Discussion Questions

Module 3 Discussion: Voice of the Customer

Discussion Board: Voice of the Customer

What is one method that you have used to gather the voice of the customer (VOC)? What were the strengths and weaknesses of that method for gathering VOC information?

 Guidelines

• Submit your initial post of at least 250 words by the due date at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Lean

Six Sigma

Defining Value Topic

Introduction

In this lecture, we will discuss defining value. It’s a critical concept of Lean, however, its
often an underemphasized aspect of Lean.

How Do We Define Value?

We define value by studying our process from start to finish to understand where the
problems occur. By thoroughly understanding where the problems exist in the process, we
can focus on wasteful non-value add activities that lead to many of these problems. In
Lean, we can identify and eliminate waste by focusing on activities that are considered non-
value add or waste. We can accomplish the identification of waste by performing the
following:

• DOWNTIME – identify any waste throughout the process
• Waste walks – perform observation to go and see the waste for ourselves

The tools of Lean tend to be internally focused, and that’s the strength. We can focus on
processes that we have control over. Lean is appealing to management because:

• We save time
• We save money

With Lean, the goals of management are to save money and speed up processes. However,
the important work is to focus on the customer first. We must understand the customer
requirement in order to deliver value. If we lose the focus on value and forget what is
meaningful to the customer, even though we eliminate waste, we can still go out of
business.

We can still deliver value with a lot of waste in the process, but it will cost much more to
deliver. If you do not deliver value, everything you do is waste.

For a Lean effort to be effective, you must focus on defining value and eliminating waste in
everything you do such as reduction in the amount of transport, elimination of excess
stores of inventory and wasteful employee motion.

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The Voice of the Customer

Needs of the Customer

Determining the needs of the customer is a fundamental requirement for Six Sigma. In order to
meet their needs, first we must understand the customer requirement. Needs of the customer are
the most basic problems that customers are trying to solve. In order to satisfy the needs of the
customer, we may eliminate waste or redesign the process once we understand the requirement.
It may include the following examples:

• People get hungry, so they need a place to eat
• When people travel, they need shelter
• Companies need electronic document storage
• Companies/people need Internet access
• In healthcare, patients need blood transfusions
• Clients need to save for their retirement
• Clients need mortgages

The needs of the customer could be problems within their process or requirements in order to
produce the product or service such as the following:

• New problems are introduced
• External pressures are now surfacing
• New competition is entering the market
• Customers’ awareness and understanding of products, markets, or competitors have just

changed
• New needs have been introduced

Requirements

Requirements could be presented as features, characteristics, or needs that customers define in
order to produce products and services.

Requirements can be identified as a result of product specifications, service guidelines, hours of
operation, machine limitations, number of employees, and the number of shifts. There may be
constant updates to the product or service based on changing needs so products and processes
will also need to change in order to meet those customer expectations.

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Examples of Needs vs. Requirements
Here are some examples that highlight the differences between needs and requirements:

• Need: People need to eat
• Requirement: Person wants a fresh salad with fruit and without nuts

• Need: Company needs to purchase and install electronic document storage
• Requirement: Company needs three terabytes of storage and automatic backup

• Need: Patient needs a blood transfusion
• Requirement: A+ blood delivered in sterile conditions with anxiety management

to combat nervousness

Obtaining the Voice of the Customer
If either a need or a requirement, here are five common techniques for obtaining the voice of the
customer, each with their own pros and cons.

1. Interviews and Focus Groups

Interviews or focus groups require an assigned company representative to ask prescribed
questions to current or potential customers. The answer is important, and documentation
of all details discussed is critical. Here are a few pros and cons:

Pros:

• You’ll receive first-hand knowledge of nonverbal cues like body language and
tone

• Questions can be clarified
• Unfiltered responses will be received

Cons:

• Interviews are relatively expensive both in money and time
• Unable to reach, connect or interview all customers
• Requires a skilled interviewer; if your company does not have a skilled

interviewer, then you may have to subcontract it out
• Must watch for focus group motives; customers may not always answer truthfully,

or they may answer in ways that provide a personal advantage

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2. Surveys

Surveys are used to collect information by sending out a questionnaire to a large sample
of customers either paper or electronic. Here are a few pros and cons:

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Gain a lot of information relatively quickly
• Gain both quantitative and qualitative data

Cons:

• Results are not verifiable
• Response rates are relatively low
• Responses may not be representative of a random sample

3. Market Research

Market research uses a company’s internal data as well as industry data to understand
products, customer needs, services, and competitor information.

