Digital gemba for packout: how vision AI transforms pack station quality and speed

Modern Lean leaders still go to the gemba, but now the gemba comes to them.

Channa Ranatunga

Co-Founder

May 15, 2025

Gemba is a Japanese word that means the actual place where value is created. In the Toyota Production System, leaders “go to gemba” to see problems with their own eyes, ask respectful questions and coach continuous improvement on the spot. Taiichi Ohno called this practice genchi genbutsu (go and see for yourself) .

Classic clipboard walks, however, have three built-in limits:

≈1% sampling at best (watching ten minutes of an eight-hour shift).
The Hawthorne effect, operators behave differently when they are being observed.
Observations live in notebooks while video sits on DVR drives that no one opens, so cross-site learning is nearly impossible.

Waste, defects, and brand complaints usually surface only after cash has been burned.

The rise of the digital gemba

Vision-AI cameras mounted at every pack station turn every motion into time-stamped events, creating a living, searchable record of work:

100% coverage with no blind spots.
Rewindable, zoomable playback that anyone can share in one click.
Instant Pareto charts of delays, scans and mis-packs.
Secure remote access for continuous improvement and customer success.

Customers who switch to digital gemba have reported up to 60% cuts in QA and support costs within months.

Real-world wins

Staci digitized audits and slashed QA spend by 60% while lifting productivity 33% .
Highline cut claim-investigation time 95% by giving every order video proof.
Davinci used vision data to trim cycle time 30% and drive a 70% drop in exceptions.

All three results began with the same first step: replace occasional walk-throughs with 24/7 video evidence.

Manual vs digital gemba at a glance

	Clipboard walk	Digital gemba
Coverage	< 1% of shift	100% of orders
Data format	Handwritten notes	Tagged video plus metadata
Investigator time per defect	10–20 min	< 1 min (search and share)
Remote review	Rare	Built-in portal links
Operator disruption	High (observer present)	None

ROI snapshot

A five-station pilot typically uncovers $40k–60k per year in reclaimable costs.
Payback is usually under 60 days when charge-backs or churn run high.
CI teams regain hours once spent staging manual time studies.

How to run your first digital gemba walk

Choose one high-impact station (your costliest defect hotspot).
Mount a plug-and-play Rabot camera and let auto-tagging run.
After one week, open the dashboard, review the event Pareto and note median cycle time.
Host a 30-minute huddle, replay the top three issue clips and brainstorm improvements.
Repeat weekly, track DPMO and UPH, and share highlight clips with remote stakeholders.