“Walking the Gemba” is an expression used by practitioners of Lean Management. You have to get of your chair and walk to the “floor”, observe without interfering the actual processes as they are executed. Walking the Gemba on a regular basis will give you the deep understanding of reality which is needed to guide improvements. This week I heard one bad and two good examples from different industries.
The new management of a merged healthcare institute prides itself that they visit all locations. The reality is that they have meetings in these locations, staff sees them walking in…and walking out. No contact what so ever. The bitterness in the staff rises because they get chastised about their performance based on (in their opinion totally wrong) reports out o the new IT-system.
The surgeons of a hospital that is being scrutinized for quality issues have to take a training where they physically follow and comment on all steps a patient will experience. All 35-40 steps from intake to release after surgery, including the support processes preparing everything for surgery.
A contractor who builds fiber networks experienced serious overruns on costs and time while integrating existing duct networks (50 mm HDPE tube). The management “walked the gemba” and spent a day or two in the trenches. To their utter shock they saw that their subcontractors had developed a quick and dirty method to identify the right duct in a bundle you have dug up. Just close one side of the tube , put pressure on the tube on the other end, take a drill and drill a small hole in each tube where you have dug. If the tube starts hissing it is the right one. Unfortunately the drilled tubes now are damaged. They have a leak, take in water, it may not be possible any more later on to blow fiber through the tube. But hey, whose problem is that?
