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Category Archives: shigeo shingo

The First Shingo Prize

Last month marked the 35th anniversary of the Shingo Prize, an award bestowed each year to recognize organizations that demonstrate the principles..
This entry was posted in Management Kaizen, Toyota Production System. Lean manufacturing, shigeo shingo on June 15 , 2023.

Tools or Culture?

With our annual Northeast LEAN Conference just a few days away, I want to relate a personal story about the theme of this year’s conference,
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, kanban, continuous improvement, kaizen, 7 wastes, Changeover, SMED, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, enterprise excellence on September 14 , 2017.

Reflecting on Waste

For me, Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo are a bit like the Lennon and McCartney of waste elimination. Together they frame the technical and social..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, TIMWOODS, waste, Taichi Ohno, shigeo shingo, 7 wastes. Toyota Production System on May 15 , 2017.

Cartwheels

Most often when we think of a wheel, it’s in the context of transportation, one of the more obvious and ever-present of the 7 wastes. In fact, the..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, 7 wastes, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, eoq on January 31 , 2017.

Doormats

One of Shigeo Shingo’s popular status quo targets was engineers, whom he placed in three categories:
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continuous improvement, lean engineer, toyota production system, design for assembly, shigeo shingo on September 23 , 2016.

Lean By Doing

Early along, as a student of the Toyota Production System (TPS), now referred to as “Lean,” I struggled with some of the concepts and systems. For..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kaizen, 5S, toyota production system, shigeo shingo on September 07 , 2016.

Peripheral Discoveries

The following post is inspired by The Teachings of Don Juan, an anthropological novel from the 1960’s written by Carlos Castaneda chronicling his..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, GBMP, kaizen, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, value stream mapping on August 16 , 2016.

Profitless Part Proliferation

I wrote a post a little more than five years ago about Variety Reduction Program (VRP), an amazing but little known product design optimization tool...
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, kaizen, hoshin kanri, true north, poka-yoke, toyota production system, inventory, shigeo shingo, value stream mapping on June 27 , 2016.

Eye of the Beholder

Many moons ago when I was just getting started on my lean journey, I visited a large automotive supplier to benchmark pull systems. My own factory..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, kanban, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, kaizen, TPM, 5S, true north, poka-yoke, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, value stream mapping on May 20 , 2016.

Indefinite Postponement

Today’s post is inspired by the politically charged gobbledygook we call presidential primaries. This battle of principles turned battle of wills..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, kaizen, hoshin kanri, true north, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, value stream mapping on April 20 , 2016.

Mistake-Proofing Mistakes

There is a popular lore provided by Shigeo Shingo, that the original name for mistake-proofing (Poka-Yoke) was “fool-proofing” (Baka-Yoke). Shingo..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, continuous improvement, standard work, error-proofing, pokayoke, poka-yoke, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, mistake proofing, manufacturing on December 08 , 2015.

Lazy Lean Guy

In 1987, shortly after I became a manufacturing manager, the shop foreman at the time warned me about a young assembler: “Watch out for Michael, he’s..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, Taiichi Ohno, Non-stock production, toyota production system, better faster cheaper easier, shigeo shingo on November 12 , 2015.

Burning Platform

A favorite Twilight Zone episode that played Labor Day weekend put me in mind of the stressful push production environment that many organizations..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kanban, 7 wastes, overproduction, pull production, push production, shigeo shingo on September 22 , 2015.

P-D Ratios

The last few weeks have been all things Shingo for me including a presentation at the Shingo Institute’s International Conference three weeks ago in..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, GBMP, muda, northeast lean conference, TPM, bruce hamilton, lean maturity, lean in healthcare, MRP, shigeo shingo, culture of improvement on May 27 , 2015.

Unreasonability

Sometimes we receive unreasonable and confusing directions, and sometimes we give them. Check out this example.
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, Toast Kaizen, Shingo Institute, continuous improvement resolutions, bruce hamilton, toyota production system, shigeo shingo on April 13 , 2015.

Artificial Ignorance

For a few years back in the early ‘80’s I fell prey to information automation fascination. I managed an IT department transitioning first from a..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, artificial ignorance, kanban. Bruce Hamiton, inventory control system, Eli Goldratt, Joe Weizenbaum, MRP, information automation, ERP, basic accounting system, shigeo shingo on January 29 , 2015.

Dead See Scrolls

I participated recently in the AME conference in Jacksonville, Florida; a terrific rally for manufacturing excellence with the tongue-twisting theme..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, GBMP, Taiichi Ohno, TEI, respect for people, bruce hamilton, People powered excellence, employee engagement, shigeo shingo, Total Employee Involvement, The Shingo Institute on November 26 , 2014.

Overproduction

Not wishing to rub salt in the wounds of my beleaguered Red Sox, their meteoric rise from last place in 2012 to first place in 2013 and subsequent..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, continuous improvement, kaizen, overproduction, gemba, toyota production system, seven wastes, shigeo shingo on September 25 , 2014.

Can't See

My friend and mentor, Gifford Brown, told me a remarkable story some time back about a visit to his plant in 1987 by Shigeo Shingo in which Shingo,..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, Toast Kaizen, internal customer, kaizen, Shingo Conference, bruce hamilton, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, set-up reduction, quick changeover on February 13 , 2014.

Cracked

According to the USDA Egg Grading Manual, “Checks [aka ‘cracks’] are an unavoidable problem in the marketing of eggs because eggs cannot be..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, AQL, NE Shingo Conference, standards, quality control, bruce hamilton, shigeo shingo, defects on September 06 , 2013.

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