Go and See for Yourself - Genji Gembutsu (Genchi Genbutusu)

We have discussed 20 lean tools so far. One of the main features of all these tools is their simplicity. Starting from 5S, lean tools are very simple and effective. Our tool today, you would agree, is a great example for this.

“Gengi Gembutsu” is one of very popular lean tools. It is discussed in many forums, by professionals. But what really is this tool? What is meant to do?

“Gengi Gembutsu” reduces time taken to complete your decision making process. It makes it easy to make the correct decision. How this tool does this? By taking the decision makers to the problem, and letting them to observe the problems and then coming to decision. It seems very simple isn’t it?

When you have a problem in your hand, how do you solve them? In a traditional organization, managers will ask all the relevant parties to come to his or her room. He will go through all the reports and figures. Then he will discuss with all the relevant parties and then will make a decision. This is not a bad way of making a decision, isn’t it? But the problem is, when the facts and figures are reformatted by different people, the true meaning of them can get distorted. Sometimes important information might be left out on purpose or by accident. This way of problem solving encourages figure pointing and blame passing. So at the end of the process there can be a wrong decision made, if a decision is made at all.

Lean encourages hands on way of problem solving. Even the managers are bought to the place where problem occurred. So they get the real picture and real information about the situation. Then they can discuss with the people directly involved on the process. Then the decision made will be much more accurate.

Can you remember last time you made a decision based on second hand information and later found problem is completely misinterpreted and your decision made it even worse? If something comes to your mind please leave it as a comment to this post. It will help all the people want to learn lean.

So next time, when you have a problem to solve, go to the place where problem occurred, check the process for yourself and then make your decision. Check for the improvement of the quality of your decision.

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