by Bruce Hamilton, President, GBMP

In May 1989, my company, United Electric Controls, received a surprise visit from Shigeo Shingo. I had just returned from attending the Partners in Business Conference at Utah State University where Shingo had presided over the first annual Shingo Prize award. United Electric Controls had applied for the prize but had not been recognized that year so receiving a visit from the Prize’s namesake was an inspiring consolation. Shingo’s improvement systems like SMED and Poka-Yoke had substantially bolstered our business performance at United Electric. But more fundamentally, his relentless impatience with the status quo, as expressed in his writings, had also become a part of our company’s culture. The idea of turning dissatisfaction with current conditions into many small changes for the better was a natural for us. Shingo phrases like “the worst waste is the one we do not see” motivated our journey as an army of previously invisible front-line team members were transformed to improvement stars through Shingo’s influence. Now, we were all beyond excited at the prospect of showing our handiwork to the master.

On the day of Shingo’s visit, team members lined the entryway and applauded Shingo in recognition of the impact his writing had on our company. Smiling broadly in acknowledgement, Dr. Shingo asked to go directly to the floor. We understood from his publisher that Shingo would have only one hour to spend with us, so we’d prepared a tour route to enable him to see several of our best improvement examples. What happened at our first stop was classic Shigeo Shingo, just as if it were scripted from one of his books.

Confined to a wheelchair, Dr. Shingo was wheeled over to observe a staking operation in our factory. He watched intently as foreman Harvey C. demonstrated the quick-change press used to stake two parts together.

Shingo commented in English, “Very good,” showing approval to Harvey. He then reverted to his first language, requesting through his interpreter that he be given the parts that comprised the assembly. As Dr. Shingo rolled the parts in his hand, Harvey explained, “The two dots on each of the parts line up,” alluding to a visual mark for the proper loading of parts to the press.

Shingo responded through his interpreter, “It’s hard to find the mark on the parts. You should put these parts in a magazine, pre-oriented for correct assembly.” Shingo then turned to me to further explain. He said, “Punching is the function here, not fumbling with parts to determine which end is up.”

Aha! We chuckled nervously and thanked Dr. Shingo for his observation. Shingo then turned back to Harvey and encouraged him through his interpreter, “So keep doing Kaizen.”

In a glance, Dr. Shingo had applauded our improvement to the staking press, but then recast it as the status quo and recommended even more improvement. That was his message to us.
We showed him what we thought was our best, but he reminded us that every improved condition is also the new status quo.

For Dr. Shingo, there was always something more to improve if we would only see it. Or, as he said, “The face we see least often is our own.”

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