Gemba
Japanese term meaning "the actual place" / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Genba (現場, also romanized as gemba) is a Japanese term meaning "the actual place". Japanese detectives call the crime scene genba, and Japanese TV reporters may refer to themselves as reporting from genba. In business, genba refers to the place where value is created; in manufacturing, the genba is the factory floor. It can be any "site" such as a construction site, sales floor or where the service provider interacts directly with the customer.[1]
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In lean manufacturing, the idea of genba is that the problems are visible, and the best improvement ideas will come from going to the genba. The gemba walk, much like management by walking around (MBWA), is an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for ways and opportunities to practice genba kaizen, or practical shop floor improvement. An important difference with MBWA is that "gemba walks" are not done randomly, but with a clear goal and often frequency and structure.
Glenn Mazur[2] introduced this term into Quality Function Deployment (QFD, a quality system for new products where manufacturing has not begun) to mean the customer's place of business or lifestyle. The idea is that to be customer-driven, one must go to the customer's genba to understand his problems and opportunities, using all one's senses to gather and process data.