Often third parties will provide market research solutions because their specialty is
complex data analysis.

Examples of inputs into market research:

• The market demographics of an area
• Customer specifications of similar products
• The margins of your competition compared to your company
• Customer service index, or CSI

Examples of outputs of market research:

• Sales forecasts
• Sensitivity analysis that show how much a particular feature of a product or

service relates to sales or profitability
• Advertising budget

Pros:

• Large amounts of quantitative data
• Gain industry data that may not be accessible to your company

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Cons:

• Very expensive

• Usually requires third-party consultants to do the analysis who may not

understand your firm

4. Customer Complaints

Customer complaints use customer dissatisfaction data to determine common problems
customers face with a product or service; they gather this data from sources such as:

• Returned product information
• Customer letters
• Customer phone calls

Companies may have customer management systems that are used to collect and track
customer complaints; however, this information may not be current or may not always be
captured or completed.

Pro:

• Gain very specific feedback on needs and requirements that are not met

Cons:

• Reactive: you must wait until there is a problem before understanding the data
• Difficult to manage, document, track and analyze

5. Observations

Going to the Gemba or the place where the work is taking place can be valuable.
Observations provide the most unfiltered and valuable data regarding customer needs and
requirements.

Pros:

• Observing problems that customers may not recognize as problems
• Unfiltered data
• Observe nonverbal cues

Cons:
• Very expensive

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• Takes a lot of time
• Must schedule time with the operators in advance

Example of data observations
When implementing a new electronic storage software for videos, an employee was asked how
she liked the new software. She said she loved it, and it was easy to use. When the interviewer
observed the worker using the software, it was discovered that she was only using a portion of
the software’s capabilities. She expressed to the interviewers that parts of the software took too
long to work through the prompts.

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Voice of the Customer – Data Observation

Introduction

This lecture will discuss the roles that data analysis and observation
play in Lean and in Six Sigma. It will also explain why both are
ultimately needed.

Data Collection and Analysis vs. Observation

Data collection and analysis can be done from a distance. The benefit
of data analysis is that someone sitting at a computer thousands of
miles away from where these data were originally generated can
complete this work.

Observation requires a representative to witness the process. With
today’s technology, we can observe the process from a distance with
Skype or other technologies.

Data Observation and Lean

Lean tools and techniques are focused on observation. This means
we will go to the place where the work is happening and ask
questions that will clarify the process. This is a Lean concept, which
suggests that nobody should say how to change a process until they
have observed it long enough to truly understand it.

Valuable data can be collected while observing. This data tend to be
somewhat biased because the observer and the collector are the
same and are focused on one process. However, it is not without

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value. Observation also increases interactions with value-adding
employees.

Data Analysis and Six Sigma

Six Sigma tools and techniques that focus on data analysis include:

• Statistically valid surveys
• Statistical techniques to analyze
• Observation to detect variation in the process

Whereas Lean observes to eliminate waste, Six Sigma is more
focused on analysis and elimination of variation in data.

Integrating Systems

Both systems are needed and serve as a matter of importance.

The process of observation illustrates the following:

• Variation within the method or process may not show up
immediately in the data

• Interactions with the people that contribute value or provide
non-value activities in the Gemba

• The rationale to eliminate waste and create flow

Data analysis (statistical techniques) provide the following:

• Reveals any variation in data that may not be observable with
the eye

• Provides a scientific way to analyze and drive out variation
• Helps to reduce common cause variation

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Observation in the area of focus will assist the team identify
and eliminate assignable cause variation by firsthand data
analysis. Observation of the process assists to drive out
common cause variation and make overall distribution more
narrow.

