By Norman Bodek
This article is from the Superfactory Archives, an archive of content from the Superfactory website that existed from 1997 to 2012.
In reading Art Smalley's interview with a past Toyota employee about Dr. Shigeo Shingo, I was considerably, to put it mildly, annoyed. Art is an excellent writer, but I don't know of any other person in the world of manufacturing more deserving of our highest esteem, gratitude, and indebtedness than to Dr. Shingo. He more than anyone else gave us the Lean tools that has made Toyota so successful. Dr. Shingo probably was not the first person in manufacturing or even at Toyota to reduce set-up time, but he surely was the only one to give us a methodology to follow.
Early on in my adventures in Japan, I asked Mr. Ohno if he could give me more information from Toyota about the Toyota Production System (TPS). He said, "Norman we do not have anything written down for we are changing everyday." I was not happy with the answer for I knew that marvelous things were happening at Toyota that the west knew very little about. In retrospect, Ohno was very guarded for he knew the Toyota system gave Toyota a great competitive advantage over western automobile companies. Years later, Ohno did give me his Japanese books to publish in English and they were marvelous books explaining about the philosophy of the Toyota System, but it was Dr. Shingo who first broke the secrecy barrier to share the power of the Toyota System with the west. Dr. Shingo not only gave us the philosophy but also the precise tools and techniques to make the Toyota System work for us. Dr. Shingo with his SMED system showed us how to reduce set-up time and take it from hours, to minutes to even one touch exchanges. With his source inspection and Poka-yoka System he showed us how to get to zero defects. Believe it you can get to zero defects. And it was with Dr. Shingo's and Ohno's understanding that we have cell design, mixed model flow, kanban and the other famous tools used at Toyota, to separate them is ludicrous.
Now, it is true that Dr. Shingo was only a consultant and spent only a small portion of his time directly consulting at Toyota, however, over the years he trained over 3000 Toyota engineers giving them a new understanding about process flow and how to identify and eliminate waste. Dr. Shingo gave birth to the new industrial engineering concepts that a gave birth to TPS/JIT/LEAN. He taught us flow.
Mr. Ohno picked 10 managers from 10 of Toyota's top suppliers to spearhead the change efforts. They worked together and were responsible for educating, training and transforming their companies to deliver their products to Toyota JUST-IN-TIME. With Dr. Shingo's monthly guidance for over ten years they developed the very famous Kaizen Blitz (originally called Five Days and One Night.) Sure Dr. Shingo spent a limited time with Toyota for he was dedicated to not only helping Toyota but also the other Japanese companies. But, to make the Toyota system work he also had to spend time with the suppliers to Toyota. Each month for many years he educated and consulted with every one of those top tier suppliers.
I brought many study groups to Japan and on many of those trips I took the group to hear Mr. Ohno's lecture on lowering the water of waste. On one of those visits, Mr. Iwata, Ohno's prime assistant, told me of his ambition to leave Toyota Gosei and start his own consulting company. He asked if I would help him find consulting assignments in America. I did. Iwata and Nakao, one of Shingo's students from Taiho Kogyo, came to America and ran the first Kaizen Blitz at Jake Brake. It was a fabulous event. I also took a study mission group to Nippondenso and spent a day with Mr. Ota, in November of 1981, who gave us a lesson on mixed model production and how Kanban was used to pull the production flow. In fact, it was Mr. Ota who introduced me to Dr. Shingo and his famous "green book," The Study of the Toyota Production System from and Engineering Viewpoint." After reading the book I ordered 500 copies to sell and went to Japan to meet with Dr. Shingo. In addition, I also found three others who assisted both Dr. Shingo and Ohno and published their book in English. Everyone of these Toyota managers was indebted to both Dr. Shingo and Mr. Ohno.
One day I asked Iwata and Nakao, "Who invented JIT, Dr. Shingo or Mr. Ohno?" Their answer was, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" They both spent 15 years working with both Dr. Shingo and Mr. Ohno.
A few years back, the former chairman of Toyota, Mr. Toyoda, looked at Dr. Shingo's son, the president of Toyota in China, and said at the dedication of Toyota's first plant in China, "If it wasn't for that man's father Toyota would not be where it is today." Of course, we all know that.
Art's interview unfortunately belittles Dr. Shingo's participation in the development of the Toyota System. I asked my wife, who was Dr. Shingo's interpreter, what she thought about the interview and she said the person interviewed probably was Dr. Shingo's chauffer and knew very little about what Dr. Shingo did teach at Toyota. Toyota used very few outside consultants and yet they allowed Dr. Shingo to teach 3000 of their engineers. And how in the world could Dr. Shingo write so many books on the Toyota System without having in depth knowledge?
And to insinuate that Ohno did not go over to Dr.Shingo and ask him to reduce set-up times from four hours to two hours, and then two hours to under ten minutes is ludicrous. Was Dr. Shingo a liar?
I asked Dr. Shingo just before he died, "Who invented JIT you or Ohno." His answer was, "I did for I was Ohno's teacher." Of course, I know from first hand that Ohno was a giant, derived much of the understanding of how to make JIT work and he had the wisdom and the power to drive the system at Toyota, but we should not denigrate the image of the greatest manufacturing consultant of the last 100 years. To convince yourself please do read Dr. Shingo's and Ohno's books and draw your own conclusions.
Norman Bodek, who started Productivity Press and published over 100 Japanese books in English, is currently president of PCS Press, and author of Kaikaku the Power and Magic of Lean and the co-author with William Waddell of Rebirth of American Industry. Noman also recently published JIT IS FLOW by Mr. Hirano and Mr. Furuya.