Northeast Lean Conference · 2026 · People & AI
AI at the
Gemba
The assistant wasn't there. You were.
What an AI is actually for when the work happens on the floor.
Every one of you was taught this first
現地現物
Genchi genbutsu. Go to the actual place. Look at the actual thing.
A language model has never seen anything.
Where this started for me · Solar Cannabis Co · packaging & labeling
Cost center →
profit center.
Two years ago the department showed up on the P&L as pure cost. Today it runs roughly three-quarters of its capacity co-packing for other brands.
~75%
of capacity, co-packing
1/3
of the project was floor time
It came from the floor, not a memo. Where product actually sat. Where the bottleneck actually lived, not where the office assumed.
Solar · packaging line
A question for the room
Last week, how many hours did you spend at a keyboard producing documents about the gemba?
- A3Drafted, reformatted, re-drafted for the steering committee
- OEEA downtime export wrestled into a spreadsheet
- SWA standard work sheet typed up from your notes
- RCAA 5 Whys whiteboard turned into a report someone will read
Where those hours come from
Every one is an hour not at the gemba. The document is necessary. The thinking is value-added. The keyboard time is the motion waste of the CI function itself.
Clearing the ground
AI at the gemba is not
- ✕A robot walking the floorIt has no eyes. It has what you hand it.
- ✕Another dashboardYou have enough numbers nobody acts on.
- ✕A replacement for the senseiCoaching is a human relationship. It stays one.
- ✕"Solve my problem"If it solves your problem for you, it learned nothing, and neither did your team.
What it is
The assistant
holds the clipboard.
It does the document work so the practitioner can be at the gemba. It works with what you hand it, like a new Black Belt on day one: the data file, the old procedure, what you personally saw.
The mechanism
A skill is standard work for the assistant.
TWI Job Breakdown Sheet · Job: OEE from a downtime export · Trainer: Paul · Trainee: the assistant
| Important stepwhat | Key pointhow: what makes or breaks it | Reasonwhy: the actual consequence |
|---|
| Ask for the export | Say the data-safety line first | Names never enter the tool |
| Run the calculator | Never recompute by hand | Arithmetic mistakes are silent; a script's aren't |
| If a column is missing, stop | List what was found and what's needed. Never substitute a value | A guessed number is a defect passed downstream |
| Present the result | Every formula with the real numbers substituted | The reader can check it on a napkin |
| Close | What still needs a human, and one next step | The practitioner gets the last word |
You already know how to write one of these. The trainee happens to be software.
Design principle 1 of 5
Jidoka for information.
Every number carries a source tag. An untagged number is a defect passed downstream, so there aren't any.
Background: Line 3 changeover
Changeover, current: 47 min [observed, 6 runs]
Target (prod. plan): 20 min [from system: MES]
Capacity freed: 2.1 hr/day [user estimate]
Die-cart travel: [NEEDS GEMBA]
Who does ext. setup: [NEEDS GEMBA]
observed you saw it, counted it, timed it
from system MES, historian, maintenance log
user estimate a guess, labeled as one
[NEEDS GEMBA] the andon. Go look.
No tag? Don't trust it. Ask where it came from. That's the whole discipline.
Design principles 2, 3, 4 of 5 · fast
Three more, written into the standard work.
Poka-yoke for data
Missing column? It says which, and never substitutes a value. Reason code it can't map? An explicit Unmapped row. OEE over 100%? Flagged, not printed: your "ideal" cycle time is probably an average.
Observe, don't solve
The gemba-walk skill asks "what makes this step difficult?", never "why aren't you following the standard?" It will not hand you a punch list. A walk that only produces corrections is an inspection.
Sensei first, draft on demand
Coaching skills ask before they draft, left-to-right on the A3. Say "just draft it" and you get a draft in seconds, every unknown fact marked [NEEDS GEMBA], never invented.
Design principle 5 of 5 · emphasis on the people
Respect for people, written in.
- 01Ask it "how many people can we cut" and it answers the process question, then says once, plainly: these tools free capacity; what the organization does with freed capacity is a leadership decision.No lecture. No refusal. But it will not do that math for you as if it were neutral.
- 02Before anyone pastes a document: leave out names of employees or patients. Roles and initials are fine.Said every time, in every setting. Not buried in a policy.
- 03No AI jargon. Ever. "What you gave me." "I made that up. Check it."It mirrors your vocabulary: PDSA if you say PDSA, unit and clinician in a hospital. It never corrects you.
Live · 4 minutes
A messy downtime export, start to finish.
Watch for four things: the data-safety line · every formula with numbers substituted · the Unmapped row · and where the last sentence sends me.
Same run, on a slide · Line 1 stamping · one shift · sample data
Availability
85.0%
(480 − 72) ÷ 480
Performance
88.2%
(0.5 × 720) ÷ 408
OEE
72.0%
0.850 × 0.882 × 0.960
| Six big losses | min | |
|---|
| Breakdowns | 31 | |
| Setup & adjustments | 24 | |
| Idling & minor stops | 9 | |
| Unmapped: "elec", "waiting mat'l" | 8 | |
What this skill did
- OEE 72.0% on 480 planned min; breakdowns are
the largest loss at 31 min.
- Export does not separate planned from
unplanned downtime; all 72 min treated as
unplanned.
What still needs a human
- Is 0.5 min/unit best-demonstrated or an
average? [ASSUMED — verify]
- What "elec" means on the floor [NEEDS GEMBA]
Suggested next step
Take this to the line supervisor and confirm
whether changeover is logged as downtime.
Where it goes wrong · and how to start anyway
Same tool. Opposite outcomes. The difference is a habit.
It goes wrong when
- The practitioner stops going. It amplifies the one who goes and sees; it hollows out the one who doesn't.
- You read the tone, not the tags. It always sounds confident. Confidence is not a source.
- Confidential data in a chat box. Know your company's policy before the first paste.
Start like you'd start anything
- One practitioner who already goes to the gemba. Never the one who doesn't. You'll just get more documents.
- One skill, one live problem, two weeks. Not a pilot.
- One measure: did hours at the gemba go up? Not "did we use AI." If no, stop. It's a clipboard, not a strategy.
Take it with you · MIT licensed · free to copy, change, and share
Seventeen skills. Plain text. Yours.
paulducey.com/gemba
The toolkit · the deck · a ten-minute getting-started guide
Paste one file into your assistant. Describe your problem. It picks the tool.
start-here · a3-coach · root-cause · problem-statement · kaizen-charter · gemba-walk · standard-work · twi-jbs · vsm-calc · oee-from-csv · 5s-audit · smed-setup · control-chart · fmea-builder · mistake-proofing · capacity-planner · daily-management
Go see.
Let the assistant hold the clipboard.
