Gemba walks and kaizen results that stay on the line
You already know how to run a gemba walk and a kaizen event. The EZ-GO platform makes sure that what you see on the floor is recorded, and that what you improve becomes the standard for every shift.
Where gemba walks and kaizen get stuck on paper
Findings from a gemba walk end up in a notebook or on a paper form. Someone types them into Excel later, or nobody does. Every manager walks with his own questions, so you cannot compare one area with another, or this month with last month.
Kaizen events have a similar problem, but later. The workshop goes well, and the new way of working runs in the week of the event. Six weeks later, the night shift works the old way again, because the instruction at the line was never changed. Nobody checks whether the result still holds, until the problem is back.
How the EZ-GO platform supports each step of the PDCA cycle
Most kaizen work follows Plan, Do, Check, Act. The EZ-GO platform does not replace your workshop, your A3, or your team. It supports the steps before and after, where results are usually lost.
Example: a gemba walk in a food plant
- Plan. You plan a gemba walk focused on hygiene on packaging line 3.
- Do. During the walk, you see that operators do not always follow the cleaning procedure during product changeovers.
- Check. You look into the deviation and find that the cleaning instructions are outdated and hard to find.
- Act. You update the digital work instructions, retrain the operators, and add a follow-up check to the next gemba walk.
Plan: see the problem where it happens
In the EZ-GO platform, you first set the standard for an area, for example for layout or hygiene. Your gemba walk checklist for manufacturing then becomes an audit in the EZ-GO platform that checks the area against that standard. Each point gets a score from 1 to 5, and you can let the points that matter most count more heavily. Every walk gives an overall score, so you can compare areas with each other, and this month with last month.
Every manager walks with the same audit, so the result no longer depends on who walked. You can create separate walks for a theme, for example a safety, hygiene, or 5S walk.
The score is about the area and the standard, not about the person working there. That keeps the walk what it should be: a reason to talk with operators, not an inspection. During the walk, you record what you see as a comment or an action, with photos and tags, and notify the people involved. You plan walks by linking the audit to a task, for example a weekly walk for each department head.
Actions that operators report in the EZ-GO app also show you where problems come back. That helps you choose which process needs a kaizen event. Read more on the Continuous improvement page.
Do: agree on the new way of working
During the kaizen event, your team tests the change on the line. When the team agrees on the new way of working, you write it into the work instruction or checklist in the EZ-GO platform. The result of the event is then not a slide or a flip chart, but the instruction operators use at the line.
Check: let your next gemba walk check the result
Add the new standard as an audit point to your gemba walk. On every walk after the event, the score shows whether the change still holds, and you can give that point extra weight in the first months. Between walks, the checklists operators use in the EZ-GO app show whether the new way of working is followed. For each finding, the person who does the walk decides whether to record it as a comment or turn it into an action. A low score does not create an action automatically; that choice stays with the person on the floor. In the reports, you choose a specific gemba walk and see how often it was done, what the results were, where the biggest deviations were, and whether something was done about them.
Act: make it the standard for every shift
When the work instruction or checklist is updated, every shift sees the new way of working the next time they open the task. This is also the last step of an A3: securing the result in a standard or checklist. Read more about the lean A3 method. When the change works on one line, you can use the same instruction on other lines and sites. More on the Operational excellence page.
An audit for your walk, without turning it into an inspection
In the EZ-GO platform, a gemba walk uses the audit function, because that is where the standard and the scores are. The purpose is still different from a compliance audit. On a gemba walk, you go to see, ask, and listen, and the score helps you decide where to look next. Two habits help: tell the team in advance when and why you walk, so it does not feel like a check, and share what you saw with them afterwards. Read how to run a gemba walk in 8 steps. If you work with layered process audits or compliance audits, read the Audits and compliance page. If you want to connect your walk to the daily shift meeting at the line board, read Daily management.