Gemba and Tiered Daily Meetings

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SEF Reference Guide G04  |  Manufacturing OpEx Maturity Assessment

What it is

Gemba is Japanese for “the actual place.” In operations it means wherever the work happens: the line, the cell, the warehouse dock. A Gemba daily meeting is a short stand-up held at the workplace, in front of the team’s information board, so people discuss problems while looking at the actual process instead of a slide.

A tiered daily meeting system links those stand-ups into a cascade. Front-line teams meet first (Tier 1). Supervisors and support functions meet next (Tier 2) and take up what Tier 1 could not solve. Plant leadership meets last (Tier 3). Issues move up within hours, and help and decisions move back down the same day.

The practice draws on the Toyota principle of going to see for yourself (genchi genbutsu). David Mann’s Creating a Lean Culture describes the daily accountability process as one of four elements of a lean management system, alongside leader standard work, visual controls, and leadership discipline.

Why it matters

• Speed: problems surface in hours, not at the monthly review. A small issue fixed today does not become a late shipment next week.
• Delivery and cost: each shift starts with a clear plan, and yesterday’s misses get owners and actions.
• Quality and safety: every meeting starts with safety and quality, so near misses and defects get talked about while the facts are fresh.
• People: operators get a daily voice and see their issues answered. Support functions (maintenance, quality, engineering, materials) come to the floor instead of waiting for emails.
• Leadership: leaders see the real process every day, which keeps decisions grounded in fact.

Key terms

Term	Meaning
Gemba	Japanese for “the actual place.” The place where the work happens. A Gemba meeting is held on the floor, not in a conference room.
Tiered daily meeting	A cascade of short daily stand-up meetings (for example, team, area, and site levels) that escalate issues upward and push support downward within hours.
Genchi genbutsu	“Go and see.” Understanding a situation by observing it directly.
Gemba walk	A leader visiting the workplace to observe, ask questions, and check that standards and boards are being used.
Shift-start meeting	The Tier 1 meeting at the start of each shift, reviewing the last shift’s results and this shift’s plan.
Escalation	Passing an issue the team cannot solve to the next tier, with a clear description and the help needed.
Action log	The list of issues, owners, and due dates kept on the board and reviewed at every meeting.
Leader standard work	A written routine for leaders: which meetings they attend, which areas they walk, and what they check.
VMS	Visual Management System. The information boards that serve as the meeting agenda (see G03).

How to do it

1. Design the tiers. Map who meets, where, when, and for how long. A typical day shift pattern:

Tier	Who	Where	When	Length
1	Team leader and operators	Area board	Start of shift	10 minutes
2	Supervisors, plus maintenance, quality, materials, engineering	Area or value stream board	About 30 to 60 minutes after Tier 1	15 minutes
3	Plant manager and function heads	Plant board, on the floor	About 30 to 60 minutes after Tier 2	15 to 20 minutes

1. Write a standard agenda. Same order every day: safety, quality, delivery (yesterday’s result and today’s plan), cost, people, open actions, and improvement. Keep the times short and stick to them.
2. Hold it at the board, standing up. No chairs, no projector, no laptop. The information board (G03) is the agenda.
3. Include the operators. In Tier 1 the operators speak, not only the supervisor. Ask each person for problems they saw or expect.
4. Log every issue. Each issue gets an owner and a date in the action log. Solve small issues on the spot. Move bigger ones to a problem-solving project (G05).
5. Escalate with rules. Agree on what goes up a tier: safety concerns, anything the team cannot solve within its authority, and anything that threatens a customer delivery. Each escalation gets an answer back down by an agreed time, often the next day’s Tier 1.
6. Review improvement. Add a short slot, even two minutes, where improvement projects and suggestions are reviewed. This is the Level 5 step.
7. Walk the gemba. Leaders follow leader standard work: attend the tiers, walk areas, and check that boards are current and actions are moving.
8. Check the meetings. Once a month, observe a meeting at each tier with a short checklist and coach the facilitator.

