Gemba, a Japanese term often spelled as Genba, means "the real place." Often Japanese police use this term to refer to a crime location, and TV reporters tell everyone that they are reporting from a live site or Gemba.
In terms of business, Gemba means a place where some value is created. The most widely recognized use of this term is in the manufacturing industry, where the assembly area is called the Gemba. Gemba can be a location, such as a construction site, the sales office in retail, or someplace the specialist talks with the client, such as a vehicle's showroom.
Here's everything you need to know about Gemba
What does Gemba Walk mean?
In layman's language, the general purpose of Gemba is that issues in a business facility or production line are often visible, and the best improvement comes from going to a 'real place,' where experts can see the condition of the process for themselves.
"Go see, inquire as to why, and show respect."
Leaders, directors, and managers should notice and comprehend the process throughout a Gemba Walk. As a component of the Kaizen technique, it is also expected to encourage communication, simplicity, and trust between lower-level workers and leaders. Thus, it isn't proper to use a Gemba walk to identify your workers' fault or working strategy – this stresses worker, and they end up setting up boundaries with their leaders or closing communication altogether.
Doing a Gemba Walk - Things to consider while doing a Gemba Walk.
So many organizations do a Gemba Walk to get direct information on strategic policies and form excellent associations with employees on the work floor. This walk is derived from a Japanese idea, and it expects administrators to walk around an office or manufacturing unit to keep a check on different work processes. It likewise offers directors the chance to get input directly from workers.
If you want to improve productivity at work, start doing a Gemba Walk consistently. This is the best practice for you to recognize a wide range of health-related issues and different areas of concern. You will want to avoid any accidents in the working environment by continually seeing how things work. This will help to ensure the security of workers; however, it will likewise ensure that the system works longer and won't need fixes or substitution.
There are a couple of things to watch for at whatever point you go out for a Gemba Walk. It would help if you went around with a plan so you don't miss anything important. What the Gemba Walk program contains may vary from one organization to another. Before doing a Gemba walk, you need to consider a few things:
It would help if you created a checklist of work, machinery, equipment, workplace, and more so that you don't miss anything while you are on a Gemba Walk.
It would help if you verified whether the work has all the information posted on a notice board so that everyone concerned with that notice can see it.
This information should be available for those who will be working on this. A checklist must be created to record the workers and the jobs that they are doing every day.
Likewise, you need to check the unexpected inconsistencies like someone not doing their job, someone trying to use the machinery carelessly, etc. While machinery is in use, care must be taken that someone is always watching the process. Never leave any machinery unattended, even if it is working independently and no human interference is needed.
It would be best if you watched out for everything that might disturb work progression.
A Gemba Walk gives you a chance to talk to your workers and tell them about the positives and negatives of a work. You can communicate with them in a friendly manner. Don't forget to ask them for updates or changes that can be made to make the work process more efficient. Once you start adopting this walk in your workplace, you will feel satisfied with the increased efficiency of your organization.
A Gemba Walk is an exceptionally result-oriented asset utilized by companies to get direct information on the working environment and workers.