The Shingo Prize 2

"Julie, in our last posting we laid the foundation for the Shingo House.  Now let’s go inside and learn more.” 

“The TPS has a triangle and Shingo has a house.  The Japanese seem to be big on figures.  Maybe that’s because their written language is based on little figures called kanji.”

“The Shingo house has four levels or Dimensions; they are, from bottom to top, Cultural Enablers, Continuous Process Improvement, Enterprise Alignment, and Results.  Also, the house is divided vertically down the middle with Guiding Principles on one side and Supporting Concepts on the other.”

“Hey Curmudge, I was once in a church like that, with one side for men and the other side for women.  In that church, I’ll bet that the Principles were the men and the Supporting Concepts were the women, but that would have never occurred to the developers of the Shingo Prize.”

“Then on the Principles side of the house, ten Principles are distributed among the four Dimensions.  Some of the more familiar ones are Respect Every Individual, Focus on Process, and Think Systemically.  Familiar exhortations are also on the Supporting Concepts side, such as Identify and Eliminate Waste, and Standardize Processes.  Following the Supporting Concepts are lists of systems and tools that relate to each of the four Dimensions.  Finally there are typical open-ended questions that might be asked by an examiner. ”

“I doubt that there’s room in the blog to talk about the systems and tools.”

“You’ll have to read the Shingo booklet to find the details, Julie.  As we’ve said before, a blog isn’t a textbook; we can only provide a taste of the subject.  Unfortunately, if a person can’t set aside five minutes per week to read a blog posting, they are unlikely to tackle the whole booklet.”

“Okay, so what did you find in the booklet that is really new?”

“In two words, not much.  The Dimensions, Guiding Principles, Supporting Concepts, Systems, and Tools seem to be a collection of everything I’ve ever read about Lean, Six Sigma, Gemba Kaizen, and Total Quality Management.  It’s all there, and it would make very good sense to one who is interested in improving processes.  The sample reviewer questions are the kind that I would ask if I were an examiner.”

“Well, Mr. Inspector, where in the booklet does it help the person in gemba to understand why he is doing what he is doing?”

“I didn’t see it spelled out.  I believe that a person learns the why of what he is doing by doing it under the guidance of a good coach.  In fact that’s the essence of the Shingo Prize…dedicated management leading the people in gemba in doing the right things.”

“In a single sentence, what’s the lesson from all this that I can take home to the kids?”

“Not to disparage the Shingo principles, Julie, but success might result from the sheer magnitude of effort required for an organization to be a serious contender for the Shingo Prize.”

“I guess, Curmudge, that you are saying that many programs have comparable administrative sticks, but Shingo has a bigger carrot.”

“You’ve got it right again, Julie.”

Kaizen Curmudgeon