The Saying of Shigeo Shingo (Productivity Press)



The Saying of Shigeo Shingo

(Productivity Press)

Shigeo is the Thomas Edison of Japan. He revolutionized the Toyota production system. He was an industrial engineer with an incredible insight on the mechanics of process and of culture. He speaks somewhat of a proverb form which certainly gets you thinking. These were stripped from the book (it’s industrial, but an easy read). It was one of the first books that got me thinking ‘different”. Duke

▪ Categorical Principles guide our thinking. Adopt multiple ways if viewing phenomena. Relationships can be divided into two categories: related and unrelated. There are four kinds of related relationships: cause and effect, opposition, similarity, and proximity. When observing a phenomenon ask: Is something causing it, anything similar to it, anything opposing it, anything always appear in conjunction with it?

▪ A check list wouldn’t be necessary if people never forgot things. Workers who pick up the wrong part are scolded and told to pay more attention. This is as good as asking them to be God. Poka Yoke recognizes since humans will inevitably forget things, we should at least make certain we don’t forget what we have forgotten.

▪ We think we know certain things we perceive. This doesn’t mean that we really understood them. Understanding demands more than simply knowing. Understanding results from a multi-faceted examination which includes the realization of why the phenomenon in question must be the way it is.

▪ Improvement involves: Never accept the status quo > Work is more than people in motion > Perceiving and thinking are not the same thinking

▪ If you have an attitude that there are probably some problems, you will inevitably find some. It is difficult to accept problems as challenges, but this mindset will help you outpace ordinary companies.

▪ Real waste lurks in places that don’t look like waste. The greatest waste is the waste we don’t see. Do you pay money for banana skins? 40% of a banana’s weight in the skin. There are two types of work: that which adds value (fruit) and that which only adds costs (skin). When you buy a banana, you buy both.

▪ An executive had a sign up that said, “Eliminate Waste”. Usually if people find waste, they will get rid of it. The big problem is not noticing something is wasteful. The slogan should read “Find Waste”

▪ Perceiving and thinking are not the same. Perceiving uses the five senses. Thinking is our mental ability to pursue cause and purpose by objectively asking ‘why’ about all phenomenons.

▪ Action comes about in response of cycling between perceiving and thinking and finally perceiving and solution. The more the cycle is between perceiving and thinking is repeated, the closer we get to the truth. We should always be clear – are we thinking or perceiving about a matter.

▪ When a problem shows up, you should try to reach a solution by thinking about it three times before consulting your superior.

▪ Get a grip on the status quo. The most magnificent improvement scheme would be worthless if your perception of the current situation is in error. We tend to think that fictitious facts are real. By this we do not grasp the real facts or simply hypothesize facts using guesswork, or we ignore changes over time and assume things are the same as they used to be.

▪ We need to analyze problems based on 5 elements: 1) object; what 2) agent; who 3) method; how 4) space; where 5) time; when. We must not forget to observe both process and operation. Process is the course of change in the object. Operation is the course of change in the agent.

▪ Is outweighs Ought. Feel is not ideal. We often do things by feel. Quality is stabilized when feel is abandoned in favor or quantitative measures.

▪ For humans not to understand ‘not understanding’ is a problem without a remedy. If we don’t understand what we don’t understand, we have no idea what to do about it. The first step in problems solving is clarifying what is not understood.

▪ Time is merely the shadow of motion and no matter how much we complain about the shadows, nothing will happen unless we deal with the substance; the motion which cast the shadows.

▪ The most essential precondition for improvement is the proper pursuit of goals.

▪ Four goals of improvement: 1) make things easier 2) better 3) faster and 4) cheaper. To achieve this we must 1) focus on goals 2) recognize multiple goals 3) pursue goals systematically gradually toward the higher level of underlying goals.

▪ Revolutionary improvement is developed by focusing on source goals. Listen to your operations and machine then ask, ‘what do you need?’ Example: cutting large holes in a sheet of metal. Do you need to cut the entire hole or just the circumference of it? Both do the same thing, only one does it with less work. Example: A fan. Does the air flow more at its center or its outer edges. This type thinking needs to go on in order to improve our processes.

▪ Time is not the same as timing. We need to distinguish between the two. Delays are less a matter of time and more an effect of timing. Look at the purposes of your process.

