Customer Success
Gemba Academy is here to help you remove the struggle from Continuous Improvement learning. Our success is measured 1:1 with our customers success.
Is Lean and Six Sigma just for Manufacturing?
Not at all. We have developed industry agnostic training, but some of our industry guides can help you along your way.
What is your industry?
Agribusiness - Education - Financial Services - Government - Healthcare - Manufacturing - Non Profit
Where do I start?
Our best practices blog series is a fantastic primer on how to begin your Gemba Academy journey! A downloadable version is also available.
In addition, you may contact us anytime for virtual consulting.
How do other customers implement training?
As you might imagine, this question has many possible answers as each organization’s unique continuous improvement goals, needs, and current knowledge base vary greatly. Though there are many possible solutions, we wanted to pare this down to a few actionable strategies, and share some of our best customers’ best practices with you.
One of our largest customers, an auto parts manufacturer, leverages their company intranet’s Continuous Improvement page to easily link Gemba Academy training for their employees. They utilize a co-branded page from Gemba Academy that serves as a single access portal for all of their employees worldwide.
By making training easily available online and creating a dedicated place to find content, this company has been able to get their employees speaking a consistent language of lean and are now working to build a Six Sigma program. Other companies also build courses in their Learning Management System (LMS), which allows them to serve up content in context with other tools they may have developed internally. Gemba Academy is LMS-agnostic and can work with any system, enabling companies to pair Gemba Academy content with the training and tracking tools they’ve invested in and have already implemented.
Many companies combine online "pre-work" with on-site training and reinforcement through activity-based learning. A large facilities management company takes ownership of their CI training by hosting regular meetings to watch key Gemba Academy videos in conjunction with key internal training initiatives. By planning a training schedule, they are able to maximize independent study time as well as group training sessions. Armed with laptops and break out space, some companies also divide their associates into groups to review videos and then reconvene as a group for an improvement activity.
Organizations ranging from those in government to healthcare to manufacturing, net very effective results with a hybrid or “flipped” learning model. Using this approach, trainees are responsible for reviewing content on their own prior to pre-scheduled weekly, monthly, or quarterly team meetings. Not unlike a traditional course, a “syllabus” of topics to be covered is provided to each trainee for self-study prior to the team meeting. During the team meeting, a portion of time is dedicated to discussing Gemba Academy videos and their impact on daily work, as well as ideas to test, apply, and implement what they’ve learned.
Many groups use Gemba Academy’s Excel templates for specific post-meeting applications, such as red tagging or Kaizen events. Also, the flipped model is used to actively check for knowledge retention and ensure that the learning sticks. Many companies print out Gemba Academy’s PDF quizzes, take the quiz as a group, and use this as a learning opportunity to discuss and dispel misconceptions. This topic-focused discussion helps to reinforce understanding as well as identify immediate real-world application of Lean and Six Sigma concepts and tools.
Customer Success Stories
Testimonials
Our partnership with Gemba Academy has been critical in helping advance Lean Six Sigma at Amway. The video library compliments our existing training programs and helps deepen continuous improvement mastery not only within our Green Belt/Black Belt community but other employees who are expanding their process improvement capabilities.
Executive Director, Enterprise Excellence
Amway
We have a School of Lean license for Johnson & Johnson Medical and have been conducting some internal classroom courses for our people in our head office. We love your material on the Gemba site and it has helped make a big difference to the way we approach our work processes in this company.
Regional Director, Customer & Logistics Services
Johnson & Johnson
We value the content that Gemba Academy provides. I have found the monthly newsletter very valuable as you make mention of the new videos and posts to the site. Gemba Academy is just one more resource for people to review and/or learn about concepts without the expense of traveling off site or spending hours in a training session.
Lockheed Martin Corporation
We use the videos daily throughout the facility. Our journey is starting to be successful.
Chief Executive Officer
Fireblast Global
We are about to graduate our first class of green belts. Unanimous thumbs up to the course by the class of six. I personally enjoyed leading the project and look forward to growing in class size as the word spreads throughout the organization. It's very rewarding when managers thank you for opening their eyes to a new way of problem solving.
The Gemba Academy program is easy to use, very informative, and challenging. Thank you for providing this service.
Director, Continuous Improvement
Storeroom Solutions, Inc.
With the help of Gemba Academy’s training videos and quizzes, Elbit Systems of America will be able to formally train all of our employees on the different lean principles and have proof of understanding from the instant results of the online quizzes which can be printed out and filed. Gemba Academy also gives us a way to create lean “champions” for those individuals who take and pass all courses and modules.
Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO) Manager
Elbit Systems of America
I continue to be impressed with your company. I have found the way you run your business to be consistent with Lean principles. You give your customers high quality, deliver quickly, and keep your costs down. As a customer my experience has been great!
