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The Gemba Walk is the visit that a manager makes to the place where the work is carried out To observe the process, talk about it with the people involved and decide what to further explore. It works if it has a specific purpose, follows the actual flow, and concludes with agreed actions and follow-up.
Production decisions are often made based on indicators, reports, and meetings. They are useful tools, but they do not always show how work actually takes place: where the waiting time accumulates, which steps take the most time, or what forces people to interrupt an activity.
The Gemba Walk helps production managers and managers to bridge this gap. It consists of going to the place where the work is performed, observing the process, and talking with the people involved. The goal is to better understand what is happening on the ground and identify aspects to explore or improve.
For it to be useful, the visit must have a clear purpose and follow-up. It is not enough to simply go around the department: it is necessary to know what you want to understand, observe carefully, and then review the evidence gathered.
Gemba means “the real place”: the point where work takes place and value is created. In production it can be a line, a cell, or a warehouse; in other contexts it can be an office or the place where a process is managed. Going to Gemba means observing the work directly, rather than relying solely on indirect descriptions. It is the principle that Toyota calls Go and see for yourself, “go to see it in person”: verify the facts at the point where they happen, as described by the Lean Enterprise Institute.
The Gemba Walk is therefore a practice of observation and listening. The person leading the visit tries to understand how the process is proceeding, what conditions influence it, and what difficulties people encounter.
It is important to distinguish the observation of the process from the control of people. We go to the site to understand the work and its conditions, This is not to assess who is performing it. A difference between the standard and what happens on the field, for example, is an element to be understood: it may depend on obstacles, missing information, or operating conditions different from those expected.
The Gemba Walk does not coincide with a structured audit: for specific areas, such as safety, dedicated methods exist.
Frequency and duration depend on the purpose and the process: it is useful to schedule regular and limited visits, leaving enough time to observe the work without interfering. The person responsible for the area or process should participate, possibly together with the team leader and the people involved in the observed workflow.
An effective Gemba Walk begins with a precise question: What do I want to understand better? Without a purpose, it is easy to gather general impressions without reaching any useful observations.
The visit can focus, for example, on a step in the process that seems to generate expectations, on a problem reported by the team, or on how an activity is transferred from one phase to the next. It is preferable to delimit the topic so that one can observe it carefully without trying to examine everything at once.
The path also depends on the purpose. If you want to understand a flow, it can be useful to follow it from start to finish, observing the movement of materials, information, or activities. If the question concerns a specific point, you can focus on that area and the steps that precede or follow it.
Before the visit, the available indicators or reports can be consulted to guide the observation. The data help formulate the initial question; it will then be the comparison with what is happening on site that will complete the picture.
Finally, it is useful to choose a time when the work proceeds under normal conditions. The goal is to observe the actual process, without turning the visit into a prepared demonstration or interrupting the activity without reason.
During the visit, observe the facts before interpreting them. A wait or a detour can have different causes: noting what happens helps discuss it without jumping to conclusions immediately.
Track the flow of materials, information, or activities. Where does the work stop? Are there interruptions, delays, or repeated steps? Are the activities proceeding as planned or are they accumulating at some point?
Note what you see and at what stage it occurs. The goal is not to immediately assign a label to every situation, but to understand which aspects deserve further investigation.
Observe how the work is carried out and compare it with the expected standard, if available. The standard provides a reference; practical experience in the field shows how it is applied in everyday conditions.
When you notice a difference, ask yourself what explains it. There could be an operational difficulty, unavailable information, or a condition different from what was expected. Understanding the context is more useful than automatically considering the difference as a person’s mistake.
Be careful of what slows down or complicates the process: waiting times, searches for materials or information, interruptions, reworkings, or accumulations. These are the (muda) waste that Lean seeks to eliminate and that often cannot be seen in aggregated data.
It is not necessary to solve every problem during the visit. The Gemba Walk serves to observe and understand; the choice of priorities and the analysis of the causes may require a subsequent discussion.
