Lean promotes gemba, a Japanese term that means go and see. Gemba represents the search for knowl- edge; it helps us understand the execution of processes, why certain activities take the time they take, who is involved in the activities, and so on. Gemba promotes a culture of measurement, a culture that wants to understand the best strategy to achieve a given goal. In this article, we describe how practitioners can use non- invasive (i.e., without human interaction) measurement in combination with process mining to understand the real process that is carried out as opposed to the docu- mented, ideal process. Process mining implements go and see since it does not beautify the reality  it shows it as it is. We will explore the question, How can we exploit gemba, the discipline of getting and understanding data within the organization, on an holistic level? TO ELIMINATE WASTE, WE HAVE TO FIND IT FIRST The foreword of Taiichi Ohnos book Toyota Production System contains a simple but brilliant 1 description of the goal of Lean manufacturing, which is depicted in Figure 1. Ohno explains this figure saying, All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by remov- ing the non-value-added wastes. 2 The ability to identify wastes depends on our ability to understand what is happening from order to cash. Evidently, the ability to understand this process depends on how complex it is. This process can be straightforward and repetitive (as, for example, in a paper factory), or it can be chaotic and unpredictable (as, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry, where the actual production of drugs depends on previous development and testing phases). In addi- tion, if the produced good is intangible, as software is, wastes such as overproduction, waiting, or defective products are hard to identify because they are also intangible. The Toyota Production System developed the concept of gemba, which means to go to the place where the actual production occurs to understand what is really happening. Some management books talk about management by walking around. The idea behind gemba is that we have to be on site and understand the context of a problem to solve it. Gemba suggests that engineers go to the actual production facility to understand a production problem in its entirety or that they go see how the customer uses their product in order to understand how to improve it. This concept is hard to apply if: n The process consists in part or entirely of develop- ment, because the development process is less pre- dictable and might involve a complex sequence of steps. n The product is intangible, because we cannot physi- cally see the problem and thus must find other ways to study it. n We want to find organization-wide problems, because in such cases, gemba  the place to go and see  becomes an abstract concept. To address such issues using gemba requires adapting it so that it can work for abstract activities and make visible the links between them (i.e., which activity '2013 Cutter Information LLC CUTTER IT JOURNAL April 2013 32 Implementing Organization-Wide Gemba Using Noninvasive Process Mining by Saulius Astromskis, Andrea Janes, Alberto Sillitti, and Giancarlo Succi KEEPING IT REAL NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION  For authorized use, contact Cutter Consortium: +1 781 648 8700  service@cutter.com Timeline (reduce by removing non-value-adding activities) Order Cash Figure 1 A birds-eye view of the Toyota Production System. (Adapted from Ohno.)