba Walk Not?

A Gemba walk is not an opportunity to find fault in orders while they are being observed.

It is also not a time to enforce policy adherence.

If a Gemba walk is used punitively, employees will shut down and resistance to change will rise rapidly.

A Gemba walk needs to be approached from a place of mutual respect and interest in making things faster, safer, easier and just plain better.

A Gemba walk is also not the time to solve problems and make changes.