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Voice of the Customer – Identifying Value

Introduction

In this session, we will look at value, as it is defined by Lean Six Sigma. We
discussed value by ensuring the following criteria have been met:

1. The form or function of a product or process is changed if necessary
2. It should be right the first time
3. We should know for certain what the customer is and is not willing to pay

for

Value must be identified at every level of the process from the largest
organizational function to the smallest activity on the front lines. Where is the
value and where is the waste?

Ask the Right Questions

In order to assess value, the following questions must be asked:

• Where is the value in a particular step of a given procedure?
• When is machinery being used? What are the parameters?
• When are data being entered?
• When are services being delivered?

Value is identified as steps in the process:

• Is there value in the beginning steps of the process?
• Is there value in the middle of the process?
• Where is the value at the end of the process?

We will also look for value at the organizational level. Does this process
generate value for the customer or are there entire processes that do not
generate any value? You must also be sure to think about separating true
value-add from non-value add. What is the impact on the customer based on
our three criteria?

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Critical to Quality Characteristics (CTQ)

Once we define value, we can verify Critical to Quality (CTQ) characteristics.

CTQ are measurable characteristics defined by the customer. Once we
understand customer requirements, we can then put processes in place to satisfy
each one of those requirements. We will collect data and monitor metrics linked
to each requirement that will ensure the process is consistently operating as
intended.

In order to define CTQ the following questions must be clarified:

1. What are the customer requirements?
2. What processes do we put in place to ensure each customer requirement is

being met?
3. What metrics will we collect to verify each of the processes are working as

intended?

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Types of Waste

Introduction
When discussing waste for lean six sigma, there are 3 (three) categories of
relevant activities or process steps. These categories are:

• Value-added
• Non-value-added but required
• Non-value-added

For a process step or activity to be differentiated as value-added,
the following three criteria must be met:

• There must be a change in the form or function of the product or
service

• The customer must be willing to pay for it
• It must be done right the first time

The criterium, “the customer must be willing to pay for it”, refers to the
value added to the product or service and the customer’s willingness to pay
the cost associated with the process steps and/or activities needed to
create the product, service, or any portion of these.

Non-Value-Added but Required
Activities that are non-value-added but required do not meet all three
criteria for being value-added and are required by our customer or our
industry.

If the process, step, or activity is not value-added, it is either non-value
added but required or non-value added.

Examples of non-value-added requirements

• Inspections where the customer requires inspection reports
• Regulatory registration, audits and compliance in regulated industries

o Food and drug administration (fda)

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o Federal aviation administration (faa)
• Third party certifications (iso)

If a process step or activity is not value added but necessary, it is categorized
as non-value added. non-value steps or activities are called pure waste, or
muda in japanese.

Japanese classify 3 types of waste:

• Muda = futility; uselessness; wastefulness
• Muri = unreasonableness; impossible; beyond one’s power; too

difficult. By force; perforce; forcibly; compulsorily; excessiveness.

immoderation

• Mura = unevenness; irregularity; lack of uniformity; nonuniformity;
inequality

We will focus on pure waste, or muda. Waste can run between 20 and 40%
of revenues in a typical organization. we use the acronym downtime to remind
us of the 8 forms of waste. They are:

DEFECTS

OVERPRODUCTION

WAITING

NON-UTILIZED
TALENT

TRANSPORTATION

INVENTORY

MOTION

EXTRA
PROCESSING

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We will examine the eight forms of waste in detail during
upcoming sessions.

Please remember that some forms of waste are more applicable
to manufacturing, while others apply equally well to service environments.

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Defects

Introduction
It is now time to discuss the “D” in “DOWNTIME” – “defects.” This is the
first type of waste. Defects are the most detrimental form of waste.
Many of these defects are as a result of overproduction.

What Is a Defect?
In lean, we define defects based on customer needs and requirements.
Any product that does not have characteristics that the
customer requested or doesn’t function in the intended manner is a
defect. Any service that’s not provided in the manner or timeliness
expected by the customer is a defect.

