Shigeo Shingo
Encyclopedia
, born in Saga City
Saga, Saga
is the capital of Saga Prefecture, located on the island of Kyūshū, Japan.Saga was the capital of Saga Domain in the Edo period, and largest city of former Hizen Province....

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, was a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese industrial engineer who distinguished himself as one of the world’s leading experts on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System. Shingo is known far more in the West than in Japan, as a result of his meeting Norman Bodek
Norman Bodek
Norman Bodek is an author and the President of PCS Press, started Productivity Inc. and Press in 1979 and since 1999 has focused on Toyota's second pillar "Respect for People, employee-development and employee-empowerment."...

, an American entrepreneur and founder of Productivity Inc in the USA. In 1981 Bodek had travelled to Japan to learn about the Toyota Production System, and came across books by Shingo, who as an external consultant had been teaching Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

 courses at Toyota since 1955. Shingo had written his Study of The Toyota Production System in Japanese and had it translated, very poorly, into English in 1980. Norman Bodek
Norman Bodek
Norman Bodek is an author and the President of PCS Press, started Productivity Inc. and Press in 1979 and since 1999 has focused on Toyota's second pillar "Respect for People, employee-development and employee-empowerment."...

 took as many copies of this book as he could to the USA and arranged to translate Shingo's other books into English, eventually having his original study re-translated. Bodek also brought Shingo to lecture in the USA and developed one of the first Western lean manufacturing consultancy practices with Shingo's support.

The myth prevails that Shingo invented the Toyota Production System
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers...

 but he did document the system and added two words to the Japanese and English languages—Poka-yoke
Poka-yoke
' is a Japanese term that means "fail-safing" or "mistake-proofing". A poka-yoke is any mechanism in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment operator avoid mistakes . Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they...

 (mistake-proofing, not 'fool-proofing', which Shingo rejected as a term) and single-minute exchange of dies (SMED). In 1988, the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is located at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. The Huntsman School is the oldest continuously operating business college in the Western United States and one of the oldest in the nation.-History:...

 at Utah State University
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....

 recognized Dr. Shingo for his lifetime accomplishments and created the Shingo Prize that recognizes world-class, lean organizations and operational excellence
Operational excellence
Operational Excellence is a philosophy of leadership, teamwork and problem solving resulting in continuous improvement throughout the organization by focusing on the needs of the customer, empowering employees, and optimizing existing activities in the process....

.

Shingo's influence extended into fields outside of manufacturing. For example, his concepts of SMED, mistake-proofing, and "zero quality control" (eliminating the need for inspection of results) have all been applied in the field of sales process engineering
Sales process engineering
Sales process engineering has been described as “the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goals of a particular sales process". Selden pointed out that in this context, sales referred to the output of a process involving a variety of functions...

.

Shingo is the author of numerous books including: A Study of the Toyota Production System; Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System; Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka-yoke System; The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo: Key Strategies for Plant Improvement; Non-Stock Production: The Shingo System for Continuous Improvement; and The Shingo Production Management System: Improving Process Functions.

Education

  • Saga Technical High School
  • Yamanashi Technical College

Further reading

  • Head, Simon : The New Ruthless Economy. Work and Power in the Digital Age, Oxford Oxford University Press 2005 - Head analyzes critically Shingo and the Toyota production system, ISBN 0195179838

See also

  • Just In Time (JIT)
  • Shingo Prize
  • Taylorism
  • Toyota Production System
    Toyota Production System
    The Toyota Production System is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers...


External links

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