Jon Miller

Consultant, trainer, author

Jon Miller is co-founder of Gemba Research LLC where he leads development efforts including consulting solutions, training materials, and establishing internal consulting standards. Miller was born in Japan and lived there for 18 years. In 1993 Miller was fortunate to start his career working with consultants who were students of Taiichi Ohno. Since 1998 he has led dozens of lean transformation projects in a wide range of industries. Miller has taught kaizen in 15 countries for more than 15 years. He is a frequent contributor of articles to a variety of publications and written more than 800 articles on lean manufacturing, kaizen, and the Toyota Production System on Gemba’s blog.

Fri, 11/22/2013 - 10:56
What’s Next for Lean? Not that I have a crystal ball...
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 05:30
Whether I am speaking about lean to an audience of one or 100, if the conversation goes on long enough the question inevitably arises: “What’s next for lean?” I always manage an answer, typically tying it to the theme of the discussion, speech, or…
Igor Stravinsky Agrees: Standards Enable Creativity True artists embrace standards
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 06:06
T here is a stereotype of the creative person who chafes at standards, convinced that any sort of process-driven continuous improvement will have a negative effect on how his work is performed. This creative person can be a designer, marketing…
The 12 Herculean Labors of Lean Leaders Seemingly impossible tasks can be conquered when you fight like Hercules.
Wed, 06/23/2010 - 06:00
When we say that a task is Herculean, it means it is extremely difficult. Heracles was a Greek hero (Hercules in the Roman version) who got into some trouble for killing a member of his family in a fit of madness and was assigned a series of…
We Must Get Dirty to Get Clean Leaders can encourage total productive maintenance by doing some of it themselves.
Mon, 06/07/2010 - 06:00
In a recent e-mail, a reader of my blog asked me, “How can we enhance top management commitment and involvement for implementing total productive maintenance (TPM)?” This is a great general question to ask during any effort to establish…
The Necessity of Redundancy in Lean Getting ready for fit manufacturing: a little bit of fat isn’t bad.
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 13:59
After every major natural disaster that disrupts global supply chains, there are voices that cry out “A-ha! I told you just-in-time inventory doesn’t work!” Recently the Icelandic volcano turned European skies airplane-free for a few days and news…
Ten Tips for Better Facilitation Getting the most out your training
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:00
Facilitation is the art of guiding but not leading, bringing learning but not lecturing, engaging but not directing. Coming from the Latin facilitar, meaning, “to make easy,” the role of the facilitator is not to do for others, but to bring out the…
How to Scold Like a Kaizen Sensei A fierce and humble style of teaching
Tue, 04/06/2010 - 08:20
These days, there must be people at Toyota waking up in a cold sweat from dreams in which they are being scolded by Taiichi Ohno, furious at the massive vehicle recalls caused ostensibly by the pursuit of scale and volume production at the expense…
When to Shift from “Why?” to “How?” Sometimes knowing how is more productive than knowing why.
Tue, 03/23/2010 - 10:36
A recent problem-solving team activity made me aware of the importance of knowing when to shift the conversation from “why?” to “how?” To be honest, it’s sometimes hard to know where to draw the line in the “5 Whys” analysis, especially when the…
The Milk Run vs. the Water Spider Why water spiders can be much more than material handlers.
Tue, 03/16/2010 - 06:00
I received pair of questions about lean logistics over the past few weeks that prompted this article. The questions were “What is the milk run method?” and “What is the role of the water spider?”  The milk run The milk run is an example of time…
Former Toyota Quality Manager’s Thoughts on Historic Recall Foresees that problem was design issue
Tue, 02/02/2010 - 05:30
Editor's note: At the time this interview was published by Gemba Research LLC, Toyota hadn't announced a fix to the sticky accelerator issue that caused the company to recall approximately 2.3 million select vehicles. On Feb. 1, the company…