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Natwar Lal has provided four different service sector scenarios of Genchi Gembutsu and he is the deserving winner for this question. Do have a look at the response by Benchmark Expert - Venugopal.

Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R Genchi Gembutsu translates into “Go and See”. It is a term that has emerged from the Toyota Production System. Japanese leaders like Taiichi Ohno insisted that engineers need to visit Gemba and observe to see how value is created and how waste gets generated. The context in these situations was a manufacturing shop floor, or an actual usage of and expectations from a product by the end customer. In many of the emerged businesses like software development, IT services and e-commerce, we may not have a comparable ‘shop-floor’ atmosphere. However, we have customers, customer expectations, customer usage related experiences, competitive offerings etc. Similarly, we have design teams, operations teams, customer relations teams etc. Any software being developed is meant to interface with a process of human to serve some purpose. Many times, we see that there is a ‘requirement’ document that is created by the user (could be a internal or external) based on which the development commences. The developed software product seldom comes right the first time and will require more iterations of rework until it meets the user’s requirements. Applying the principle underlying ‘Genchi Gembustsu’ is very important to reduce such wastage of effort and resources. For example, imagine a software development exercise for creating a web interface for potential customers who want to approach a bank for any product. The developer would have to feel the requirements by Becoming a potential customer himself / herself Obtain first hand inputs from a representative sample of potential customers Study the similar facilities provided by competitors in the market Visit the recipients of these inputs (could be the sales team or contact center) and understand the how best the inputs should be received by them for further actions. Possible areas for ambiguous interpretations and to improve the user-friendliness Adaptability of the portal with multiple applications and mobile devices. Ability to reach through popular social medias. Areas where flexibility of coding is important, considering possibilities of ongoing modifications and up gradations. The above are just examples to illustrate the possibilities. With adequate involvement of right teams and brainstorming, one could arrive at the points as most appropriate for the situation. Taking example of an e-commerce platform, the most obvious Gembas will be the ‘end-user’ and all the locations where the customer requests and inputs are made use of.. viz. the teams involved in processing of order, logistics, payment and delivery. As discussed in above examples, customized list of check points has to be evolved. Direct knowledge and feel of the inbound and outbound users will also help in developing appropriate ‘test cases’ for effective and efficient UATs.

Genchi Genbutsu - "Go and See" to investigate the issue and truly understand the customer situation. It basically refers to go and observe the process where the actual value is being added. As the question suggests, it makes perfect sense to use in in manufacturing however it is a myth that it is only used in manufacturing. As a concept Genchi Genbutsu is domain and industry agnostic. While preparing process maps, we usually tell the participants to create a map of "What the process is" and not "What it should be" or "what you think it is". One of the best means of understanding "What the process is" is to pick up a transaction and do a walkthrough of the process with it. This is Genchi Genbutsu for you as when you do a walkthrough of the process with the transaction you actually go to the process and see how it works. I am providing some examples below where the idea is same "Go and See". 1. Issue Resolution: when you raise an issue, the first thing that the agent / engineer will do is try to replicate the issue. They might do a screen share or take control of your computer and replicate the issue to understand where to attack and what to do 2. Software Testing: The first one happens when the code is compiled. The compiler does a walkthrough of the entire code and highlights the section of the codes that could not be compiled due to incorrect coding. Second happens during the multiple stages of testing - unit testing, integration testing and UAT. If a particular test case fails and the code is sent back to developer, the developer will first recreate the situation to see the failure (this is Genchi Genbutsu) 3. Medical conditions: Various invasive and non-invasive screening methods are used to first go to the specific location in the body and see the extent of the problem. E.g. X-ray, MRI, CT-scans, angiography etc. 4. Servicing of car: when you take your car for its regular service, the mechanic will first take a test drive of the car. What he is trying to do is to get a feel of how the car is driving so that he could pinpoint the issue which he will not be able to do unless he drives it himself.