Consider whether the conditions of the area or the process require attention regarding safety. Observe this as part of the tour, without turning the visit into an audit. There is a dedicated method for safety, SMAT, described in the’article about Lean Safety.
The questions should help people describe the work, expectations, and obstacles encountered. Open, concrete statements are preferable to questions that already suggest an answer.
For example:
You don't need to do them all. Choose the ones that best suit the purpose of the visit and what you have observed. When an answer raises an interesting question, ask for an example or invite the person to show you the passage, if they can do so without interrupting or compromising the work.
Listen before proposing solutions. The people involved in the activity know details that may escape those observing the process for only a few minutes. Their contribution helps distinguish an occasional difficulty from an obstacle that repeats itself.
Follow-up is an essential part of the Gemba Walk. Without follow-up, observations risk remaining isolated notes and people may not know what has been decided.
After the visit, organize what emerged by distinguishing:
This distinction helps to avoid confusing a fact with a conclusion. For example, “the material was not available at the start of the activity” describes an observation; determining why it was not available requires further investigation.
Not every observation has to become a project. Some issues can be clarified quickly; others can be taken up in more depth. daily management system or face it with a problem-solving path. In any case, it is useful to share with the people involved what aspects will be discussed in depth.
When an action is agreed upon, you also determine how to verify its outcome. This way you can understand whether it helped the process or whether the approach needs to be revised. The next visit can resume from where it left off and verify what has changed.
Field presence can become a management routine linked to continuous improvement. To deepen the connection with the Leader Standard Work and with the periodic checks of the standards, read our articles on: Leader Standard Work and on Kamishibai.
Before the visit
During the visit
After the visit
The checklist is a reminder to prepare for the visit and to review the results. It does not replace the audit or problem-solving methods necessary to address specific situations.
The Gemba Walk It helps the managers to compare what emerges from the data With what happens on the field. To do this, clear purpose, careful observation and listening are necessary. The value of the visit is also seen afterwards: in the questions that remain open, in the agreed actions, and in the way the follow-up is carried out.
The Gemba Walk is a leadership practice: it asks the responsible people to Leading the team on the field and not from the office. To develop these skills, the course Leadership Excellence Lean Factory School® works on the role of the manager and on team growth; it is activated upon request for companies and groups.
The Lean Factory School® organizes the Lean Champion – Certification Program, a path for those who drive continuous improvement in the company, with Leader Standard Work and Daily Management.
The Gemba Walk is the visit that a manager makes to the place where the work is carried out, to observe the process, talk to the people, and decide what to further explore. Gemba means “the real place,” that is, the point where value is created: a line, a cell, a warehouse, or an office.
Genchi genbutsu means “going to see it for yourself” and is the Toyota principle at the heart of the Gemba Walk. It indicates the need to verify facts at the point where they occur, rather than relying solely on reports, indicators, or indirect descriptions, as the Lean Enterprise Institute describes it.
It starts with a precise question: what do I want to understand better? Then the topic is defined, the area or flow to be followed is chosen, indicators or reports are consulted to guide the observation, and a moment is chosen when the work proceeds under normal conditions, without turning the visit into a demonstration.
The flow of work is observed, that is, where it stops or accumulates, the difference between standards and actual work, and expectations, research, rework, and other waste (muda). Safety and working conditions are also considered. The facts must be recorded before interpreting them, without immediately assigning blame to people.
It is advisable to use open-ended questions that refer to concrete situations, for example: “Which step takes longer than expected?”, “Where does the work accumulate while waiting?” or “What happens when a material or information is missing?”. Questions that suggest the answer should be avoided and listening is necessary before proposing solutions.
After the visit, the observations are organized into three groups: things observed, aspects to clarify, and actions agreed upon. For each action, a responsible person, time frame, and method of verifying the outcome are established. Not everything becomes a project: some issues are resolved immediately, others go into Daily Management or a problem-solving process.
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