Gemba Walk is a crucial lean management technique that involves walking the shop floor to identify opportunities for improvement. Moreover, it’s important to have a Gemba Walk Checklist that outlines the key questions to ask during your walk. This ensures that you perform an effective and efficient walkthrough of your shop floor. In this article, we’ll discuss some essential Gemba Walk checklist questions to ask that will help you make the most out of your Gemba Walk.
What is a Gemba Walk?
Gemba Walk is a term that originates from the Japanese word “gemba,” which means “the real place.” So, in manufacturing, Gemba is the shop floor — “the real place” where manufacturing is completed. A Gemba Walk is a management technique used to identify inefficiencies, wasteful processes, and other issues that may impact productivity. With that being said, during a Gemba Walk, managers and supervisors:
- — Visit the actual work area
- — Engage with employees
- — Ask questions to gain insight into the daily operations
It’s important to remember that the primary purpose of a Gemba Walk is to identify improvement opportunities. That is to say, it’s easy to fall into the trap of pointing out mistakes or flaws in the work of employees. But, this is not the purpose of the Gemba Walk. Instead, the focus should be on identifying areas for process, procedure, or system enhancements to eliminate waste, reduce costs, or improve quality and safety. What’s more, you should approach the process with an open mind, observe how work is done, ask questions, and understand the reasoning behind current processes. By doing this, you can identify areas where improvements can be made, and you can work with the team to implement changes that will benefit everyone.
What is a Gemba Walk checklist?
A Gemba Walk checklist is a tool used by managers and team leaders to ensure they are gathering all the necessary information during their visit to the Gemba. It provides a list of essential Gemba Walk checklist questions to ask, serving as a guide for the manager or team leader. This ensures that they are looking at all the key areas of the Gemba and checking that all processes are running smoothly.
The purpose of a Gemba Walk checklist is to:
- — Identify areas for improvement
- — Identify potential safety hazards
- — Make sure that all processes are being followed correctly
Essentially, a Gemba Walk checklist helps managers and team leaders gain a better understanding of the work being done. As a result, this can lead to increased efficiency, improved quality, and a safer work environment.
Why is it important to have a standardized Gemba Walk checklist?
A standardized Gemba Walk checklist can be an incredibly valuable tool for organizations of all sizes and industries. One of the main reasons why it’s important to have a standardized checklist is that it helps ensure consistency across different teams and departments. By having a standardized list of items to check during a Gemba Walk, everyone is on the same page and can work towards the same goals. What’s more, this can be especially important for large organizations with many different teams and locations.
Another benefit of a standardized Gemba Walk checklist is that it helps identify potential areas for improvement in a systematic way. By regularly checking the same items, teams can begin to notice patterns and trends over time. This can help them identify areas that may need more attention or resources, and can ultimately lead to more efficient and effective processes.
Finally, having a standardized Gemba Walk checklist can help ensure that all aspects of the workplace are being evaluated. For example, this may include safety protocols, waste reduction efforts, and other important factors that may not be top of mind for every employee. By having a checklist that covers all of these areas, organizations can help ensure that they are creating a safe and productive workplace for everyone.
10 essential Gemba Walk checklist questions to ask
In order to get the most out of your Gemba Walk, it’s important to ask the right questions. With that being said, here are some essential Gemba Walk checklist questions that you should consider asking during your next walk:
- 1. What is the purpose of this process?
- 2. Can you walk me through the steps of this process?
- 3. How long does it take to complete this process?
- 4. Are there any bottlenecks or delays that slow down the process?
- 5. How often do defects or errors occur in this process?
- 6. Are there any safety hazards or risks that need to be addressed?
- 7. What improvements can be made to this process?
- 8. Are there any unnecessary steps or activities that can be eliminated?
- 9. How can we reduce the lead time of this process?
- 10. Do you have the necessary resources and tools to do your efficiently and effectively?
Perform Gemba walks efficiently with the LeanSuite
Traditionally, performing Gemba walks required a lot of time and effort because the whole process was done with pen and paper. However, by using a virtual Gemba Walk app, like the one offered by LeanSuite called the Gemba Walker, the whole process is digitized, making it much easier. With the LeanSuite’s Gemba Walker, you can create standardized Gemba Walk checklist questions, add photos to visually and clearly highlight issues, and launch improvement projects all from one central cloud-based platform. That’s why you should use a virtual Gemba Walk app, as it allows you to streamline the process and make it more efficient.