Defects are defined by the customer. The customer can be internal or
external. An internal customer is inside your organization and the
external customer is the ultimate customer who pays for the goods or
services. if it needs to be done or touched again, it was defective. That
includes anything from making a minor adjustment to complete
scrapping and reproducing a product or service.

Remember one of the criteria in the value definition is “done right the
first time.”

There can be defects in the:

• characteristics that the customer requested
• Size of product
• Weight of product

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• Color of product
• intended function of the product

Any service that is not provided in the manner or timeliness expected
by the customer is defective. A simple rule to remember is, if a product
needs to be done or touched again, it was defective.

Defects are the most costly form of waste. If you must discard or redo a
product or service, there are several associated costs including:

• The cost of raw materials
• The cost of labor to produce the product or provide the service
• Customers may be lost because they are tired of waiting for

their order stuck in the scheduling queue

Labor to Produce
The costs to produce defects have been expended with no resulting
customer revenue. it costs just as much to make a defect as it costs
to produce something good. Instead of making a defect, which
we can’t sell, we could have used the time to make something good
that we could then realize revenues and profit.

Employees are paid to do a job, and this means to produce. If no
production occurs, waste in time and money will occur. This particularly
applies to services. Often 75 percent of a company’s costs can be
Labor. Time for people to do work is expensive, especially if they do not
achieve a product or service that can be used for these expenses.

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Hidden Costs
Think about some of the hidden costs in defects. A good example of this
would be one’s electricity or computer systems.

Opportunity Costs
Think about lost opportunity costs. While you are rebuilding a product
or redoing a service for the first customer, there is often a second
customer waiting for you. And they are waiting because you are still
Serving the first customer.

Causes of Defects
Some typical causes of defects include:

• Processes incapable of meeting customer expectations
• Variation in work processes
• Poor training or no training
• Poorly maintained facilities
• Compromised quality at the expense of speed

Conclusion

In lean, we spend a lot of effort trying to do things faster in order to
reduce costs. However, there is a caution needed here. Have we gained
anything if as a result of increased speed, we produce defects? We may

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increase speed but as a result we may end up with defects and
increased, not decreased, costs.

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Overproduction

Introduction
The “o” in the acronym “DOWNTIME” stands for “overproduction.”
Waste, in this case, is making more than what’s needed, making
things sooner than they are needed, or making things faster than they
are needed. Of course, overproduction applies to services as well as
manufacturing.

We discussed defects as one of the most costly forms of waste.
Some waste, however, leads to other forms of waste and
overproduction fits in this category. As a result, it is considered by many
to be the “greatest” of all wastes.

For example:

• Overproduction can lead to more defects if there are quality
issues

• Overproduction results in increased inventory
• Overproduction results in waiting before the next order can be

processed

Causes
the phrase “just in case” is often used to justify overproduction. “just in
case” of what?

• “just in case” we have quality problems
• “just in case” we have scrap

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• “just in case” we have unplanned downtime
• And the list of “just in case” goes on

Costs
The costs associated with overproduction include:

• Labor costs to make more than needed
• Transporting, storing, and retrieving excess material
• Carrying costs of inventory

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Waiting

Introduction
The “w” in the acronym “DOWNTIME” stands for “waiting.” the waste
of waiting is idle time where no value-added activities occur.

We experience waiting in manufacturing and in service environments,
where it may even be more common. waiting has major cost impacts
and other negative implications, including:

• lost sales
• customer dissatisfaction
• low employee morale
• increased inventory

Causes

• Unreliable equipment

o Mechanical failures
o Poor maintenance
o Employee training

• Uneven workloads across process steps
o Imbalance of tasks from one process step to the next. If one

process step takes 5 minutes and the next takes 2 minutes,
the second process step will need to wait 3 minutes.

• Batch processing is when large quantities of work are all
processed together

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o Downstream process steps must be supplied in batches from
upstream process steps. They need to wait until the batch is
ready.

o What happens if a quality issue is discovered downstream?
Everyone must wait until the quality issue has been resolved
in the system and the system is refilled.

Conclusion
This course, you will learn about lean tools such as total productive
maintenance (tpm), standard work, and one-piece flow that will
help you to minimize the waste caused by waiting.

