Gemba

Gemba is a Japanese word with the English meaning "the actual place" or "the real place" where all activities are taking place. In other words, it is used to describe ”the place where value is added”; for example, a business set up or a manufacturing work shop, just to name a few.

The concept of using Gemba in conjunction with business management was first introduced by a Japanese author Masaaki Imai, in his book titled 'Gemba Kaizen'. In the book, Masaki recognises“the actual place” where all manufacturing or business activities take place as the most precious place for the management." He then went ahead to encourage managers to go to that place in order to find room for continuous improvement in all areas. One particular statement that stands out in his book is as quoted here: "The key is to be inquisitive. If I, as a manager, notice a leak in one of the machines I must be able to track down the problem. I must know that the leak is because of a gap, that the gap has been caused by the vibrating action of the machine. And that the vibration has caused two specific screws to loosen and cause the gap. The solution could be in tightening those two screws every morning before the machine is started.” According to Imai, doing this will ensure that the leak can easily be prevented each day and from time to time.

The illustration quoted from Gemba Kaizen above may not be an issue with a lot of business organisations but the idea behind it was mainly to convey the need for managers to actively participate in ensuring the smooth running of their organisation. For instance, a manager who sits up stairs in his office waiting for technicians to attend to a pending problem without going to take a look beforehand lacks a lot of managerial skills when compared to one who’s actively described as above.

The concept of Gemba has been proven to be quite effective over the years to the point that a number of companies, both big and small, look towards it as a managerial practice. For example, Toyota has a very high proportion of their management on the shop floor (the Gemba) so that supervisors can be intimately involved in quality issues as they arise. Their presence in the “actual work place” informs their decision making and speeds up problem solving, thereby increasing productivity. According to Masaki Imai, this Gemba attitude is driven by the belief that all customers’ values are created in the Gemba or “actual work place”. This simply means it is therefore the qualities of the Gemba which will determine the success of the company as time goes on.

From the above, it should be quite obvious by now how easy it is to implement Gemba into a management process within any organisation. However, in simple terms Gemba requires that management staff be present at the exact place where all production activities take place and not somewhere else. This way, they can directly monitor activities and work to eliminate any errors that may occur.