What Lean tools can you use to improve your Gemba walk and observation?

I said in a very similar topic regarding the same subject, GENBA walk cannot be as this question is proposing. That is going totally against the real purpose of Genba. For a good Genba walk what you need is primarily very basic things such as: 1 - good ears to listen to people. 2 - keep your mouth shut and learn by watching the people. 3 - be humble and put yourself in a servant position. You are there to help! 4 - keep your eyes wide open. 5 - do not use any "to do list" or actions to review or KPI's, this is not the intent of Genba.

It requires a clear purpose and a focus before starting the GEMBA walk. A person who conducts the Gemba walk needs to highly understand the process which going to be observed and every time needs to walk with an improvement mindset. The basic purpose of any Gemba walk is to find out the improvement opportunities and to support that purpose there are main 05 focuses. When doing the Gemba walk, every time need to consider the Leader's availability, labour planning, Standardized work, workplace organizing, and communication. If any person follows the above focuses that person can collect so many improvement opportunities.

Don't use a checklist as this suggests. Why do we need to make a check list of things we want to see and enquire in our organisation? Position yourself as a curious person, open to learn from anyone, everywhere, all the time. Genba walk is NOT about: 1 - to do lists. 2 - kpis to review. 3 - solve problem for other people to show how knowledgeable you are. 4 - give people's actions after your observations. 5 - notify people that you going to walk the area so people can get ready for the visits of the big boss.

When conducting the Gemba walk it is required to focus on the 07 areas. Such as Process Focus, Process improvement focus, Leader availability, Manpower allocation, Standardize work, Communication and workplace arrangement. It depends on the person. Someone may be required checklist to verify. However, after practising the Gemba walk, there is no need checklist. Because above mentioned 07 points coming to the mind of the person who doing the Gemba walk automatically.

The Gemba walk also supports collection the of observations. However, all observations can be surface things. If we make decisions based on the surface things, accuracy can be minimal. Because of that during the Gemba walk, it is good to ask questions to find out the root causes. It can be self-questions as well as questions from the employees in real places. Then it will support understanding the real causes and understanding of real causes will enhance the accuracy of the solutions. Solution means improvements.

The best tool during genba is not asking why, but putting yourself in a position that you are open to learn, open to see things, to engage and understand more about the work people do. Only after showing and providing evidence that you are there to support, you decide if you need to coach, mentor or direct anyone regarding any subject, but only if you have enough space to do so, not because you have a higher job title.

In a continuous improvement journey, can use the PDCA cycle. Everything is based on trial and error and most of the time success after a few deviations. In the PDCA cycle, "P" denotes the planning and that is the most important part. If planning is completed properly, it will give the proper results. "D" denote the implementation. After implementation, it is required to check the deviations. That is denoted by "C" and if any deviation, it needs to be corrected and if not it is required to be standardized if everything going well. After reaching the results, again can rotate the PDCA cycle for further enhancements. Because of that, this concept also can be used for implementations based on the opportunities identified through the Gemba walk.

Lean tools for gemba walk 1. 5s 2. Brainstorming 3. Why why analysis 4. Sop standard operating procedure 5. OpL one point lesson

If we think about sustainability, it is a must to engage the employees who work in real flow. Usually during the Gemba walk, we are required to ask questions from employees working in real places and when we ask constructive questions, employees willingly connect with us. Listening actively, and showing respect are key points to connect with the people on the floor. Management can encourage the employees to engage in the process through suggestions. It is need to believe, that most of the good answers come to the problem from the employees working in real places. Because they are pioneers in that area.

This should be the 1 topic not the 5. Engagement is primordial and crucial for the sucess of any genba walk and it must be done first. Maybe you need to engage a lot more at the beginning instead of going to a genba walk straight away. You need to understand the public and the teams around to make a decision.