Russell Watkins of Sempai delivered an entertaining and wisdom-filled keynote at Gemba Summit 2025, sharing ten light bulb moments from decades working with Japanese manufacturers including Toyota and Denso. Starting his journey in 1999 at age 29 with sensei Toshiyuki Muraoka (who joined Toyota's Kamigo plant in 1964 and learned directly from Ohno's era of pull systems development), Russell candidly acknowledged that Japanese manufacturing isn't all sunshine - the teaching was harsh, including eight months of being shouted at.

But the best Japanese businesses like Toyota are way ahead of everyone else. His ten insights ranged from tactical to philosophical: beat the sigmoid curve by disrupting edges before plateaus hit, establish control before attempting improvements (using a sandcastle metaphor about waves washing away uncontrolled change), learn to see the positive alongside problems (his sensei's powerful question: "do you see nothing good?"), train people to be time travelers who spot abnormalities before they become problems, and recognize operators beyond just tapping shoulders when problems occur.

He emphasized that the floor tells you everything - from management office messiness to kanban cards lying around like "baby birds with broken wings." People want standardized work (shown through their handwritten notes and improvised systems), but management hasn't enabled it.

Russell embraced Japanese fish metaphors for accumulating many small improvements rather than hunting big transformations, and concluded that self-reliance - the ability to find your own gap without rose-colored spectacles - is the highest expression of lean skill, not "being lean." His opening was characteristically humble: he hasn't had an original thought in years, but stealing ideas mercilessly without ego and learning relentlessly has served him exceptionally well.

Key Takeaways:

• Beat the sigmoid curve like elite teams - disrupt the edges before the plateau hits to maintain excellence
• Control comes first - team leader control (shift briefs, area patrol, problem escalation) before any other lean tools
• Don't just filter for the gap - deliberately look for the positive and value alongside problems
• Train people to be time travelers who spot abnormalities before they become problems (three choices with the coil defect example)
• Implement Pro Process - recognize operators before problems occur, not just tap shoulders when things go wrong
• The floor tells you everything - messy management offices, Kanban cards on floor, broken tabs reveal system health
• People want standardized work (shown by their improvised systems) - management just hasn't enabled it properly
• Embrace fish metaphors - accumulate many small improvements rather than hunting for one big transformation
• Self-reliance (finding your own gap without rose-colored spectacles) is the highest expression of lean skill
• Learn and steal mercilessly without ego - there's little original in the world, success comes from humble adoption and relentless learning

Speaker Details

• Name: Russell Watkins
• Company: Seempai
• Website: www.sempai.co.uk
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/russellwatkinssempai/

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