The 10 Steps to Better Shop Floor Management

GEMBA WALK
• Reference guide for managers and specialists
• For manufacturing and service operations
• Understand current reality in few minutes
• Review status and build trust with staff
• Save time by reducing emails and reports

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 Gemba Walk
• This document explains how to perform effective Gemba Walks, visiting the “actual place” where “things happen”
• Purpose is reviewing the status of work, availability of people, conditions of machines, performance of processes
• Benefits include understanding current reality, capturing information for better decisions, connecting with people

1. Define the Purpose

Define the reason why to go to Gemba, so it’s clear what to look for. Examples are opportunity discovery, waste identification,
maturity assessment, or root cause analysis with focus on a specific performance gap, customer complaint, process delay, product
failure, or non-compliance. The more specific the purpose, the more effective the Gemba Walk. Clearly define the “Why”!

2. Inform the Group

To make people feel comfortable and open to the upcoming interactions, explain how the Gemba Walk works, what is expected of
them, and how they will benefit from the outcome. For example: “We are walking the site to find obstacles in your daily work, so
we can improve our processes to eliminate double handling and waiting times. We will be asking many questions, not to find fault or
to blame anyone, but to understand why things happen. See you tomorrow between 8:00 and 10:00 at your workstation”.

3. Select Participants
Depending on the purpose and scope, a Gemba Walk is either performed by an individual or by a team. When assembling a team,
assign key participants (who must attend), while maintaining an open invitation to allow other people to join, learn, and contribute.
They may offer new perspectives, identifying issues and opportunities that their peers may have missed or gotten used to.

4. Walk the Value Stream

The guiding principles for the Gemba Walk are (a) “Go with the flow”, (b) “Form follows function”, (c) “Spot hot spots”. It means
walking the value chain in flow direction, covering all critical processes, teams, shifts, and locations. When performing a root cause
Flow
analysis, include all people and processes that might affect the problem in the investigation. Always involve people who know
those areas best, such as supervisors and lead operators, asking them for their input and verify that hot spots have been covered.

5. Focus on Process, Not on Behavior

The purpose is to observe, understand, and ultimately improve processes and systems. The Gemba Walk is not an employee
performance evaluation to find faults. But if someone is observed in making a mistake (wrong thinking) or error (wrong or missing
action), don’t blame or punish him or her. Be curious and go deeper to find the underlying causes. People do what they do (right or
wrong) for a reason. Find that reason by asking: “Why are you doing it this way?”, ”How do you know if it’s right?”

6. Document Observations
A typical Gemba Walk covers 10-20 processes x 10 observations each. That’s 100-200 observations that you will not remember,
unless you document them. Use a traditional notepad, or a phone or tablet. The latter offer note-taking apps with dictation feature
and voice-to-text conversion. Those apps allow inserting images and videos for effective follow-up. Final point: be considerate of
personal space and privacy rules; always explain the reason and ask for permission before taking any pictures or videos.

7. Ask to Understand, Don’t Assume • Supplier: Who is involved? Did you get what you need?
To truly understand and learn something new during the Gemba Walk, • Input: What materials and information are used?
it is important to have an open mind and reset your beliefs, so you are
• Process: What do you do, when, how? How do you know?
not assuming anything and not judging anyone. The SIPOC framework
provides a solid structure for asking questions during the Gemba Walk: • Output: What result are you getting? Is it good?
• Customer: Who needs the outcome? Customer satisfied?
8. Observe, Don’t Fix
The main purpose of the Gemba Walk is to learn, not to change anything yet. It is an opportunity for observation, not action. It
represents the “Planning” phase of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) improvement cycle and the “Measure” phase of the DMAIC
(Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) improvement process. After discussing findings with stakeholders, only then decide on
next steps, which is the “Do” phase of PDCA and “Improve” phase of DMAIC.

9. Communicate Next Steps

After the Gemba Walk, share learnings and communicate the next steps, which represents the planning part (“Plan”) of the PDCA
cycle (“Plan-Do-Check-Act”). Complete the cycle by doing something new or different (“Do”), validating its impact (“Check”), and
embedding improvements (“Act”), creating real value from the Gemba Walk. By closing the PDCA management loop, people see
that their voices count, and things change to the better when they are getting involved and provide useful answers.

10. Return and Repeat

Going to Gemba not only helps managers and teams to solve problems and make better decisions, but also to observe those
changes in action and verify that they are delivering desired results. Do it daily! Because by walking the floor, reviewing status of
work, availability of people, conditions of machines, and performance of processes – it helps you recognizing abnormalities early,
before they grow into larger problems, ultimately saving time in problem solving and performance management.

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