Gemba Walking in the Cloud

-- Tony Markel

When our colleagues request storage or virtual machines from us, sometimes it happens in a day. Sometimes is takes as much as a month.  There's a lot of speculation as to why there is a discrepancy in performance.  One thing is clear though: Our performance is inconsistent when our colleagues depend on us.  It's a problem.  I'm not sure I understand it well enough.  Time for a gemba walk.

Gemba (現場) Japanese term that can be translated as "at the site" or "the real place" or "the scene of the crime". In Lean, a gemba walk means going to the place where the work takes place. It means making observations of the work as it happens. This is fairly simple in a manufacturing environment. Information services presents a different situation. The gemba is seemingly in many places at once.

• The gemba is at MSIS
• The gemba is at MCIT
• The gemba is in our Ticketing System
• The gemba is in our Delivery Systems
• The gemba is with our customers too

So to walk this gemba I have to get out of my chair and watch the work as it happens in the place where the work is done. Which, if you know me, you already know I don't spend much time sitting down.

If you're in the business of provisioning storage and VMs, you can expect a visit.  Don't worry, I'm observing, not judging, or finding blame.  The problem isn't our people, its the process.