was a Japanese industrial engineer who was considered as the world’s leading expert on manufacturing practices and the

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile ...

Life and work

After having worked as a technician specializing in fusions at the Taiwanese railways in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

, at the end of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in 1945, he started to work at the Japan Management Association (JMA) ( :ja:日本能率協会) in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, becoming a consultant focused on the improvement of factory management. Gathering tips from the improvement experiences in the field he had in 1950 at Toyo Ind. (now

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one ...

) and in 1957 at the sites in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

of the

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi ...

, since 1969 Shingō got involved in some actions in Toyota Motor Corporation ( Toyota) for the reduction of set-up time (change of dies) of pressing machines which took him to the formulation of a specific technique based on operational analysis, which shortened set-up times from 1 to 2 hours (or even half a day) per each exchange of dies to a rapid setting of a few minutes. The method spread out under the English denomination ''Single Minute Exchange of Die'', abbreviated as SMED. Shingo may well be known better in the West than in Japan, as a result of his meeting Norman Bodek, an American entrepreneur and founder of Productivity Inc. In 1981 Bodek travelled to Japan to learn about the Toyota Production System, coming across books by Shingō, who as an external consultant had been teaching

Industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...

courses at Toyota since 1955. Since 1947, Shingō had been involved all over Japan in the training of thousands of people, who joined his courses on the fundamental techniques of analysis and improvement of the operational activities in factories (among which the

P-Course The P-Course (P stands for Production) is a practical training program about Industrial Engineering implemented to teach the main techniques for industrial work improvement (改善 "kaizen" in Japanese). Although especially aimed at applications i ...

, or ''Production Course''). Shingō had written his Study of the

in Japanese and had it translated into English in 1980. Bodek 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 Shingō to lecture in the USA and developed one of the first Western lean manufacturing consultancy practices with Shingō's support. The relevance of his contribution has sometimes been doubted, but it is substantially confirmed by the opinions of his contemporaries,e.g.:

Akira Kōdate Akira Kōdate (高達秋良、こうだて・あきら) was born in Kanagawa District, Japan on 6 October 1925. He is an engineer and a Japanese business manager, considered one of the greatest international experts in R&D and production manag ...

many saw him even as a contributor to the fundamental concepts of TPS, such as Just-in-time, and the “pull” production system, which were created by Toyota and Mr. Taiichi Ohno and still remain a strong logical and practical basis for the lean production and

lean thinking Lean thinking is a management framework made up of a philosophy, practices and principles which aim to help practitioners improve efficiency and the quality of work. Lean thinking encourages whole organisation participation. The goal is to organis ...

management approaches. The myth prevails that Shingo invented the Toyota Production System but what can be stated is that he did document the system. Shingo contributed to the formalization of some aspects of the management philosophy known as the Toyota Production System (TPS), developed and applied in Japan since the 1950s and later implemented in a huge number of companies in the world. In 1988, the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University recognized Dr. Shingō for his lifetime accomplishments and created the

Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence The ''Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence'' is an award for operational excellence given to organizations worldwide by the Shingo Institute, part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. In order to b ...

that recognizes world-class, lean organizations and operational excellence. The theorist of important innovations related to Industrial engineering, such as Poka-yoke and the Zero Quality Control, Shingō could influence fields other than 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

sales process engineering Sales process engineering is intended to design better ways of selling and make salespeople's efforts more productive. It has been described as "the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goal ...

Shingo was the author of several 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 Saga Prefectural Saga Technical High School (佐賀県立佐賀工業高等学校), also known as Saga Kogyo, is a technical high school in Saga City, Saga Prefecture, Japan. History Curriculum Saga Kogyo offers its students technical cour ...

*Yamanashi Technical College

Bibliography

*Shigeo Shingo: ''A Revolution in Manufacturing: The Smed System'', Productivity Press, 1985 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''A Study of the Toyota Production System'', Productivity Press, 1981 , 1989 , . *Shigeo Shingo: ''Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The Shingo System'', Productivity Press, 1990 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Quick Changeover for Operators: The SMED System'', Productivity Press, 1996 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo: Key Strategies for Plant Improvement'', Productivity Press, 1987 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka-Yoke System'', Productivity Press, 1986 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Non-Stock Production: The Shingo System for Continuous Improvement'', Productivity Press, 1988 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Mistake-Proofing for Operators: The ZQC System'', Productivity Press, 1997 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''The Shingo Production Management System: Improving Process Functions (Manufacturing & Production)'', Productivity Press, 1992 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Enfoques Modernos Para la Mejora En la Fabricacion: El Sistema Shingo'', Productivity Press, 1992 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Produccion Sin Stocks: El Sistema Shingo Para la Mejora Continua'', Productivity Press, 1991 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Das Erfolgsgeheimnis der Toyota-Produktion'', Verlag moderne industrie, 1992 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Kaizen and The Art of Creative Thinking'', Enna Product Corporation and PCS Inc, 2007 , *Shigeo Shingo: ''Fundamental Principles of Lean Manufacturing'', Enna Product Corporation and PCS Inc, 2009 ,

References

External links

Shingo PrizeConcise Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shingo, Shigeo Quality Quality experts Japanese industrial engineers People from Saga (city) 1909 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Japanese engineers

Life and work

Education

Bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links