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Non-Utilized Talent

Introduction
We are now at the “N” in our acronym, “DOWNTIME.” It stands
for “non-utilized talent.” Non-utilized talent is when highly skilled
workers perform low-scale work. Originally, there were only seven
forms of waste; non-utilized talent was added recently as the
eighth waste.

Cost
A major cost to the organization from non-utilized talent includes
unmotivated employees, resulting in increased turnover

• It often costs 33% of an employee’s salary to replace them. On
average, this costs $15,000 per employee replaced.

• Additionally, you may have to use overtime to cover for
employees who leave while they are being replaced, which can
take months.

• Another cost from non-utilized talent is not taking advantage of
employees’ expertise, knowledge and experience to improve
the organization.

Causes
Waste from non-utilized talent can be caused by:

• Convenience – we use available people for low level tasks
not considering their higher skill level

• Poor personnel scheduling

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• Poor human resource policies and practices
• Poor leadership

Types of Waste
Non-utilized talent consists of:

• Employees working below their knowledge, experience and
skill level

• Not soliciting input from the employees who know the most
about the process

Conclusion
Having employees involved in lean activities can lessen the
waste caused by non-utilized talent.

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Transportation

Introduction
The “T” in the acronym “DOWNTIME” stands for “Transportation.”
Transportation waste results from excess movement of product
or information from place to place.

It is a related, but slightly different waste from motion. Motion waste is
when we, as employees or associates, are moving to get to the place
where value is added. In this instance, waste is in how we conduct the
movement, i.e. straightforward and with as little unnecessary
movement as possible.

To remove transportation waste, ask the question:

• Why are the value-added steps not consecutive?
o By removing the transportation step, would the process go

directly to the next value-added operation?

Cost
What are the costs associated with transportation waste?

• All the equipment and infrastructure needed to move product
and information around

• The cost of maintaining the equipment and infrastructure
• The space needed to store the equipment
• The labor associated with the transportation waste

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Causes

Some causes of transportation waste are:

• Poor facility layout
• Overproduction
• Excessive inventory

Conclusion
Later in this course, you will learn about cellular design or
cellular layout to address poor facility layout. We already discussed
overproduction and will focus on inventory waste in the next session.

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Inventory

Introduction
In the acronym “downtime” the “i” stands for “inventory.” inventory
waste is the storage of more information, or more material than is
needed in order to satisfy customer demand.

Inventory is materials awaiting further processing or consumption; as a
result, it’s often overlooked as a waste. Inventory is also the money the
system has invested in purchasing things it intends to sell.

Cost
What costs are a result of inventory waste?

• Inventory carrying costs can be as high as 25% of the value of the
inventory annually

• Obsolescence of inventory
• The cost of maintaining the equipment and infrastructure to

transport inventory
• The space needed to store the inventory
• The labor associated with the transporting of inventory

Causes
Some causes of inventory waste are:
• Overproduction
• Batch processing

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Conclusion
In module 5, flow and pull, you will learn about an alternative to batch
processing called pull, or one-piece flow. This processing method
will greatly reduce inventory. As you know, this is beneficial in that
overproduction has negative effects on inventory.

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Motion

Introduction
“m” stands for “motion” in the acronym “downtime.” Motion waste is
“death by a thousand cuts.” It is small movements that don’t add value
– “-ing” words such as reaching, stepping, bending, grasping, looking,
walking, etc. We waste time every day with these simple little motions.

Motion vs. Transportation
Motion and transportation wastes are similar. What is the difference?

• Motion: small movements within a work area with the intent to
add value to the product
o Small routine people movements within a work area in the

course of doing a job

• Transportation: large movements with the intent of relocating
materials or reaching another destination
o Encompasses large movements with the intent of

relocating materials or people reaching another destination

Cost
What costs result from excessive motion?

• Wasted time. Even a few, seemingly insignificant, seconds here
and there multiplied by the number of employees adds up to big
dollars over the course of a day, a week, a month or a year. Five
seconds an hour of wasted motion for ten employees equates to

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867 hours per year. Wasted time can amount to 25% of an
employee’s time.

