Go to Gemba, Even If You Don’t Want To
In 2019, I was asked to facilitate the annual Value Stream Mapping (strategic planning) event for a leading consumer brands manufacturer at their facility in Central Pennsylvania. I had facilitated their event the prior year and it was our intent to build on the prior results and drive their continuous improvement culture forward during the event.
The culture of the plant was such that I didn’t get direct feedback from the plant manager, but received it indirectly through the technical manager. There was a strong bond between the two of them, and even though the plant manager appreciated the results I was able to generate and my flexibility to work under challenging circumstances, he generally didn’t directly communicate with me. One reason for this may be that I am a story teller and tend to ramble a bit (surprise), and he liked getting directly to the point.
I was asked to facilitate in a way that would increase the engagement of the production and maintenance technicians and also drive the team to Gemba (the place where the work is done). Working with the technical manager, we identified the team members and activities that would accomplish both requests. On the first day of the Value Stream Mapping event, team members at all levels were engaging in the discussion of issues in the factory and were extremely active during the Gemba walk tour of the factory. Every time an issue was brought up, I made sure we were able to see the actual situation, rather than talking about it. The plant manager even made a point of going to Gemba as much as possible. He spoke about it in his opening remarks and reinforced the idea throughout the day.
On the second day of the event, after mapping the total Value Stream, identifying pain points, and brainstorming improvements, the team prioritized the work they thought would drive the performance and safety to better levels in the coming years. The full team was divided into smaller groups to develop solutions to the highest value problems. The plant manager was assigned to a team consisting of two production technicians and one engineer and they were working on an issue that was causing significant problems on the factory floor.
Sitting at a table in the meeting room, they spent a few minutes talking about the problem they were trying to solve and then got some paper and a pair of scissors and started cutting out various shapes and sizes of paper. I kept an eye on what was going on for a while, but then rotated through other groups to make sure everyone was making progress on their assignments. After fifteen minutes, I returned to the plant manager’s team to see what they were up to. I noticed the plant manager and engineer were moving papers around on the table to simulate the layout of the area in the factory they were concerned with. It appeared the two production technicians weren’t involved in the discussion and they looked distracted by their phones and not engaged in what was happening.
I have never been shy and realized I needed to do something. I said, “What are you all working on at the moment?” The plant manager told me, “Adam, we’re trying to understand the current layout so that we can come up with alternatives to improve the situation.” To that I said, “Have you considered going to Gemba to verify your assumptions? How do you know there’s not a post or another obstruction you may not be aware of in the meeting room?” It looked like the plant manager wanted to say something that wouldn’t have been very nice, but instead he appeared to swallow his pride and took his team out to the factory.
A few minutes later, the technical manager came up to me with a wry smile. He told me, “Adam, you sure got the plant manager’s attention. He took me aside and, in his office, told me, “That darn Adam kicked me out of the meeting room and made me go to Gemba!” I said the first thing that came to my mind, “Am I fired?” “No, of course not,” he told me, “I’m glad you did that! He needs to demonstrate the same behavior he was encouraging in the rest of the team.” After a sigh of relief, I said, “He took it well. I could see he was holding his feelings back. But he did the right thing and went to Gemba.” I still wondered what, if anything their team would learn from the experience.
When the team returned, I noticed all four members were extremely engaged and working at the table with newfound energy. Watching from a few feet away, it was apparent that they found something on the factory floor that they had overlooked in the meeting room and it was helping them develop a better solution they all could support. Eventually the plant manager admitted to me he should have known to go to Gemba first before trying to solve the problem in the meeting room. I was glad to hear it and throughout the rest of the event “Go to Gemba” became the rallying cry for all team members.