Brockway
The Gemba Academy workshops are going extremely well and we’re seeing a great improvement very early, which is a good sign.
Managing Director
Drurys Engineering Ltd
United Kingdom
Leading Continuous Improvement Projects is a key area of my job. The courses Gemba Academy offers have by themselves provided me with the tools and practical framework for my day-to-day work as I establish Kaizen in an industry that knows not what it is like to be competitive by eliminating waste.
Bombolulu, Kenya
Everything has been going great so far! The videos are wonderful - clear and concise. I especially enjoy the 5S modules with the bookcase going through the process along the way. I love what I see so far. It’s a valuable addition to my Lean toolbox. Thanks!
Development Facilitator
Pearson
I have to say I was completely blown away by what you guys are doing. There is very little information about quality-related topics other than brief overviews available on the Internet. Not only do you guys go into more detail, you do it visually which really helps explain the concepts. Keep up the good work!
Consumer Products Manufacturing
Our team watched the 5S videos and everyone was right on task. The Gemba Academy videos supplemented our red tagging process and were just the vitamin we needed to make our warehouse consolidation a healthy success.
Regional Operations Specialist Manager
Numotion
With my travel budget being cut, the Gemba Academy online training allowed me to continue to improve the knowledge of my workforce.
Semiconductor Manufacturing
I’ve just gone through the Gemba Academy Lean training courses for a second time and I’ve got to tell you that this course package is, by far, the best training investment I have made in a very long time. The knowledge-packed modules take you from the very basics of Lean philosophy, gently guide you through the many tools and techniques you can easily apply and finish off by including a large array of well designed templates to help you quickly and easily implement a true continuous improvement initiative in any organization. After going through this package, I felt confident that I could easily help any company to significantly reduce their internal waste, dramatically improve their workforce morale and successfully increase their profits by several points. It’s about time someone finally came up with a well designed video series of courses that provide real value and help to individuals and organizations alike that are striving to produce a better product, a better working environment and an increased focus on customer satisfaction. Well done Gemba Academy!
Management Consultant
Alberta, Canada
The Gemba Academy program will be a powerful addition to our (LSS) tool box of building a culture of continuous improvement centered on Lean Six Sigma concepts. We are confident that our Gemba learning will position us to better service our Customers and give us a competitive edge. I just wanted to let you know that we are very pleased with your training with our Lean Team staff. The feedback has been excellent and I really appreciate that you have helped us "further push" our expertise and customer services. Thank you for a great job and we will be in touch for future training needs. Thank you!
Lean Engineer, Black Belt
New Breed Logistics
The Gemba Academy program has been key to our strategy of building a culture of continuous improvement centered on Lean Six Sigma concepts. We are confident that our Gemba learning will position us to better service our Customers and give us a competitive edge in an increasingly changing and challenging economy.
Operations Manager, Black Belt
UGL Services
Implementing lean is difficult at best.. Gemba Academy has clearly presented lean methodologies and the support required to be successful so a lean team can get on the right path.
We had 17 of our Production Managers attend training where we incorporated the Gemba Academy videos. What a success! Great feedback all around. Simple and easy to use.
Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Materials & Logistics
The Woodbridge Group
Who has benefited from Gemba Academy?
Over 1,000 companies from all over the world, and from multiple industries, have used Gemba Academy to drive their improvements and empower their associates.
Aerospace
- B/E Aerospace
- Erickson Air Crane
- Jet-Aviation
- Lockheed Martin
- Raytheon
Automotive
- American Axle
- Daimler
- Lear
- Paccar
- Volvo
Consumer Products
- 3M
- Aveda
- Energizer
- Estée Lauder
- Vera Bradley
Education
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
- Kaplan University
- Marquette University
- Michigan Technological University
- Missouri Southern State
Electronics
- Arrow Electronics
- Benchmark Electronics
- Hewlett-Packard
- Ramco Electric Motors
- Vishay Dale Electronics
Financial & Insurance
- BMO Financial
- Fishback Financial Corp.
- Great Western Bank
- TD Ameritrade
- Toyota Financial Services
Food & Food Service
- Del Monte
- Gate Gourmet
- Mission Foods
- The Wonderful Company
- Pinnacle Foods
Government
- City of Grand Rapids
- City of Wichita
- Department of Defense
- State of Connecticut
- Ventura County
Healthcare
- Alberta Health
- Beth Israel
- Cleveland Clinic
- Franciscan Alliance
- Kaiser Hospital
Industrial Equipment
- General Electric
- Halliburton
- John Deere
- Manitowoc Cranes
- Oshkosh
Medical & Pharmaceutical
- AstraZeneca
- Baxter
- Bristol-Meyers Squibb
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Steris
Process Industries
- Cenovus Energy
- Dow Chemical
- Hess
- Rio Tinto
- Saint Gobain