John Hunter has asked me again this year to participate, and for me it is a great honor and privilege, in the global examination of best blogs and online resources in management improvement, in particular lean thinking.
Each year John publishes the roundup of best blogs, and you can find all the previous years articles on the Curious Cat website here. Or browse the entire blog review category here.
I have agreed with John to evaluate two of the blogs from Lean Enterprise Institute, one individual and of enormous value for its readers, Gemba Coach by Michael Ballé, and one collective The Lean Post where the name of the game is collaboration and sharing of ideas (and some fun too…).
Today is the turn of Gemba Coach, and tomorrow will be the turn of The Lean Post.
Why did I choose Gemba Coach and what does Gemba Coach mean to me?
I choose to evaluate Gemba Coach because, when I first read The Lean Manager and The Gold Mine, co-authored by Michael Ballé, I knew that Michael could be my online sensei, and I started following Gemba Coach since the first ever post published. And I wasn’t wrong. The articles are all full of profound, gemba knowledge, and never banal. In the last year I have shared practically all of his articles on my personal G+ page with some comments of mine and I will just resume some of them here:
- This article reminded me of my first quality audits and I understood many things I did right and wrong in them…
- When you walk in gemba, there are 5 questions you have to keep in your mind all the time…
- The secrets of Value Stream Maps…
- “The lean strategy to reduce lead-time is to reduce rework: zero redesign“
- Kaizen program without Individual development program is futile…
- Why the lean laws are not clearly articulated?
- Why customer satisfaction is a deep topic of study in lean…
- I cross the arguments with Michael when he is talking about Manufacturing Engineering, one of the topics of my book in italian language “Progettare Costi e Valore“
- And, in the end, some of Lean History, with a systemic explanation by Michael…
Now you have it for some 3-4 hours of reading and learning from one of the best online gemba’s in the world…
Thanks Michael for sharing your ideas with all of us and I hope it will continue for many years in the future!
Wow! Thanks, I’m flattered (and thankful :)). I was listening recently to Guy Kawasaki on seeking the space of Unique/Value. I feel Gemba Coach is quirky enough to get high grades on unique :), but it’s very hard to have any idea as to perceived value, so thank you for the kind words!