• Excessive motion can result in repetitive motion injuries such as
sprains, stress injuries, and even carpal tunnel injuries, which are
caused by repeated movements that overextend your wrist. The
costs of these injuries include medical treatment, worker’s
compensation claims, and overtime to replace the injured
employee.

Causes
Some causes of excessive motion include:

• Poor workplace layout that requires excessive walking, reaching
and bending to do the work. Ideally, we want things to be at arm’s
length and at the person’s height to avoid walking, reaching, or
bending.

• Centrally located materials and supplies that people need to go
get or go use. How far to you need to go to retrieve
materials from a central printer?

• poorly organized electronic files. Do you spend a lot of time

searching for computer files or an email?

• Inefficient work methods with non-value added steps

Conclusion

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A good lean tool to analyze and eliminate the waste due to motion is a
spaghetti map, which you will learn about in module 5, flow and pull.

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Extra Processing
Introduction
The eighth and final form of waste is extra processing. It is the E In
the acronym DOWNTIME. Extra processing is anytime that we do more
than what was asked or paid for, when we repeat steps or do rework,
anytime we inspect or check or verify, or when we
duplicate information or effort.

We talked about inspection when we discussed non-value added
but required or necessary steps or activities. There are times
when inspection is required, but it does not meet the criteria for value
added; so, it is always considered waste due to extra processing.

A well-designed and validated process should be robust enough
to produce a product or service that yields acceptable results.
We should not need inspection to tell us that.

NOTE: Companies may have legacy processes, meaning designed and
developed years before customer requirements were established or
incorporated into the process, or regulatory requirements were
mandated. In order to avoid the cost of redesign and validation,
companies use testing to ensure compliance. Also, some companies
utilize in-line/in-place automated inspection and/or testing. And yes,
there are costs associated with these remedial actions. Generally, it
comes down to a cost/benefit analysis for the business. However, when
new equipment is purchased or facilities are updated, there is an
opportunity to for removal of extra processing steps or activities.

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Cost
What costs are a result of extra processing?

Spending any time on something the customer is not willing to pay for
only increases our labor cost, and increasing our labor cost does not
allow us to charge more money. The customer is only paying us
to do it right the first time.

• Additional equipment and tools needed to measure, inspect, and
verify.

• Hiring more employees to do inspections.
o Quality Assurance departments.

• Costs associated with extra processing versus scrapping
noncompliant parts.
o Example: An organization spends dollars in order to save a

part that costs cents.
• Time spent looking for computer files that are not where they are

supposed to be or are not located in one easily accessible place.

Causes
Some causes of extra processing waste?

• Not understanding customer requirements.
• Process not capable of producing acceptable products or services.
• Process produces defects.
• Process has too much variation.
• Non-value-added process steps.

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• Deburring, or trimming.
o Sometimes there are entire departments associated with

deburring the parts.
o Why do we allow it to come off that equipment with a

defect on it?
• Rework

o How do we have time and effort to remake a part instead of
making it correctly the first time?

• Excess or duplicate information on computers and in-service
organizations
o Makes it difficult to locate items.
o People might be working on a document simultaneously if it

is saved in multiple places.

Conclusion
Now that we have described the eight forms of waste and the
costs associated with each, you can easily see how the cost of waste
can account for 20 to 40% of revenues in our organizations. It adds up
quickly.

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Compound Waste and Repurposed Waste

Introduction
Forms of waste do not always operate singularly. One form of
waste can result in one or more other forms of waste. So, I not only
have the primary waste, but I also have secondary forms of waste. We
call this compound waste.

Two of the common examples of compound waste are
overproduction and transportation waste.

Overproduction
Compound waste

• Inventory: The material that was overproduced needs to be
stored.

• Defects: If the process produces defects, they are in the
overproduction.

• Transportation: The material will need to be moved at least once
– and probably more than once.

• Waiting: Customer is waiting for their order in the scheduling
queue.

Costs associated with overproduction and compound waste:

• Material in inventory may become lost or obsolete.
• Inventory carrying costs.
• Material can be damaged during transportation.

