While I agree with the sentiment of the article, how would the author propose a better system to collect data on the FIS? ” Was a better way found? Where the factory workers asked to manually capture the accurate length of repair time? Data like this is helpful in conjunction to going to the Gemba. I highly doubt that most institutions have perfect to the split-second ways to capture accurate data, and that’s ok! Data should be used to drive strategy and decision making. It would have been great to know how the author helped improve the FIS.
Presenting examples in an article to point out the obvious fact that data is flawed, and therefore we need to go and see to see the reality (true) without providing a better solution weakens the argument, in my opinion. The message should focus on using data to understand trend, variation, and direction, and as a way to either initiate or validate what we regularly see at the Gemba. Neither (Gemba and data) is sufficient by itself in the work of research, PDSA, and process improvement.
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