3 Minutes Inside Operations: How to Run a Gemba Walk. That Leads to Action
November 12, 2026
Manufacturing leaders and operators are no strangers to the gemba walk. Yet many of the walks that happen every day are closer to a factory tour, which misses the point of going to the gemba. In this episode of 3 Minutes Inside Operations, Omar Farooq, project manager at TBM, looks at how to stop a gemba walk turning into a lap of the shop floor.
A gemba walk is a structured visit to the place where the work happens, the gemba, to see performance for yourself, talk to the people doing the work and find the gap between target and reality. The idea is simple: go and see. In practice, many walks drift into something else. Leaders and supervisors walk the floor, nod at a few boards and ask whether everything is okay and how the family is. That is a tour, and a tour rarely changes anything.
What a Good Gemba Walk Does
A good gemba walk does three things.
It goes with a purpose. Every walk starts with a question to answer, rather than a wander to see what turns up.
It talks to the people doing the work rather than about them. Operators know exactly where their losses are, yet in most plants nobody has ever asked them in a structured way.
It looks for the gap between the target and what is actually happening. Often the first finding is that there is no standard at all: no set target and no standard time, so the team has no way of knowing whether it is on track. That is where standard work comes in.
Gemba Walks at Every Level of the Organisation
The hardest part is making the walk happen every day, at every level. Gemba walks belong to everyone from shop floor supervisors and shift managers up to the CEO, across every area and department, because everybody has a piece of what goes on in operations.
On one TBM project, a standard gemba routine was built for each level of the organisation. Shop floor supervisors complete four gemba checks a day, while the CEO and directors join a 30-minute gemba walk whenever they visit the plant, typically once a month. The frequency changes with the role, and the purpose stays the same.
Build the Gemba Walk Around the SQCDP Board
Each walk is built around the SQCDP board: safety, quality, cost, delivery and people. Part of the aim is to improve the boards themselves, from how they are structured to how results are reported and how up to date they are.
The priority on every walk is checking performance against target. Wherever there is a variance, the leader asks the right questions. Are we running at the right speeds? Are we having quality issues? Any safety issues today?
Any gap a supervisor or shift manager finds is logged and taken to the morning shop floor meeting, where it is addressed and, where possible, fixed. If it cannot be fixed there, it is escalated to a higher-level operations meeting. That escalation route is what turns an observation into an action, and it stops the same problems coming back every shift, which is how the firefighting cycle starts.
Develop the Walk as New Tools Arrive
A gemba walk keeps evolving. Over the course of a project it is fine-tuned as tools and content improve, and each new tool becomes part of the walk.
Short interval control is a good example. Once operators start running short interval controls at the lines, checking them becomes part of the area manager’s gemba walk: are the sheets being filled in, are the ring binders being completed and signed off every day, and, most importantly, are the results being shared with the next shift supervisor and operators at the shift handover?
Coaching Turns a Gemba Checklist Into a Habit
The forms used on the walk support it, and they only work with coaching behind them. TBM coaches the managers and supervisors who lead the walks and assesses how well they coach, lead, check on safety, give positive and negative feedback, review reporting, identify gaps to target and chase root causes.
At the end of each week, those walks feed into a management assessment with the supervisors and area managers. The feedback supports their development the next day and the following week, until their walks consistently add value.
What Changes on the Shop Floor
When walks are run this way, operators become far more involved, and the people who support them know what they are there for: to fix problems and help operators have a good day. Once the routines are in place, everyone knows what to expect. Lines run at the right speeds, quality is checked, and work areas are kept clear and safe. Over time, this starts to change the culture of the organisation.
The reverse is also true. If leaders walk the floor and fix nothing, operators quickly stop talking.
Four Habits That Make a Gemba Walk Worth It
Give every level a purpose. Define who walks, how often and what they are looking for, from four short checks a day for supervisors to a monthly 30-minute walk for directors.
Work to target on the board. Use the SQCDP board to compare performance with target, and treat a missing standard as a finding in its own right.
Escalate what you can’t fix. Take gaps to the morning meeting, and escalate anything that cannot be resolved there to the next operations meeting so it reaches someone who can act.
Coach until it sticks. Assess the people leading the walks, give them feedback every week and keep refining the walk as new tools such as short interval control arrive.
The Most Useful Half Hour in Your Day
Run with purpose, a gemba walk stops being a routine and becomes the most useful half an hour in a leader’s day. It connects leaders with the people closest to the work, exposes the gap to target while there is still time to act, and builds the daily discipline that a management system depends on.
If your gemba walks have drifted into tours, or you want a routine that runs from the boardroom to the shop floor, talk to TBM. Start a conversation with TBM.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a gemba walk?
A gemba walk is a structured visit by a leader to the place where the work happens to see performance first-hand, talk to the people doing the work and identify the gap between target and actual results. In manufacturing it is usually built around the shop floor performance board and ends with clear actions.
What does gemba mean?
Gemba is a Japanese word meaning “the actual place”. In lean manufacturing it describes where value is created, such as the production line, and going to the gemba means seeing the work for yourself instead of relying on reports.
What is the purpose of a gemba walk?
The purpose is to understand how the operation is performing against target, hear from the people doing the work and turn gaps into actions. A walk without a question, a target and a route for escalating problems tends to become a tour.
How often should leaders do a gemba walk?
It depends on the role. On one TBM project, shop floor supervisors carry out four gemba checks a day, while directors join a 30-minute walk when they visit the plant, typically once a month. What matters most is that each level has a set frequency and a clear purpose.
What is short interval control?
Short interval control is a routine in which operators record performance against target at short, fixed intervals during the shift, so problems are spotted and acted on quickly. Checking that these records are completed and shared at shift handover is a natural part of an area manager's gemba walk.
A gemba walk only adds value when it has a purpose: a question to answer, a conversation with the people doing the work and a check of performance against target.
Build a gemba routine for every level, from four short checks a day for supervisors to a monthly 30-minute walk for directors, centred on the SQCDP board and a clear escalation route.
Coaching keeps the walk effective: assess the leaders who run it, give weekly feedback and add new tools such as short interval control as they are introduced.