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• Lost opportunity cost. Could have made something that could
have been sold now.

• Labor for producing unneeded goods or services and transporting
them.

Transportation
Compound waste

• Defects: Material could be damaged during transportation.
• Waiting: Someone is probably waiting for it to be moved.

Costs associated with transportation and compound waste
• Labor and equipment for transportation.
• Someone could get injured during transportation.
• Material could get lost.
• Time wasted due to waiting.

Repurposed Waste
• Sometimes, what starts out as waste can be repurposed into

something useful.
• It can possibly be reworked, downgraded, or discounted.
• Remember, though, if it was reworked, we put additional

expense into it.
• We can possibly recover some value from the material, but

our revenue will be lower; and our costs will be higher so our
profits margin will be lower.

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• It may be better than throwing the material away, but it is hardly
a strategy for success. It is far better to use Lean tools to help us
not to produce the waste in the first place.

Is Waste the Customer Will Pay for Value-Added?
So, some people will ask, “What if the customer is willing to pay for it?”
“It” refers to overproduction, waiting, transportation, inventory, extra
processing, or any steps or activities meeting the definition of WASTE.

Well, what is the definition of value-added?

• We are physically changing the process object, or, in the case of a
service, we are adding the ability or the value that I am going to
deliver in the service.

• I am doing it right the first time.
• The customer is willing to pay for it.

The fact that the customer is willing to pay for it alone does not make it
value-added. It must meet all three criteria.

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Going to Gemba

Gemba Definition
As you study lean six sigma, you will learn the value of going to gemba. As a lean practitioner or
lean sensei, much of the impact you have will be the result of going to gemba to study and
understand how a process works, as well as what the improvement opportunities are. So let’s
start by defining gemba.

• According to lean production simplified, gemba is:
• The real place or the specific place.
• The shop floor and other areas where work is done.

Lean lexicon (source is lean enterprise institute) adds: “the term often is used to stress that real
improvement requires a shop-floor focus based on direct observation of current conditions
where work is done. For example, standardized work for a machine operator cannot be written
at a desk in the engineering office, but must be defined and revised on the gemba.”

Linking Gemba and the 8 Wastes

The 8 wastes are foundational to the lean body of knowledge. Having a strong understanding
of the 8 wastes is also critical to being objective and constructive when observing and studying
processes in the gemba. As a refresher, the 8 wastes are:

• Defects
• Over-production
• Waiting
• Non-utilized human talent
• Transportation
• Inventory
• Motion
• Extra-processing

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Seeing the 8 wastes is a “learned skill” that must be kept sharp. There is no better place to
observe and study the wastes than in gemba. Once you see the waste, you can begin to see
improvement opportunity.

Setting the Tone

Going to gemba is important in any company and in any industry, whether at the beginning or
at a very mature and advanced stage of lean. However, going to gemba is especially valuable
for companies that have begun their lean journeys and have gained initial momentum and
successes. They likely have pockets of application and some advocates, but naysayers may
outnumber supporters, while lofty expectations for rapid returns drive unpredictable behavior.
“hooray!” To these companies, but now comes the hard work to make the significant and
lasting impact through lean.

One way to get traction is to demonstrate a deep understanding of lean by example. People in
superior positions can exercise leverage across and through their organizations. The questions
these people ask will set the tone for the pace and sincerity of their lean implementations.

Their questions do set the tone. Two techniques to help set the tone and make your gemba
walks most productive are:

• Muda walk
• Walkabout sheet

Muda Walk
The muda walk is a structured way to go to gemba with a purpose. That purpose is to
specifically see the 8 wastes. This can be done formally as part of a kaizen event (combine
learning and current state data gathering), as an exercise in a problem-solving team, or
informally where you grab your boss, or peers, or some other interested party to go to gemba
to observe and study the 8 wastes.

