How to learn, and forget, Japanese in two minutes.

When I first started learning about Lean process improvement, I heard all these new, Japanese words for various things:  Poka Yoke, Kaizen, Gemba, Kanban.  If you’re undertaking any sort of continuous improvement journey, you’re bound to stumble into some of these terms. 

I hope you’ll allow me to give you some guidance:

Gemba: “The real place”. Where the work is done.  Even more specifically, for our purposes, where the value is added. This is the EMS scene.  The Dispatch center.  The training room/classroom.  “Go to the gemba” if you want to understand what your people are actually doing.

Kaizen: From the Japanese characters for change and for goodness—a change for the good.  The idea is continuous change (for the good).  We should see opportunities for improvement all around us.  Small or large. It might be setting up an Outlook rule, meal prepping, or putting a piece of tape on the floor where the trash can goes so it doesn’t wander across the bay.

Kanban: From signboard, it’s a method of communicating the status or workflow of a thing.  Often, it can be used to help your inventory system: put a card at your lowest desired inventory level for an item; when you get to the card, reorder the item.  Your supply bin system is a form of Kanban—the first empty bin is the sign to reorder, while the second bin now becomes the primary one, ensuring first in=first out.

Poka Yoke: Error-proofing.  How can you make it so you can’t do it incorrectly?  A polarized outlet plug can’t be reversed.  A USB plug can only go in one way (though, it usually takes three tries).  In EMS, can you set up the drug box such that the right needles are used with the right vials?  An airway mat with shadows/images so all the tools can be gathered before a high-stakes intervention is attempted?

Muda: Waste. A Waste is anything that doesn’t add value.  Waiting, transportation, defects, inventory… classically, there are seven Wastes but an eight, the waste of human potential, was added.  When we have systems that allow our people to shine in their strengths, they bring untold levels of value.

5S: Workplace organization. Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Straighten), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), and Shitsuke (Sustain).  Think of it as Spring cleaning with intentionality.

There are plenty of others, and it’s ok to not know them.  The value is having open eyes and open minds to improvement.  At the root, the goal is improvement.  It’s the reduction of waste and variability.  So, by error-proofing something, you can eliminate or reduce a problem.  By sorting and organizing things, and sustaining them, you find problems more easily, reduce costs, and make people’s day easier.  The terminology for what you did is less important than what you did.

Continuous improvement is a mindset.  Corporately, it must start at the top.  Individually, however, is even more powerful; eliminating waste and friction in your day helps you bring your best self.  A better you is a happier you.  Who doesn’t want to be happier?

(Gemba is my favorite. Get out from behind the desk and your calendar and go to where the action is. And, go with the intention of learning. Don't fix. Learn. Ask. Connect.)