▪ Understanding why things improve is know-why. It is know-why that it possible to apply the same approach in many situations

▪ When we must learn to think of making progress as moving toward goals because goals often becomes a means toward even a higher goal. It is important to understand how goals and means trade places. Example: to achieve the goal of satisfying our hunger we adopt a means of eating. Filling the stomach is only a means of obtaining a higher goal if taking in nourishment. And obtaining nourishment is only the means for obtaining a higher goal of life.

▪ Goals and means trade places with one another in a chain. The means or measures we choose will vary depending upon the level of goal we recognize.

▪ There is a type of management in Japan called Otemon’ya management. This is where immature plans and vague instructions are given and the rest is left to those who implement. Like words to an old Japanese song “and let the rest take care of itself.”

▪ It is more important to know-why than know-how. Understanding know-why helps us go beyond the external appearances of the situation and grasp the principles of its construction.

▪ Life moves sort of like a wave motion and just as a wave crest does not continue forever, neither do the troughs. This is true in battle and in life. The attitude with which you face the troughs is extremely important.

▪ When things go sour, remember “ah, this is just a trough”. Time and again this has dispelled impatience and restored a sense of equilibrium. Rather than berating a spouse for waffling when they are struggling or stuck in a trough, we need the maturity to provide the support until their wave crests again.

▪ Understanding is a function of reason whereas conviction is an emotion. You cannot get people to do what we want by overloading them with logic. People will not be set in motion until they are convinced on an emotional level based on trust. Implementation requires those involved to be convinced.

▪ One way to lay a foundation of persuasion is to first let people with opposing views express them fully and when they have emptied their brains, take a new track to and have everyone think of a more innovative idea.

▪ Magic words: I see what you mean. The phrase indicates neither agreement nor disagreement. It’s neutral.

▪ Theoretical pursuits tend to become goals in themselves.

▪ A human being with no dissatisfaction will never make any progress. A content person will rarely see a problem.

▪ The Japanese writing character for ‘work’ is composed of two elements meaning ‘people’ and ‘move’. Unless people’s motion add value they are useless toward the goal.

▪ We must not forget to observe from both sides of the process which is a course in changes in object and operation which is a course of changes in the agent.

▪ The first step in solving a problem is clarifying what is not understood. By doing so, we typically end up understanding about half of what is not known initially.

▪ Telling workers to speed up without improvement of motion will not speed up things in the final analysis.

▪ Rather than demand unnecessary precision, one need merely to achieve the degree of accuracy that maintains the required degree of precision.

▪ We must always understand the conditions of why something happens right or wrong.

▪ Unless you are heading for your objectives, the most heroics efforts in the world will only be as effective as the work directly related to your goals. Improvement is only effective when they lead you toward your goals.

▪ You don’t need a watch to measure time! Observation of an assembly line reveals that processes that are busy with work take more time than processes that are idle and waiting for work. Without necessarily measuring time, it is possible to achieve overall balance and productivity by reassigning work from the busiest to the idle process. Here the measurement of time is a means not an end.

▪ Tag – tool to transport intentions through space. Register – tool that transports intentions through time. Tags can be eliminated by bringing senders and receivers closer to one another and registers can be eliminated by taking immediate action. You don’t need to write a post-it note to remind yourself that something needs to be done if you go ahead and take care of it.

▪ Many times we think we have inadequate resource problem when we haven’t looked at the true precision necessary. Are our specifications or frequencies too tight for accomplishing the task?

▪ What is the purpose of cutting oil: 1) it cools the drill bit 2) it removes extra shavings and 3) it lubricates movement of the drill bit. After looking at the purpose of oil, it was to define that compressed air did two of these at one time. It cools the blades of the bit more efficiently than oil AND blew away the shavings. (the third purpose was result of the first two not being met) Drill bit life was extended 30% by looking at these purposes.

▪ If know-how is all that is passed along, you may be able to perform a task the way it is taught, but you won’t know what to do when conditions change or the least bit of trouble crops up. All too often people visit other plants only to copy their methods. We must make the effort to grasp what lies behind even the most superficial method.

▪ The current approach is never more than a means. Beyond it lies another goal which is itself only a means to a higher goal.

▪ Too often we reject ideas we have in our heads. Even approaches which seem ridiculous cannot be evaluated unless we give them a try.

▪ The medicine I am prescribing for you is a miracle drug and very powerful, but there is one problem with it. It won’t work unless you take it. There are a lot of people in the world who worry the medicine and side effects are bitter and avoid it.

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