It is best to use a muda walk form for data collection and to provide structure and focus. The
muda walk form is simply a regular 8 ½” x 11” piece of paper with three columns and eight

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rows. In column 1, you should list the 8 wastes (one per row). Column 2 is space to record at
least two examples of the waste in the row. Column 3 is space to identify the impact that the
waste in that row will have on the operations or process. A good lean practitioner will always
have blank muda walk forms ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Conduct the muda walk in small break-out groups of approximately three people. Provide
approximately 30 minutes so the break-out groups can explore and observe deeply. Encourage
the people to discuss what they are seeing but be sure they record what they see on the muda
walk form.

Here are some tips to make the muda walk experience constructive. Be sure to be non-
judgmental and non-blaming. This is not about finding who messed up. Rather it is about
understanding processes and work. Another tip is to be sensitive to the people who may be
working in the process you are observing. May be a good idea to introduce yourself and explain
that you are on a muda walk. Tip #3 is to be patient enough to stand in one place and really
observe. That is very hard for most of us!

Finally, have a debrief session with the muda walk teams. Let them share with the larger group.
If this is done as part of a formal kaizen event or problem-solving project, then the muda walk
effectively serves as part of the current state documentation.

Walkabout Sheet
One technique to set tone is a core set of questions that are appropriate for the level or
function. These questions can demonstrate willingness to learn, openness for facts, curiosity,
and commitment. Each is essential to making the most of going to gemba.

Armed with core set of questions, the person going on the gemba walk (particularly leaders)
can establish expectations and demonstrate consistency of purpose. This will break down
barriers, weaken influence of the anchor-draggers, and reinforce behavior of people who are on
board with the lean journey.

People going on gemba walks should have a purpose and know what they are looking for.
Management, in particular, can enhance its credibility by having structure in the gemba walk.
The “walkabout sheet” provides an example of structure. Eight to ten relevant questions are a
good starting point.

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Example questions for a plant manager might include:

1. What are highlights on the production control board? How is the cell performing?
2. Are upstream and downstream operations in sync with cell?
3. Do visual controls indicate priorities, what is being worked on, how operation should be

performed, where materials/tools should be located, etc.?
4. What was the actionable outcome of daily sunrise meeting in cell today?
5. Is cell properly staffed according to takt time and cycle time?

Example questions for a process engineer or technician might include:

1. What can i do to help you (the operator)?
2. Am i seeing the whole process instead of just components of the process?
3. How can i help the front-line employees to understand va and nva?
4. Where are the constraints, as demonstrated by takt time / cycle time chart?
5. Can i do your job for the next hour so i can better understand the details of this

operation?

As regards the walkabout sheet, the following observations help in understanding why the
walkabout sheet might be a good idea:

• Questions set the tone.
• If you and leadership do not set the tone, then somebody/something else will.
• You’ll be surprised what you learn when you ask the questions.

• Module 3 Topic 1 Defining ValueRD SSG110_Supplemental Defining Value Module 3.1

Defining Value Topic

• Module 3 Topic 2 Voice of the CustomerRD SSG110_Supplemental Module 3.2 Voice of the Customer
• Module 3 Topic 3 Data Observation RD SSG110_Supplemental Module 3. 3 Data Observation (VOC)
• Module 3 Topic 4 Identifying Value RD SSG110_Supplemental Module 3. 4 Voice of the Customer-Identifying Value
• MODULE 3 TOPIC 5 TYPES OF WASTE

Types of Waste
Introduction
Non-Value-Added but Required

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 6 DEFECTS

Defects
Introduction

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 7 OVERPRODUCTION

Overproduction
Introduction

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 8 WAITING

Waiting
Introduction

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 9 NON UTILIZED TALENT

Non-Utilized Talent
Introduction
Cost
Causes
Types of Waste
Conclusion

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 10 TRANSPORTATION

Transportation
Introduction
Cost
Causes
Conclusion

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 11 INVENTORY

Inventory
Introduction

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 12 MOTION

Motion
Introduction

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 13 EXTRA PROCESSING

Introduction
Cost
Conclusion

• MODULE 3 TOPIC# 14 COMPOUND_REPURPOSED WASTE

Compound Waste and Repurposed Waste
Introduction
Overproduction
Is Waste the Customer Will Pay for Value-Added?

• Module 3 Topic 15 Going to Gemba