What each maturity level looks like

OB-4 Gemba Daily Meetings

Level	Assessment wording	What it looks like on the floor	How to move up
1	Meetings are ad hoc, called to address problems as they arise.	People meet when something goes wrong. Nobody reviews results until the weekly or monthly report.	Start a fixed shift-start meeting in one area with a standard agenda.
2	Shift-start meetings review the previous shift’s results and the current shift’s plan.	A daily meeting happens, often in an office, led by the supervisor, covering yesterday and today. Operators mostly listen.	Move the meeting to the workplace and get operators speaking.
3	As Level 2, plus operators take part and meetings are held at the workplace.	Stand-up meetings on the floor. Operators report their own issues. Actions are captured with owners.	Put up a standard information board and run the meeting from it.
4	As Level 3, plus the information boards (VMS) serve as the meeting agenda.	The meeting walks the board section by section. Red items drive the discussion. Escalations to Tier 2 and 3 are routine.	Add a standing agenda item to review improvement activities and suggestions.
5	As Level 4, plus the meeting includes a review of improvement activities.	Every meeting spends time on improvement: project status, new ideas, results. The meeting drives improvement, not just firefighting.	Tighten escalation response times and use meeting audits to keep quality high across all tiers.

Evidence to look for

Document

• Meeting schedule for each tier, with times, locations, and attendees.
• Standard agenda posted at each board.
• Action logs, with dates showing issues opened and closed.
• Escalation rules and records of escalated issues and responses.

Observation

• Attend a Tier 1 meeting. Does it start on time, happen at the board, and finish in about 10 minutes?
• Who speaks? Count how many operators contribute.
• Does the meeting follow the board, or does it wander?
• Is there time for improvement activities?
• Follow one escalated issue: did it reach Tier 2 and get an answer back?

Statement

(questions to ask and who to ask)

• Operator: “What did you raise in the last meeting? What happened to it?”
• Team leader: “What do you escalate, and how quickly do you hear back?”
• Maintenance or quality lead: “Which meetings do you attend, and what did you pick up from them this week?”
• Plant manager: “Which issue came up through the tiers this week, and what did you do about it?”

Management report

• Meeting adherence (meetings held on time at each tier).
• Action log closure rate and average age of open actions.
• Number of escalations and time to respond.
• Number of improvement projects or suggestions reviewed in meetings.

Common pitfalls

• A status report, not a meeting. The supervisor reads numbers aloud and nobody else talks. Ask questions and let operators answer.
• Meetings that grow. A 10-minute stand-up becomes 40 minutes of problem solving. Take detailed problems offline with the right people.
• Conference room drift. The meeting moves indoors “just this week” and never returns. The floor is the point.
• Escalations that vanish. If issues go up and nothing comes back, teams stop escalating. Track every escalation to an answer.
• Support functions missing. Tier 2 without maintenance, quality, and materials cannot solve much.
• Blame. If raising a problem gets someone in trouble, problems stop being raised.

Template

Tier 1 Shift-Start Meeting Standard

(post at the board)

Minute	Item	Led by	Question to answer
0 to 1	Safety	Operator (rotating)	Any injuries, near misses, or hazards since last shift?
1 to 3	Quality	Team leader	Scrap, rework, or complaints? What caused them?
3 to 5	Delivery	Team leader	Did we hit last shift’s plan? What is today’s plan? Any risks?
5 to 6	People and cost	Team leader	Who is here? Any skill gaps or overtime?
6 to 8	Open actions	Action owners	What is done? What is late?
8 to 9	Improvement	Project owners	Project status, new ideas, results.
9 to 10	Escalations	Team leader	What needs Tier 2 help today?

Action Log

#	Date raised	Issue	Owner	Due date	Escalated to tier	Status (open, done, late)

Meeting Audit Checklist

(monthly, per tier)

• [ ] Started on time and finished within the time box
• [ ] Held standing at the board
• [ ] Board current before the meeting started
• [ ] Standard agenda followed
• [ ] More than half of attendees spoke
• [ ] New issues logged with owner and date
• [ ] Overdue actions discussed
• [ ] Improvement activities reviewed
• [ ] Escalations from the previous day answered

First 30 days

• Week 1: Pick a pilot area. Write the Tier 1 agenda. Start the shift-start meeting at the area board, even if the board is basic.
• Week 2: Add the action log. Coach the team leader to ask questions and get every operator talking.
• Week 3: Start Tier 2 with support functions. Agree on escalation rules and response times.
• Week 4: Start Tier 3 on the floor. Add the improvement slot to Tier 1. Run the first meeting audit at each tier.

Further reading

• David Mann, Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions, 3rd edition, Productivity Press, 2015.
• Jim Womack, Gemba Walks, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011 (expanded 2nd edition, 2013).
• Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon entry “Gemba”: https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/gemba/